By Fi

My family tells me that even when I was little, I never kept still. I was always doing something, going somewhere, making plans. Well, it seems that this is still true and true for both of us. Plans have been made for winter, and it does not involve staying in one place.

Many of the things that keep us moving.

We aren’t keen to sail in winter at the moment as there is quite a lot of ice and regular storms. And we do need to leave the Schengen area to reset our visa, and also apply for some other permits so that next year we can sail in Scandinavia some more.

So while we were hiking in the woods around Norheimsund, plans were afoot.

When we last left you, we were driving into the snowy Norwegian night, for our next adventure.

We have winter tyres, but we were still pretty careful.

We drove for 3 hours in the snow, in our little front wheel drive Corolla. Holding our breath on the corners and hills, we were happy to arrive in our little ski chalet for the night. This is no where near our final destination, simply a stop for a rest from the intense driving conditions.

We meet a lot of taxidermy at this little chalet. Bernie was quite bemused at the wolf.
Bernie has his first taste of proper snow.

We enjoy a fireplace, pizza and a good sleep in our doggy friendly room, and head off early the next morning, back into the snow for a 4 hour drive to the south coast of Norway – to Kristiansand.

At this point we’re wondering why we have to leave. So intensely beautiful.

From there, we drop off our hire car and take the overnight ferry to Eemshaven in the Netherlands. Surely winter in the Netherlands would be nice! But alas, this is not for us.

Bernie found his bed straight away in our doggy friendly cabin. Settling in, Adrian and I have some dinner in the restaurant and Bernie has a sleep. He also wakes up multiple times during the night to tell everyone very loudly not to worry about the rolly waves.
It was actually nice having someone else drive.

We need to leave Schengen to reset our visas, so 3 trains later, we find ourselves in Hoek van Holland which is the opposite end of the country from Eemshaven. We’ve been travelling for 24 hours so far. Bernie is over it, poor guy.

He’s so bored at this point and wants to go talk to everyone else.

At Hoek van Holland, we board another overnight ferry, have a good sleep this time (thank you Bernie) and wake up in Harwich, England. Passing through passport control, we board another train bound for London. Arriving in Liverpool Street Station, we tube it to Lancaster gate, and our doggy friendly hotel opposite Hyde Park.

So over trains and travelling right now.
Bernie’s first tube experience after getting off at Liverpool Street train station.
And here we are at the tube.

After 3 days travelling, PHEW, we have made it to England where our new adventures start! We are utterly exhausted, and quickly find a pub for breakfast beers while waiting for our room to be ready. Once it is, we are all afternoon naps and takeaway food.

Bernie getting his English pub bearings again.

We have 1 full day in London to show Bernie everything the city has to offer. Ever since I first arrived here in 2014, I have wanted to take Bernie to Hyde Park for his walkies and show him London stuff. His focus is mainly cleaning up the streets of London of its wayward food stuffs.

Something about Beefeaters.

We had some walks in Hyde Park, then we decide to take him to Tower Bridge to look at the sights. He sniffed the sights good.

London viewing.
Weird looking human thing reaching out.
Yay finally did the bridge after all these years!

We find London’s friendliest pub for dogs and have a nice meal and Bernie enjoys one of their signature “dog tails”.

Whoo, London time!
Ok, to be fair, he was totally disinterested in the “dogtail” until I put peanuts in it, preferring to stare at the corridor where he quickly figured out the lovely wait staff were coming with food.

The next day, we board a train to Bristol, grab yet another hire car and visit friends in Langford. We’ve been here a number of times and love the local pub, and it is always wonderful to see our friends and their little ginger biscuits (read, ginger cats).

All the ginger biscuit love from Al and Billy.
Al and Adrian having some thinking time.

After a couple of days enjoying Langford hospitality, off we go again. This time we are taking our hire car north east, to the middle of the country near Banbury.

You may remember last year, we hired a canal boat for 2 months over December and January. Well we decided Bernie loved it so much, we had better do it again! So, we are very pleased to introduce our new temporary member of Fi and Adrian Sailing (or should I say Fi and Adrian narrow-boating) “The Squire”! The Squire is a 55ft cruiser stern narrowboat, complete with central heating, a coal fireplace, double bed and walkthrough bathroom.

The Squire! Painted up the same as The Earl from last year as we are using the same excellent company – longtermnarrowboathire.co.uk. They have a fleet of about 10 narrowboats on hire all year round for calendar months (i.e, you hire it for the whole of December, or December and January, or July etc – you get the idea).
At 55ft long, The Squire is a little shorter than The Earl from last year, but we like the layout better.
Our new swan friends on the left were already tapping on the side of the boat when we arrived asking for treats.

I can’t wait to be running around with Bernie, doing locks and navigating these beautiful waterways. We plan to head towards Birmingham and possibly south from there, taking in the sights of the countryside, hiking and enjoying the local watering holes. Hopefully we’ll see some snow, but I don’t think so. We’ll save the snow for next year when we are back home, Away.

My face when I realise the Grand Union canal is wide beam and therefore double width locks. Means loads of running around and pushing enormous five tonne gates, four times per lock.