A quick post about our European trip, in 2024.
Lars was in Sweden a month earlier than I, once we convened, we spent some time catching up with friends and family. Lovely company and some lovely meals. We were able to do a bit of sightseeing in southern Sweden, back to one of my favourite places, Ales Stenar.
At the end of September, we headed to Norway, Oslo and Bergen. It was a first for both of us.
We took a bus from Helsingborg to Oslo, and spent a few days there. Lovely city, and the weather was good for walking. Sightseeing included the Fram and Kontiki museum and Opera House.
Contrary to what we have heard, Norway wasn’t heart-stoppingly expensive. The hotel we stayed at provided breakfast, dinner, and fica, coffee in the afternoon! We saved so much time, and of course money, not having to spend time searching for food.
From Oslo, it was a train journey to Bergen. While very beautiful, the train ride felt long! I guess we have short attention spans. : /
My very poor images of the Oslo-Bergen train ride stitched together. Apologies in advance.
Some Sweden and Norway photos.
To leave Norway, we flew from Bergen —> Oslo —> Amsterdam —> La Palma. We had found a charter Amsterdam to Santa Cruz de la Palma direct. One night in a Best Western nearish to the airport, and then we were off the next day.
Back to La Palma, visit #4.
Our intention was to hike a lot, but I was, and still am, dealing with a bout of plantar fasciitis. It had been problematic the whole trip, but there was little to do, other than to work with and around it. So, the hiking was punctuated a bit, but we did find a gym in Fuencaliente and were able to do couple of workouts a week. In addition to that, we did variations on hikes that would suit us, so it did work out OK.
We stayed in a lovely air bnb, and our very generous hosts kept supplying us with loads of fruit and veg from their garden. Amazing to have fresh from the vine mangos, papayas, bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, and much more.
This part of the island, which is very dry and more arid compared to the east side, is what we like. Not everyone’s cuppa tea, but it suits us just fine. We spent five weeks there, and while we were questioned by some friends, as to how long we could stay put, we really were living there. We had our routines, of workouts, and hikes; then a couple of times a week we were go somewhere else on the island. Never terribly far away, but some new things and many familiar were visited.
We did have some projects, we could pursue online – Lars’ were finance based, and mine was, and has turned into, learning Spanish. We both feel this, and our health and fitness maintenance, are important to balance out things while we’re away.
Figuring out the routes to and from La Palma has always been time consuming. Balancing out travel days, and overnight stays there and back, and where to spend more time in Europe, should we choose to. This time, we flew from La Palma to Madrid, and we stayed there for two nights. This gave us a full day to lightly familiarize ourselves with the city. We stayed in town, at an IBIS hotel, right across the street from Las Ventas, the bull ring in Madrid. That was a fluke. We did a tour of the bull ring, because, when in Spain… We can’t be judgemental on bullfighting. It is so culturally deep, that any opinion we might have of it, would be ignorant.
Then, our trip was coming to its end. We flew to Paris, and stayed over night to get our Westjet flight back home.
Photos of La Palma, and Madrid.
So, that’s it, until October 2025! See you then, La Palma!
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