Day 1 February 27th St Martin’s to London Victoria

The first day of what we hope to be an enjoyable holiday to Norway. It is largely a repeat of the holiday we had in May 2009 when we did the Hurtigruten cruise up and down the coast of Norway.  We always promised ourselves we would try and do it again and we tried last year but were too late to do what we wanted but this year we booked early with the hope of seeing more snow and the Northern Lights if we are lucky. We shall see but everything crossed!



taking off from St Mary's

When we woke up it was dry but a 

the east end of St Mary's

quite fresh northerly wind was blowing.  We breakfasted, final packed, said goodbye to Button the cat and Mandy gave us a lift to Higher Town quay. The Spirit of St Agnes was slightly late but we were on St Mary’s quay in time to catch a taxi to the airport.  Our 1020 flight in a Twin Otter was on time and we were quickly down to Penzance station in time for our 1215 to Paddington.  We were relieved that all this had gone to plan because travelling from Scilly has been problematical over the last month or so.  The train left on time and we relaxed on the 5½ hour journey. 

Wolf Rock lighthouse this morning

Having a load of luggage we 

the Otter at Lands End

decided to travel 1st class and it was far more relaxing with plenty of room and good service - a good decision.  We arrived at Paddington roughly to time but then had a traumatic journey from there to Victoria on the underground.  It was in rush hour and with all the luggage we were looking for lifts at every opportunity and it all proved too much going against the flow at times - we vowed never again and a taxi will get our custom on our return journey.

We are staying in the Premier Inn at Victoria for two nights and we have now settled in, have eaten and will probably have an early night after the stressful last section of our journey.  However we do feel blessed that there were no major disruptions or complications with our plans.