{"id":22,"date":"2014-11-05T23:13:49","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T23:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=22"},"modified":"2014-11-25T20:22:49","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T20:22:49","slug":"wednesday-narvik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wednesday-narvik\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday – Narvik"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Narvik_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, we arrived in Narvik, where we were asked to escort an excursion featuring a train journey.<\/p>\n

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There were four coaches in all, picking up four groups; two would be taken to the railway station to get on the train whilst the other two groups would be taken by coach to the end of the line, to be brought back by train. Both Tracey and I were on the first two groups, so we got the train journey first. It was an impressive journey of approximately 26 miles, lasting just under an hour in duration. We’d been tipped off that the seats on the left-hand side would give us the best views; I managed to get one, but it was a bit of a bun-fight, with passengers desperate to capture the good shots, which was a little bit difficult on account of the windows being so mucky.<\/p>\n

At the end of the line, we were just over the border, in Sweden, and the snow was deep and crisp and even… Our destination was clearly a place for skiers, with ski slopes in all directions, and a hotel that must be buzzing with life whenever the ski-season kicks off (whenever that happens to be). As the other two coaches arrived at more or less the same time as we in the train, the changeover was somewhat chaotic. Tea, coffe and cakes had been laid on for the excursion people (although, a distinct lack of anything other than fruit tea or earl grey left me distinctly disappointed), in a large, dark hall, in the hotel there. When it came time for the train groups to head off up to the station and the coach groups to get on board the coaches, the scene could only be described as utter mayhem. Despite that, we somehow managed to get everyone on the coaches (not in the same groups that they’d started out, but the numbers added up, which was all that mattered), and then we enjoyed a coach journey back to Narvik, through some fantastic, wintery scenery.<\/p>\n

The guide on my coach told us all about the history of the place; mostly, it seemed, relating to the Second World War, when the city was heavily bombed by, and occupied by, Nazi Germany. The town itself didn’t seem much to look at, and by the time we’d returned to the ship, light was fading, and a shuttle bus trip back into town didn’t seem very practical.<\/p>\n

\"2014-11-05_Narvik_2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the evening, we were prepared for more Northern Lights, with hats and coats at the ready, but it wasn’t to be. Tracey went outside first, and came in shaking her head; the cloud cover was extensive, and it was raining. I went out roughly half an hour later, and the situation hadn’t changed; the moon was out somewhere, although you couldn’t see it directly, you could just see its glow on the surface of the sea. The cloud cover was still pretty complete, and it was raining. I was particularly tired, so with little chance of aurora action, at about 10:30, we went back to the cabin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today, we arrived in Narvik, where we were asked to escort an excursion featuring a train journey.   There were four coaches in all, picking up four groups; two would be taken to the railway station to get on the train whilst the other two groups would be taken by coach to the end of the line, to be brought...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}