I have to say that, so far, I have been a bit disappointed in Paphos.

The hotel is very elegant, with lovely shiny marble everywhere. It’s all very clean and well maintained. The garden and pool areas are pretty. The staff are friendly. The hotel complex is very peaceful compared to the tourist area outside, which is loud and tacky.

We do feel like we’re be squeezed for money though. It’s just small things but added up it gets a bit irritating:-

– the policy of not serving tap water in the restaurants so you have to pay for bottled
– if you want more than the daily allocation of tea bags & coffee sachets in the room you have to pay
– there’s a note asking you to use only bottled water in the kettle for which, you guessed it, you have to pay
– if you want to use the minibar fridge for your own items you have to pay corkage
– the free upgrade to half board does not included dinner on our final day, even though we missed dinner on the first night

When paying 270 Euros a night I would expect these things to be included!

Breakfast has been ok but the coffee wasn’t hot. Dinner at the Fontana restaurant last night was patchy. The salads were reasonable but the hot-held meat and fish was dry and overcooked. Puddings weren’t too bad.

In brief:

Holidaying in Norway is very, very expensive. Food and drink is two to three times as expensive as it is back home. Travel costs are high but, as at home, it is possible to book train tickets in advance and save money. Hotels are expensive but there are reasonable prices to be found when booking online in advance.

The weather is similar to British weather, perhaps a little colder and wetter.

Norwegians are very friendly, polite and helpful.

Public transport is excellent; it is extremely efficient and tourist-friendly.

The landscape is absolutely breathtaking. Whether it’s taking a boat right into the fjords, or a bus or train which looks down into a valley or fjord or up at a waterfall, Norway as the most natural beauty of all the countries I’ve ever visited. Even in poor weather it is magical but also haunting and forbidding. In good weather you get the full spectrum of colours: a blue sky, lush green valleys, the mostly black cliffs, pure white waterfalls, reds, yellows and browns of vegetation and the blue-green water. Simply spectacular.

The food is ok. The food culture that has recently developed in Britain doesn’t seem to have caught on here judging by what is available in supermarkets. There is decent food to be had, especially fish, but, whatever the quality of the food, you can rely on it to be expensive.

Everyone speaks English, although often with an American accent.

Today we did the journey back to Oslo, taking in Sognefjorden and the FlÃ¥m railway. The latter forms part of the Bergen-Oslo route: one of the world’s most beautiful rail journeys.

Saturday 8th September

We flew from Gatwick to Oslo. After checking into the hotel we had a short walk around the city, including the harbour. There was some kind of military boat there which I don’t think I was supposed to take a picture of but I didn’t think about that till later.

Oslo seems like a typical capital city in that it’s very cosmopolitan and busy. There are big long term roadworks going on in the centre and we walked past a few construction projects too. I don’t think I’d recommend Oslo as a city to spend a lot of time in as there wasn’t much to do or see.