LoMAZ Pub Crawl + At Sea Day 1: Bergen (1)

Yesterday saw my last Meetup of the year, with London Museums from A-Z (LoMAZ) doing their 2025 Xmas Pub Crawl! Not listed as an official Meetup event, it was advertised on their WhatsApp chat for people who have already attended a LoMAZ event - so restricted to people who've both attended an event and signed up for the WhatsApp group, and people they choose to invite. Now, Helen was also coming to town that day.. and when they amended their plans to include a pre-crawl lunch, she said she'd join us! So, we started at Nando's London Bridge.

She got there before I did - and when I got there, there were also a couple of the group outside. I hung around with her inside the door until our Master of Ceremonies - dressed festively in a Santa hat and jacket, stormed into the place (I told her she couldn't miss him, he was a big, boisterous hug of a person..) Well, sure enough, in he breezed.. and I think he had spoken to the place beforehand, because they had a nice, large table for us! (Kind of like the Last Supper, as he remarked..) Nice big place in general, with a lovely view of the river:

Of course, that was about as many people showed up for Nando's - which was fine. Slight delay on the ordering of the ciders, as I recall (don't drink the stuff myself), and Helen would, quite reasonably, have liked a dessert - but we simply didn't have time.

Because we were off to Hays on the River - she stayed with us for that, it's near London Bridge - and we had a game, to build an origami Christmas tree! We were split into three, and my team actually won - nothing down to me, I declare. 

Then she left us, and we were scheduled for the Globe Tavern, which was so busy we had to congregate outside for our pub quiz! (which my team won again). Never fear, that was to be the last time - but the chocolate coins were lovely.

The Old Thameside Inn (one of my favourites) was next, and we did get tables - downstairs, where I'd never been, and which was packed with tvs showing sports. And in this one, we each had to draw the person beside us as an elf..

The George (another of my favourites), was after that, and again we were in the courtyard - there was a game of Pass the Parcel. Now, all this ran so late that there was no time for the next one on the list, The Bunch of Grapes (a short walk away), so we finally made for the Bermondsey Bierkeller (which also does wine, I checked). It was manic, all loud, thumping music, and honestly I wasn't keen - I bailed after a couple of drinks there.

Anyway, all were walking distance from my home, lovely! What's also nice is that we had at least 90 minutes in each, so it wasn't not too rushed.. there was forward planning! It was a great evening, and I'll be back..

Mercifully, I got most of my packing done before I headed on all that.. because I had to catch a flight from Gatwick at 9.15 this morning.. to Bergen! where I was to catch the Hurtigrute.. doing the classic voyage, to Kirkenes and back - AKA BKB. 12 days, 11 nights, returning on New Year's Day. You see, with my mother having died this year, that's my last close relative gone, and I was damned if I was spending this Christmas, whatever about future ones, alone, here or in Ireland. It was actually Mark who set me to thinking about it, bless him - and it didn't take me long to come up with this, which so many have recommended to me as one of the world's most beautiful voyages. It's real bucket-list stuff, so I spared no expense - happily, they have no single supplement, and equally happily, they include the flights (Norwegian Air - I checked in a couple of days ago). I booked an outside cabin (with full window), a wine package (a bottle a day), and seven excursions..

Now, I ordered a whole lot of warm clothes for this trip (as you can imagine) - had them delivered to a pickup point, and he bloody lost some of them! including the thermal underwear I ordered. That could be a problem.. Well, I needed to pick some more stuff up there - and when I gave him a sad look, and without too many people waiting this time, he had a good root around.. and lo, produced a stained envelope from the back.. which turned out to be the missing undies! HALLELUJAH! Not only that, but checking the envelopes for combined orders, it now turns out it was all delivered.. what a weight off..

So, fairly sprang out of bed this morning - no really, I'd moderated my drinking, there were pauses between glasses.. and just as well I did, because I still found 90 minutes' worth of stuff to do before I left. I wanted to catch the first Thameslink of the day, fastest way for me to Gatwick, from London Bridge Station - and wow, like a bus in shining - red paint, there was a #47 just rolled up, ready to take me. I had two trolley bags - one to check in, on as carry-on - someone helped me on board, and at the station I took the lift to the platform - I managed. Frankly, it all went like clockwork after that - I had breakfast at Pret in Gatwick, waiting for our gate number, which was advertised unusually late. And then changed. And then we were delayed by fog..

But we had plenty of time to spare. I actually slept most of the way (funny that) - partly due to the fact that I was absolutely sweltering in all the warm clothes I was wearing, in anticipation! We'd diverted over Scotland, but it was all cloud cover - over Bergen, on the other hand, it was a gorgeously sunny day, and as we came in to land, we had some scenery:

..seeing, here, a bridge under construction alongside the older, smaller one:

The cruise company had pre-booked my bus transfer to the ship - me and all the others. I have to hand it to Bergen Airport for their excellent signage - clearly stating, including an arrow, where we had to go for this particular bus. Unfortunately, it only comes every hour, and I had 20 minutes to wait.. during which I remarked that it was nippy, but not too cold - not even cold enough for gloves. I also noted the airport sign, seemingly designed to confuse..

Haven't seen a more helpful bus driver, who hopped into the luggage compartment to store the bags properly, and communicated with us the whole time - in Norwegian or English as appropriate. And I have to say, if you're travelling with bags in Bergen - particularly on cruise departure days (which seem to be most of them) -good luck; lucky for us, it seems to start at the airport, and we and our bags pretty much filled up the bus - at every subsequent stop, he had to tell people he simply didn't have room, certainly for their luggage.

It goes right through the city centre, and the Christmas Market and lights looked lovely! But by the time I'd checked in, watched the saftey video, and been to the loo, honestly, I wasn't in the mood for exploring. I explored the ship instead, sorted out the WiFi, found out where things are.. 

Including the posh restaurant with the enormous creature, waiting in a tank to be eaten:

Well, the restaurant included in our full board generally has set mealtimes, you're assigned one, and a table number, on check-in. But this evening, they made an exception, and opened it to all comers at all times, sit where you please. So, I got a window seat:

My wine package entitles me to a bottle a day - so I had a very nice Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc - food is buffet. I didn't fancy the reindeer stew, went for the sirloin instead, with some gorgeous roast potatoes, and mash that was unfortunately cold. Still, I was perfectly well fed, and had a créme caramel for dessert: might have been a bit tasteless, but they provided a whole jug of caramel sauce that you could drizzzle over it, so that was fine. The maitre d' suggested that, if I proved unable to finish my daily bottle of wine, I could say it to them, they'd give me a number and hold it in the fridge for me to finish later. Very nice of him. He's obviously never met me before..

And here I was, en route to bed and there was already an announcement about the Northern Lights. Well now, I couldn't see them out my window, and wasn't going to get dressed again for them - they'll just have to wait for another night..

Tomorrow, I'm off to see Alnes Lighthouse. William the Conqueror's great-great-great-grandfather apparently hailed from here. Or maybe not.

On Tuesday, I'll be on a guided city walk in Trondheim.

On Christmas Eve, I was supposed to be on a Sámi adventure - including feeding the reindeer! But I got a cancellation notice with my welcome pack, saying they'll refund me. A lot of fellow passengers are miffed about that too - one remarked that she was told they never do that excursion in winter anyway! In which case, why advertise it..?

On St. Stephen's Day (AKA Boxing Day), I'll be at the North Cape (Nordkapp) - weather permitting. Seas are rough up there.

I arrive in Kirkenes, on the Russian border, on the 27th - apparently we can take photos, but can't cross! ;-)

We're in Hammerfest on the 28th.

And I'm at a midnight concert at Tromso Cathedral on the 29th.

So, Christmas and New Year's on the boat! Just what I wanted. Back on New Year's Day - not as early - and taking the next day off, because it's a Friday - and back home to Ireland for the weekend, because it's been too long. The next two days are with CT - on the 5th, I'm back at the Hen & Chickens for Shake It Up: The Improvised Shakespeare Show.

And on the 6th, I'm at a comedy show - Live Next to the Apollo, at Riverside Studios.

On the 7th - my first Meetup of the year - I'm back with the Horror Book Club - assuming I get the book read in time! It's The House on the Borderland - and they're meeting in the Prince of Wales, as usual. Now, considering the lack of progress I made with Hogfather for my work book club.. we'll have to see.. it's over a year since I was last with them for a book review! (As to Hogfather, we met during the week (me virtually - I stayed at home because of my cough), and it turned out I was one of the ones that read most.. I had a last-minute sprint, and got to 71%..)

The next two days, I'm with CT at the Backyard Comedy Club.. again, it's been a while!

Then, four days in a row of Meetups, including five in total. On the 10th, two Meetups.. firstly, a walk titled Southwark: Seedy and Sublime with none other than Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpies, yay! Haven't seen him since September, would you believe..

And that evening, back with The Hideout for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Venue and timings TBC, but it'll be somewhere around Leicester Square. 

On the 11th, back with LoMAZ for T is for Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, an exhibition at The Wellcome Collection. Advertised, would you believe, while I was looking at my phone but not especially busy, in The Rockingham Arms recently - and this being the next unscheduled date in my diary, I was one of the five to snap up a place in the first minute!

On the 12th, with Up in the Cheap Seats again, for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo - a dark comedy set in Iraq - at the Young Vic. Booked for Bar + Block Southwark beforehand. Ooh, another place I haven't been in an age..

And on the 13th, I'm back with London Classical Music and Theatre Group for The Makropulos Affair, by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, at the Barbican - one of the group with a wildcard ticket couldn't go and kindly offered it for free, so I snapped it up. Eating at Cote Barbican beforehand. And gee, you guessed it.. Haven't been there since September, but was with the group slightly more recently, in October..