Arrived at Birmingham, then the treck from New st to Moor st station to get yet ANOTHER train to Kidderminster, AND would you believe it another esculator!!!, yes you guessed it I ended up on the floor again, but so impressed both there and at Gatwick Railway station how quickly a member of the rail staff was there to help and also to check that Iwas ok. Off then to kidderminster ,un - eventful jouney.Two flirting 14 year olds opposite, how different to Norway where kids will be in the same class from the age of 7 untill 16, so you dont get the flirting so much. They spend so much time together that they almost become like brothers and sisters, the serious business doesnt start until they get to college !!.
Hire car people at station to meet us, nice touch. Details done and off to our Rental cottage , but first pick up some Fish and chips, something that is not available in Norway, so an opportunity for someone there. OH the traffic,queues at islands , traffic lights, not used to this . Also strange everyone in such a hurry? and seemingly aggressive. Strange thing though, drivers in the U k will give way for someone trying to come out of a side road, doesnt happen in Norway .? Strange driving on the other side of the road at first, and Traffic again.
Cottage perfect, very comfortable and a welcome basket containing , tea coff, bread, butter, juice and a very big chocolate cake , home made .
Unpacked !!! which included 6 jars of homemade jam, some Norwegian type salami for BIL, that weighed 3 kilos !!. settled in with Fish and chips and a glassof wine , well there is no rule that you cant drink wine with Fish and chips is there.
More later.
I’m glad you arrived at your destination safe and well. It must have been quite traumatic for you both, after the relative quiet of Norway. I hope you have a great time. Do you plan to explore at all, after you’ve recovered from the journey? If you do, you should try Wales, particularly Anglesey. Our mountains are not so spectacular as yours but it’s quieter here and the people are welcoming.
He’s a Brit expat.
I’m sure he knows Wales and the UK.
Oh sorry Norway, I didn’t know you were an ex-pat. Anyway, have a good trip. If you’ve been away from GB for a few years you may find quite a difference.
Thankyou for the information, I do lnow some of wales having had Holidays there and through takong kids camping there.very generous farmer alowed us a field for nothing near Llanidloes ??. had agreat time .
First day , Need to buy food as we are self catering, so a trip to , well nearest was Sainsbury, just about 3 times larger then anything that we have, and a car park that would accomodate more cars than we would see in a week. WELL what an enormous selection of products, just Potatoes , ther must have been 6 or seven different ones. We needed Sausages ENGLISH,
hmm shelves of them , not just plain ones, I think thre were ones with anything you could imagine in them, so we decided on normal Cumberland. I hate to say it but im not suprised that there appear to be so many overweight people, not only old or 40s/50s but young people. The selection of food on offer and they way it is displayed just makes you want to buy it. Also buying things to take home BOVRIL , not Marmite I hate that. Those green scouring pads , nothing like it in Norway.
It seems that Weedol has now been banned even in the U K so had to make do with some capsules, which are not as good.
Bought 2 bottles wine WOW,very good ones under £12 pounds which in Norway would have cost at least £20 bottle.
late but welcome to the UK
Sounds as if you managed to see some English men and women over here, Not easy to spot nowadays 
Someone fom Norway is a rare treat
Maybe you should visit Wales, realspeed. Plenty of English here/
Nice to hear you are over here for your holiday and to read your comments.
I don’t know when you left the UK, but were there no superstores in your day? To us it’s just the norm. I love them! But do agree there can be too much choice.
As for your travel woes, believe me I can have problems with escalators…where they exist! Good job you didn’t exit at London Victoria tube station as you have to lug your baggage up a big flight of steps. Building work is ongoing, with the promise of a new ticket hall, access to all lines and all new escalators in place, by 2018. I don’t think I can wait that long.
Also buying things to take home BOVRIL , not Marmite I hate that.
get some vegemite laddie that will put hairs back on ya chest - goes well with shark too!!
do you stuff the shark with it or spread it on:-D
Well we decide that we had to go to a garden center!!! we do have them but they do not have the range of plants that there are in U K, mainly because many would just die in the winter. SO from where we are staying there is only one that is a must, many on here will maybe have been WEBBS of wychbold.This has grown from a small garden to a vast enterprise now.
I think it is now more of a large store than a garden center.
Santa hadnt arived yet , so unable to sit on his knee. Bought some stuff , Christmas cards and wrapping paper. Then had lunch!! blimey its fantastic, and although maybe seem expensive, but not to us . Back to cottage, and I decided to go for a walk. It is possible to walk across the fields by crossing styles ??. Funny you can see for miles, not a mountain in sight , and the trees, not a conifer in sight, we are surrounded by loads of 80 foot ones. I havnt seen a field even half the size of one of these in Norway, usually if it IS a field it goes up a slope. I walked for miles over these fields, not seeing a soul, much like in Norway.
Dinner at night , Cumberland sausages, and wine , musnt get too used to this lifestyle.
Next day , I do wonder why these un frequent trips to U k despite all the great ideas as to where we are going to go nearly always end up with so many visits to shops. So off we go again to MERRY HILL shopping center, more shops there than in the whole of our nearest Town, oh and the comfort of shopping without being in the wet and stumbling over rough car parks. Well she that has to be obeyed was having a field day, I just kept saying yes thats nice and not think of the money.The place is so vast, all those eating places, oh and my god the noise, so many people , but so clean. Anyway most of you know what these places are like, but we have NOTHING like them, well not suprising when you consider that the total Population of Norway is only just over 5,ooo,ooo and probably at least half of that will be in the main cities Oslo, Bergen, Tromso.
Found it quite strange in the stores, nobody latching onto you asking if they can help. Found the staff in store very helpful when you needed help though.
Back to cottage for a doze then home made lasagne and of course a glass of wine , got to make the best of this.
Interesting to read your views on the subject of the changes in our shopping habits and the accessibility of luxury foreign goods at reasonable prices it has brought. It has happened gradually, so we don’t really notice it now, I suppose.
However, the huge, multi-national supermarkets have depleted our small town centres. Local businesses cannot hope to compete on price and variety. Holyhead, where huge cruise ships drop off tourists who cross the futuristic stainless steel flying bridge, and step into a run down, depressing street comprising a Boots, a Coop, several charity shops and many empty store fronts. Bewilderment is the expression on most of their faces.
I was stopped once by a young foreign man who asked me where he could find a ‘Green groker’. I realised there wasn’t one and directed him to Tesco on the out of town retail park.
We just seem to find the range of goods on offer in the large supermarket incredible, for example take sausages, yes i will anywhere, there must have been 30 40 different varietes of a sausage, chickens, im sure there were some with three legs or maybe even 4. Cheese, ohhhhh died and gone to heaven
Enjoy!!! You obviously are. That’s one of the benefits of self-catering; eat what you like, when you like and cooked how you like it. Worry about the pounds/kilos when you get home.
But look on the bright side…employment in the local area.
Those stores employ far more than the family run businesses.
And all the other benefits.
@ Norway
It sounds like you’re enjoying your trip, Norway.
It’s a shame you’re not nearer to Stapeley Water Gardens, now that IS a garden centre worth a visit.
I like your style re the wine:cool:
with regard to the Town center shops , i think it is so sad to see so many empty ones, and oh the cheap shops, estate Agents etc. Empty ones probaly due to the fact that the owners of the property do nothing, just waiting to be able to charge a higher rent? maybe , but not something I know anything about.
Optitians !!Its chaerper for us to have eye tests and new glasses here than at home, so trip to our old optitians.
Great my eyes have not changed much since the last time , so not having new Glasses, well if I did , at 77 I may not get the full value out of them:confused: Wife had new ones , even here , glad im not paying, but to get a pair with progressive lens , tinted etc in Norway would cost in the region of at least £600:cry: so its even cheaper just to fly over stay with someone and get new glasses then fly back than to get them in Norway, and thats paying for everything including Eye Test.
Back to Food, we went to Farm shop , bought a SMALL piece of sirloin, just enough for two of us and a bit left for a sandwich. It was beautiful, certainly something that I do miss. Its not possible to get anything like it in Norway, they dont do Beef:-( as the British know it, its tough and tasteless. So we enjoyed this , and of course the wine to go with it.
A visit to my eldest nephew and his partener GRRRR! sorry im an old bugger and think marriage is a must to live together, BUT also a realist, and can see that other than being man and wife it has no other advantages. Anyway they have a nice small rented house with just enough furniture in for two, a bed , a sofa, cooker , well you know what I mean. Also they are still doing the things that thay like doing , concerts , etc, so no saving money, but so what , they are happy. Funny though to think he is now 28 and I still remember him climbing on my back whilst i crawled around the floor when he was about 2.
Upps did have one slight misjdgement with the car , went the wrong side of a keep left bollard:lol:at a road junction .
Right today , hopefully atrip to Stratford on Avon with the hope that oit does not coincide with the Stratford Mop, if so it will be a change of plans.
Hi
Lovely to read your blog Norway.
I have never been to Norway, do want to get there because of the fishing.
My son has been and loves it.
If you get chance, try Shrewsbury, lovely place, not too far away and the River Festival is on this week.
Stapeley Water Gardens was fantastic, unfortunately now closed and being developed for housing.
Norway 
It is sad to see so few decent shops in some of our small towns :-(.
Many properties are rented out, it is not so much the rent but the business rate charged by councils on top of the rent and that fact that many people shop on line that is killing the shops in our small towns.
New shops open up only to disappear again within a short time because they can’t make it pay. Around here charity shops predominate , they can claim ‘relief’ on business rates.
Enjoy Stratford the shops there are able to survive due to the high number of tourists.
if its salmon fishing , Laerdal river is one of the best in Norway, its where the King fishes , but any of the lakes or rivers are good and the fjords for Cod , haddock , plaice and salmon