Who likes Maritime History? Put your hand down HMS Seahorse

We visited the historic dockyards at Chatham a few weeks ago:

http://thedockyard.co.uk/

For anyone interested in boats, this place is amazing.  They've got massive ships to tour and even a submarine. 

The coolest thing of all is a Victorian rope factory that is still used to make all kinds of rope even today.

Well worth a visit!

DID YOU SAY ROPE FACTORY?!? Funny, I just bought a kit from Greenwich to learn how to tie knots. Guess Chatham is on the weekend train-ride list now!

If you're ever in Norway:
http://fartoyvern.no/en/for-our-guests/about-hardanger-maritime-museum

The Hardanger Maritime Museum is awesome and you can learn about rope making, watch it being made and even make some yourself.

There's plenty of other maritime-related stuff (boat building, restoring and even a smithy) and a lot of the stuff on 'display' is actually being made/restored so you can talk to the people about the project they're working on. Don't miss the cafe upstairs with wonderfully delicious Norwegian cakes.

Travel tip - if you're in Norheimsund at the Hardanger Maritime Museum, check out nearby Steinsdalsfossen. At 20m high, it's a relatively small waterfall, but the most visited tourist site in Norway. Picturesque, too, if you're looking for a good picnic spot.

DID YOU SAY ROPE FACTORY?!? Funny, I just bought a kit from Greenwich to learn how to tie knots. Guess Chatham is on the weekend train-ride list now!

Hey , look who's back!  I was starting to wonder if you'd been gassed in your sleep.

The rope factory is super cool, it's been making hemp rope for something like 500 years.  They still make all kinds of rope there, including those giant dock lines. 

Traveling Frog, if I'm ever in Norway I'll keep that in mind for sure. 

Over Christmas we went to Zebrugge and saw this Russian submarine:

http://www.seafront.be/UK/foxtrot.asp

Hey , look who's back!  I was starting to wonder if you'd been gassed in your sleep.

The rope factory is super cool, it's been making hemp rope for something like 500 years.  They still make all kinds of rope there, including those giant dock lines.

On the contrary, we are now 4.5 weeks gas-leak-poisoning free, and all the symptoms have cleared and life is amazing. It was just the chaos of the new job taking up all my brain space. But I've quit. Maybe it's that I have the attention span of a ferret on speed, but the work was not at all challenging, and then I landed the best client ever, so I'm going back to the freelance life. Will be much happier as I won't be literally being poisoned in the home office any more!

If you're ever in Norway:
http://fartoyvern.no/en/for-our-guests/about-hardanger-maritime-museum

The Hardanger Maritime Museum is awesome and you can learn about rope making, watch it being made and even make some yourself.

There's plenty of other maritime-related stuff (boat building, restoring and even a smithy) and a lot of the stuff on 'display' is actually being made/restored so you can talk to the people about the project they're working on. Don't miss the cafe upstairs with wonderfully delicious Norwegian cakes.

Travel tip - if you're in Norheimsund at the Hardanger Maritime Museum, check out nearby Steinsdalsfossen. At 20m high, it's a relatively small waterfall, but the most visited tourist site in Norway. Picturesque, too, if you're looking for a good picnic spot.

Every Scandi country is on The List. The Hardanger and the Vasa are musts. We're just slowly working our way through all the places that pique our interests (which is to say, pretty much everywhere). Though I do think a Scandi country would be good for one of my solo holidays, as they tend to be quite safe.