The shock of Brexit

I started writing a fresh post just before the EU Referendum of 23rd June, with the intention of adding to it over the following days. The topic was a reflection on how retirement was looking and feeling after six months, and comparing my way of life now with the early days of retirement at the start of the calendar year.

As has been the case for many of the family and friends I've been in touch with since the Referendum result hit home on Friday 24th, I've felt a genuine sense of loss at learning that over half of the people of this country want to pull away from our European neighbours and "do it their way." I've also been asking myself, and other people, what it says about Britain today and how it might change our sense of national identity and place in the world over the coming years. In the light of the emotions that I've been experiencing, my original post felt irrelevant and too inward-looking, at a time when there are so many big questions to address.

It's been interesting to look at the voting pattern along demographic lines and the correlation between ageing populations and the propensity for voting to leave the EU is clear. As a retired over-60, I want to wear a badge that states loudly and clearly, that I, and most of my family and friends, did not vote to leave, denying the young generations behind us opportunities in the future to move freely around the EU; we did not vote to isolate the country at a time when I strongly believe we should pursue every opportunity to work co-operatively with our neighbours to tackle the big global issues, such as climate change and the movement of populations across the world. My youngest son, who has been using Twitter as his primary source of news since the result, quoted some of the tweets from his contemporaries, which pinned the blame on the older generations, with  statements like, "Well that's the last time I give up my seat on the bus to an older person." This is sad but understandable!

It really struck me last weekend how tragically ironic it felt as we looked back with horror and pity at the Battle of the Somme, 100 years ago, while at the same time we had made this bizarre decision to break away from an organisation that was originally set up to ensure that differences of opinion between European neighbours could be dealt with through discussion and shared interests, and not through the horrors of war. This was articulated beautifully by Sheila Hancock, the actress, on one of the televised debate programmes in the week before the vote took place, and for me, these considerations weighed much more heavily than the economic quuestions that dominated the early stages of the pre-Referendum debate.

Of course, none of us really know where all of this is going, but I believe that one positive thing coming out of all of this is the upsurge in political interest and awareness, particularly among the young.  Suddenly, the relevance of political decisions and the need to engage with political debate is clear, and that's what I hope will save us from the fear, isolation and a hopeless nostalgia for a past that has gone, that threaten our future wellbeing.

Lost in music with Bonnie Raitt, Bruce & the E-Street Band and Neil Young

I was lucky enough to get hold of tickets to see three of my favourite music heroes, all in a 10 day period, which has really brought me back to an appreciation of the power of music.

Bonnie Raitt is less well-known in the UK but is a megastar in her native USA, and her concert at the Hammersmith Odeon (or the Eventim Apollo in new money) on 1st June was fabulous. Aside from her soulful and strong voice and her expressive slide guitar playing at the front of her great band, she built a strong rapport with the audience and an electric atmosphere. It was a great night.

I saw Bonnie with my oldest friend; we met 50 years ago, when we were 11 and became close friends in our teenage years. She came down to London from her home in the north west and we spent a couple of days catching up on all our news and treating ourselves. I had booked a hostel 5 minutes away from the Eventim Apollo which was only £30 each for a twin room, so I was a bit worried that it might be a bit on the rough side. However, we needn't have worried as it turned out to be spotlessly clean, warm, comfortable and with good en suite and self-catering facilities. The Abercorn House Hostel was excellent value for money, and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to have to leave a concert at Hammersmith before the end to catch their train.

Bruce Springsteen and E-Street Band's River tour at Wembley Stadium on 5 June, a Sunday, promised to be my concert of the year. I've been lucky enough to see them in concert 8 or 9 times, and they are the best live act I've seen, bar none. They give their all at every show, performing at full pelt for 3 and a half to 4 hours, working round a setlist, but taking requests via written signs from the crowd, often for more obscure numbers they haven't played for years. At this show they performed a track from the Magic album called "I'll work for your love'" which I really like, and which I've never heard them do live. In fact, Bruce made a comment that he hadn't been asked for that one before and he had to run through it quickly beforehand and had one false start before he got it right and led the band through it. We were seated in tier 5, high up in the stand, and the view, although far away, was pretty good. Sadly, the sound was not clear for us, and we experienced a lot of distortion and missed a lot of the banter and intros to the songs. This did affect our enjoyment somewhat, but even with that, it was great to see the band again and my good friend of many years and lots of concerts and my youngest sister and I had a great day out. We did manage to get back to the station in time to catch the last train at 11.25, which turned out to be delayed for 2 hours! So I got home at about 2.45am, while the other two were significantly later. Luckily for my friend and I, we are both retired so didn't have to get up for work, however, sadly for my sister, she did have work and managed to be at her desk on time on Monday morning.

The final concert was Neil Young at the O2 on 11th June. I went with my husband this time, as Neil is  one performer we do agree on (not the case with Bruce and the E-Street Band!). The O2 isn't my favourite venue, but the sound quality was very good and the view from our seat was excellent. On the other hand there was hardly any leg room and it was red hot, but for Neil, we were happy to put up with that. It opened magically with a partially lit stage with some people in odd clothes miming the parts of eco goodies and baddies. Then we heard from a piano the intro to "After the gold rush," one of my favourite Neil Young slow numbers, before the stage lit up to reveal him in an oversized cowboy hat, standing at the piano. He performed another 3 quieter numbers before calling on his band, and from then on it was loud, stirring rock and roll all the way! And no rail delays after this one.

I usually try to space out treats like this but when musicians of this calibre visit the UK, given that they are all in their 60's (Neil Young, unbelievably, is 70) you just have to take your chance and see them while they are still performing and crossing the pond. Fortunately, most rock stars seem in less of a hurry to retire than I was!

Walking in Paradise

I've already been back in the UK about 10 days from the lovely walking holiday in Mallorca with my sister. We flew out separately, as we live 350 miles apart, and met at Palma Airport, but we flew back together so I could go back home with her for a few days and visit my Mum again, following her hip operation, and I've been back home just a week from there. The original plan had been to bring Mum back with me on the train but she isn't ready for that yet so I will drive up and bring her down in a few weeks' time.

The holiday was amazing. We booked a hostel in Soller, which my sister had spotted on a previous visit, and which turned out to be perfect - clean, comfortable, friendly, well located and incredibly cheap.

Hostal Nadal, Soller

My last and indeed, only, previous visit to the island was back in 1981, when I was teaching in Scotland and as part of a group of 4 staff and 30 teenagers  passed a very pleasant 10 days in a small resort on the east coast, so it had been a long time!

I had heard that the north coast was very beautiful, which it absolutely is, and an ex-colleague had told me about her regular walking holidays, based in Soller, giving easy access to the Tramuntana mountains, a network of signposted mule tracks through hills and olive groves, the coastal paths and beautiful villages like Deia and Fornalux.

We walked every day apart from Saturday, which we designated as a rest day to free up time to visit the lively Soller market in the morning and catch the tram down to Port de Soller to spend the afternoon and evening in some beach and bar time.

Port de Soller

On Sunday morning we undertook a modest walk to the Rotunda on the cliffs above Port de Soller before retiring for lunch at a harbourside restaurant and paying another visit to the beach. My sister assured me the sea was freezing when she ventured in for a dip. I whipped my toes in and back out and took her word for it!

The walking highlight of the trip for me was the Barranc de Binaraix, which is a walk taking a pathway built into a river gorge through the San Torrella mountain range. We decided to walk down, rather than up, and seeing how long and steep a climb up it, we didn't regret that decision at all! We took a local bus (we were very lucky to get on it as there are only a couple of buses a day and there was a huge scramble to board) which did all the climbing for us, up a corkscrew road through the mountains to the Cuber reservoir.

It was very cloudy when we arrived there, although it was blue and beautiful down below us, but this made the landscape even more dramatic.

The start of the walk

We could hear the sound of the bells around the sheets' necks and the bleating of goats. We even came across a herd of mules grazing by the reservoir.

The views were fantastic as we wended our way down the path, and although it was certainly easier on the lungs than climbing up would have been, the long descent took its toll on our calves, and mine ached for 4 or 5 days afterwards.

Of course, all this beauty and splendour would have been so much less enjoyable without the gorgeous sunshine, blue skies and seas and warmth, and this feels light years away given the cool, dull weather we are currently experiencing in the south east of England! Beam me back to Mallorca, Scottie!

One other little episode I wanted to share was our accidental discovery of a most beautiful Finca (a rural estate which has been converted into a hotel), which we stumbled over as we were walking along an old mule track. We came across a blackboard at the side of a gateway advertising freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee and cake for 7 euros, and we decided it would be rude not to take up the offer.

What we found was an absolute oasis of calm in a most beautiful setting, and we fell in love with it, so much so that we made sure that our walk the following day took us past there again. My new dream is to win a big prize on the premium bonds, book out the whole place for a week and take my family and friends. We did enquire about the price of a room and were told they come at between 300 and 500 euros each per night, so a biggish win will be required!

Mallorca is an island I hope to return to; there is so much to see and enjoy, particularly if you enjoy getting out onto the backroads among the olives, the lemon and oranges!

I have been so lucky in having been able to travel for 6 weeks this year so far, and I don't take for granted that this is one of the real perks of retirement. I'm also enjoying having the freedom to spend more time with my family in the north without having to measure out the days to fit in with annual leave considerations.

Foxy encounters with cats

On a totally different subject to my last blog, the "cat situation" has taken a new turn. Look who visited us earlier this week!

A visitor to our garden at 10am

Fudge pretending not to notice

My youngest son spotted him (or maybe, her) through the window and shouted me to look out. When Foxy realised we'd spotted him and we were taking these photos, he walked away towards the garden of our next door neighbour. Let's just say that gardening isn't this neighbour's strong point; his garden resembles a jungle, so it's quite possible that the fox (and maybe a family) have a den somewhere in there. I happened to look out of the window again a half hour or so later, and Foxy was back, looking quite comfortable in the sun, until he realised once again that he'd been spotted and strolled off.

We haven't seen or heard the fox again since, but are keeping our eyes and ears open; our own Springwatch.

My retirement trip - the highlights

It's now just over two weeks since we returned from our inter-rail trip to Europe. In some ways it still feels very fresh in my mind, but in others it feels like another life. It was an amazing and fun experience, and we started looking at the stats:

So we visited 8 countries, stayed in 13 cities/towns, travelled approximately 5000 miles on 22 trains and we walked at least 200 miles.

The tired saying that it's the journey rather than the destination that matters definitely applies to this trip; travelling on the comfortable, clean and punctual European trains was a real pleasure, offering the opportunity to sit back and relax, read, write my blog posts and look out and watch the world go by, often passing through wonderful scenery.

On the plane home, we were discussing our individual highlights and although these did differ slightly, for the most part we were in agreement. So here is our top ten (as I'm writing the blog, I get the last word!) in chronological order, rather than ranked:

1. Lunch at le Train Bleu at Gare de Lyon, Paris
2. Visit to Evian across Lake Geneva from Lausanne
3. Meeting my cousin in Frascati and being treated to a lovely lunch
4. Verona Wine Festival
5. The day trip to Hallstatt from Salzburg
6. The sights and bierkellers of Bamberg
7. The lovely and interesting day trip to Potsdam from Berlin
8. The whole experience of Berlin and its turbulent history, particularly lunch up the Radio Tower and the Reichstag dome visit
9. The bars and restaurants in Copenhagen, particularly War Pigs
10. Staying on board the yacht in Stockholm and visiting the old town.

This leaves out a number of other great memories, so we would give a mention to five outstanding train journeys:

1. From Lausanne to Milan, particularly through the Simplon tunnel from Brig to Italy, and along the shores of Lake Maggiore
2. From Verona to Salzburg, up through the Alps over the Brenner Pass, changing trains at Innsbruck
3. From Fredericia to Copenhagen, via the Odense railway crossing
4. From Copenhagen to Stockholm, passing over the Oresund Bridge to Sweden, travelling through restful pine forests and beautifully clear lakes
5. From Sundsvall to Trondheim, across from the East coast of Sweden to the West coast of Norway, climbing through high mountains, deep snow, glaciers and frozen rivers.

This trip was an opportunity to look back to my pre-working, student days, when  a few people I knew went inter-railing. It really appealed to me then, but for various reasons I never made it. Having regained that freedom over my own time through retirement from paid work, and being free to travel for over a month, was an endorsement of the decision to retire. It felt very liberating to choose our routes and destinations, and to realise that there is nothing stopping us boarding a train and going wherever we fancied. I am also very lucky to have a supportive husband (and with understanding colleagues) who was up for this trip and entered fully into the spirit of it, despite a dodgy knee which has felt the effects of all our walking.

I have come home even more committed to travel while we are still fit and healthy enough to enjoy it, and already have a number of trips on my wish list for the future. We certainly learned a whole lot about the similarities and differences in lifestyles across the countries we visited, and it has helped me to feel that the European Union is about a lot more than simple economic gain/loss for individual countries. The visit to Berlin, in particular, reminded me of the original rationale for building greater European unity and understanding and has pushed me further towards voting to remain in Europe.

So, we are back now. However, I have spent a few days away since our return, visiting my Mother in hospital in the north of England. Tomorrow my sister and I are travelling to Majorca for some walking and hopefully some relaxation. I won't be blogging while I'm there, but will write a post about our experiences there when I return home.

At home with cats

It’s just over a week since we arrived back from our inter-railing trip and I’m away from home again, staying with my family in the north west. While we were in Europe, my Mum fell and broke her hip and is in hospital following a partial hip joint replacement two weeks ago and we (my youngest son and I) are here to visit her.  

I had already agreed to pick up my son and some of his “stuff” from University this weekend and so it’s been possible to put together a short road trip taking in visits to a number of family members. I drove up to the Midlands at the weekend and spent the day and evening with my daughter and her partner, staying the night there before driving up the M1 to pick up my son and “stuff.” We then drove over to the north west to see Mum. She looks amazing for someone of her age who had a major operation only 2 weeks ago and she is really benefitting from the physiotherapy. In fact, we are delighted that she is well enough to return home this week, a much shorter recovery time than we’d first thought.

Meanwhile, I am intending to pull together some of the stats and highlights of our trip to share in a later post over the next few days.  All I will say here is that during our four weeks of making extensive use of rail services across the 8 European countries we visited, our experiences were totally positive - comfortable and clean trains, running on time and most offering refreshment facilities at reasonable prices. This warm and fluffy feeling was stretched to the limit when we walked into Gatwick railway station on Bank Holiday Sunday around 8pm, reaching home, a distance of approximately 50 miles, 3 hours, 2 trains, a bus, with someone threatening to throw up on board, later! Quite a contrast with what we’d become accustomed to. 

One very positive note has been the fantastic weather that we brought with us from our trip. It’s been wonderful to be able to spend time out in the garden, pegging out the washing and getting it dry within a day. There’s only been one fly in the ointment (or rather 2 cats)!  

Two cats in the yard

Yes, we have not only one cat visiting each day, but two, and the black and white nameless one, Cat X, is not a gentle pussycat and not averse to showing his claws. A couple of times I have been hanging out the washing and on turning round found my way into the house barred by these fiends. The consequence is that, rather than trying to get into the house, I have embarked on some weeding, waiting for Cat X to give up and go away. This can take up to 30 minutes or so, and I’m not too sure how this is going to work once the weather changes! However, the garden is looking a bit tidier!

Trondheim - final destination

After an extremely nice breakfast, including "make your own waffles", and a leisurely morning in the hotel, we went in search of a packed lunch in Sundsvall. We had a long journey ahead, crossing the Swedish and Norwegian mountains on stopping trains, so we didn’t expect any refreshments to be available onboard (in fact, there were!). An internet search revealed a bakery cum cafe just round the corner of an unpromising street en route to the station and what a fantastic bakery it was! The cakes were to die for, and the shop was packed with locals coming in and taking away boxes of these amazing confections, many had obviously been pre-ordered for the weekend. The cafe was a bit of an education as you ordered your coffees at the counter and the waitress put a cafetiere per person into a machine which dispensed a measure of coffee and hot water, and then you pointed out which of the cakes you wanted. I was still full of waffle (what’s new?) so decided to abstain and just have coffee and order a cake for the packed lunch. We were given the cafetieres and sat down, a bit puzzled as to what we were supposed to drink out of, but learning from the regulars, we helped ourselves to crockery, spoons, sugar etc from a dresser at the end of the room. 

Stenstans Bageri in Sundsvall

We went back and ordered sandwiches and drinks, and I chose my cake for the journey and we made our way down to the station to catch the 2.08 train to Storlien, 2 kms short of the Swedish/Norwegian border, for an amazing 4 hour journey through pine forests, passing waterfalls, frozen rivers and lakes, and steadily climbing. 

By the time we got to Storlien, the ground was covered in snow and it was pretty cold.

Snow in Stolen

Fortunately, the train to take us to Trondheim, the last train of our fantastic trip, was already in the station 

Boarding the last train of our trip

and soon we crossed the border and started to descend into a different landscape with crystal clear light and very distinct colours. We even passed through Hell, but if this is Hell then bring it on! 

The railway station at Hell

Twenty minutes or so before we were due to arrive in Trondheim, the train went into a long tunnel and we came out with the majestic, so blue, Trondheim fjord on our right 

The Trondheim fjord

and were soon off the train and in our treat hotel, the Scandic Nidelven, which overlooked one of the channels flowing into the fjord, in a brilliant setting. 

Just a side note, I've betrayed our age by a few references to Monty Python, and this cropped up again as every time I thought or said 'fjord" it would bring back John Cleese bewailing his dead parrot, "Pining for the fjords, is he?" 

If we thought Denmark and Sweden were expensive, well we hadn’t been to Norway, and if we thought it was about time to start getting ready for home and curbing our alcohol intake, then this was the way to do it, paying £20 for a glass of wine and a large beer. There was a strike of ancillary staff across all the hotels in Trondheim over the weekend, so there was a limited menu and we ended up with a burger for my husband and a fish soup for me, again not exactly cheap.

One of the reasons we had chosen this hotel was because for many years it has been voted top for breakfast in all of Norway, and it didn’t disappoint. It was literally overwhelming; there was such a massive range of choice and everything was of high quality from the fantastic homemade jams and breads to salmon eight different ways to pancakes made to order, including gluten free options.

Our exploration of the ancient city of Trondheim started after breakfast in bright sunshine and temperatures of about 12 degrees, a long way up from the seasonal average of 4 degrees, and my thermals got thrown back into the holdall. Trondheim is the third largest city in Norway, after Oslo and Bergen, and was the ancient capital. All Norwegian royalty are crowned in the Nidaros Cathedral at Trondheim, so we made that ancient building our first port of call. It is a beautiful, very dignified, cathedral, built of the local blue-grey stone which I found very attractive. The most striking thing inside was the stained glass, including a gorgeous blue and pink rose window. 

Exterior view of rose window

This was one of the very few places we went to where photography was totally forbidden, although some people were taking pictures of the rose window until one of the priests came and asked them to stop. The ticket price also included a chance to see the Norwegian crown jewels and associated regalia, so we had a look at those while we were there.

The city square was host to a farmers market, selling fabulous fish, meat, cheeses, breads, cakes, honey and jams, but unfortunately we were too full to get beyond the odd tasting morsel. 

Trondheim farmers market

My favourite stall was selling pure wool yarn in a lovely range of colours. 

Market stall selling wool

We found a number of shops specialising in knitting and other crafts, and they were all very busy, reflecting the popularity of traditional crafts - a way to keep busy and warm in the cold winter evenings maybe?

Our Rough Guide had picked out the Trondheim Micro-Brewery as worth a visit, and we found it fairly easily as Trondheim is a small city. It’s a pleasant hostelry where everything looks fresh and new. 

Trondheim Micro-brewery

We decided to share a Tasting Tray, which was a tray with 10 x 0.1 litre samples of each of their beers, which ranged from a light lager to a thick black ale and not all of which I found palatable; however, between the two of us we managed to finish them. 

A litre of craft ales

A walk along the Esplanade looking out across the fjord seemed like a good way of blowing away the cobwebs 

Trondheim Esplanade

and brought us eventually to Rockheim, the Museum of Norwegian Rock, an intriguing prospect which drew us in for a couple of hours learning about Norwegian music from the 1950’s to the present day. I must admit my previous knowledge extended no further than A-ha (rock music?). The museum was fun though, interactive and quirky, and the enthusiastic staff were always keen to help us to use the equipment and to tell us about the music. Who knew that a genre of particularly loud and screechy rock music called Black Metal originated in Norway? It has gone worldwide and many fans around the world are learning the Norwegian language specifically so they can fully engage with this music. An acquired taste, I think.

We also got to play some real instruments - electric guitars, keyboards and drums, so that was fun.

We had planned that for the last night of our trip we would have a nice dinner in the hotel and a few drinks in the bar. However, the hotel was absolutely packed, the menu was still restricted and we decided to go out, but quite a few restaurants were affected by the strike. We found a pub which served nice hearty food but the choice was narrow and the service was very quick so we soon found ourselves back at the hotel in a busy, overcrowded bar. We didn’t stay there long, but went back to our room and after scanning the tv channels found an American WW2 B-movie with Norwegian sub-titles. This matched up well with what we normally do on Saturday nights at home when we don’t go out, which is to watch Scandinavian crime or thriller serials on BBC 4 with English sub-titles. The film didn't match up with these, and I managed to wake myself up a couple of times with my snoring! 

We reprised the heavenly breakfast on our last day and passed the time gently before catching the Flybussen to the airport and taking off for Gatwick.

Trondheim: distinguished and ancient

We stayed at the Scandic Nidelven, which we'd booked as a treat for our last stop, to experience the breakfasts and to be somewhere warm and comfortable if it was really cold (which it wasn't). I would certainly like to stay there again, just so I could try some of the 75% of the breakfast content I didn't get to.