Freelance Tour Manager for Rail Based vacations around the world
Well, no, Paris isn’t burning today, but bits of it were last night. The French are celebrating their interminable dispute with the state (pensions this time) in the now traditional manner of being cross and throwing stuff at each other. Tomorrow there will be a General Strike. Today however they are contenting themselves with buggering …
Our final day today before returning home today and so we finished with huskies and dog sleds. Overnight the weather had turned and about 5 centimetres of snow had redecorated the area. In the UK the entire nation would have ground to a halt in hysterics; here nobody blinks. It was quite warm because of …
The Ofoten Line is the most Northerly railway line in the world, some 150 miles inside the Arctic Circle. It was built to transfer iron ore from the massive mines at Kiruna to the ice-free port at Narvik. We travelled on the passenger service on this line (the original Polar Express) from Narvik to Kiruna… …
We sortied last night in our coach to go Northern Lights hunting. The probability forecast was poor, and to be honest, I really didn’t think we were going to see anything. How wrong was I?
Good Morning Svolvaer, Lofoten Islands, Norway In Winter, every self-respecting Cod Fish in the world heads for the Lofoten Islands (that’s where we are now). If you’re a Cod-About-Town, there’s only one place to be seen and you’re nothing if you’re not there. Without Cod, humans wouldn’t live on these islands and that’s not an …
I spent yesterday rambling on about myself rather too much, so let’s rebalance that today. Never mind me, what are my clients interested in? Today we travelled by coach and ferry along the Lofoten Islands from Bodø to Svolvaer (pron Swole-ver. Told you Norwegian is tricky). ALL the pictures below were taken by my clients …
As you know, Tour Managers are immensely highly paid, earning many Millions a year and doing very little for it. Just occasionally, God laughs at us and sends down a day where we have to earn our pay. Today was that day. For those interested, one of my clients snuck a candid photo of me …
Today, after a really massive breakfast we enjoyed a guided walking tour of the rather pretty city of Trondheim with our local guide, Brice (pronounced ‘Breese’ - nothing in Norwegian is pronounced as it might be expected to be by English speakers). The weather was sunny and a brisk -1 degree and after my nagging …
As a TM, you always get a little bit nervous before a Tour sets out. Anybody who tells you otherwise is either lying or doesn't care much about the job. There's always a worry that you've missed something crucial or will do something stupid. There's nothing quite like standing in front of 40 people and …
Today I've started prepping up my next Tour, The Northern Lights and Lapland, this time for Great Rail Journeys and I'm leaving next Friday. We head up the Atlantic Coast of Norway starting at Trondheim, rail to Bodø, road and ferry to the Lofoten Islands and Narvik and then a side-trip to Swedish Lapland at …
Continue reading "Preparing For Snow, Trains & Northern Lights"
TimOnTheTrain 