Or part 2 of our Christmas break We spent New Year’s eve with friends of Paul in Southampton, which was really fun! Some photos of that can be found here and here. As the weather forecast was looking promising, we had booked 3 nights in a really nice cottage near Charmouth, on the Dorset coast just after New Year. The cottage was a converted barn, I loved it!! The photo below gives an impression of the cottage inside and outside, and some of the views. Can I live there?

We woke up to a sunny day, and drove to Seatown (not to be confused with Seaton, not very far away and also on the coast…), a small village right on the coast with access to the beach. It’s so beautiful there… the sand is a golden colour and there are steep cliffs next to the beach. But the reason people come here are the fossils! This part of the Dorset coast is nicknamed The Jurassic Coast, and is geologically really interesting. The cliffs you can see in the photo below (especially on the right) used to be the bottom of the sea, and are made of a sort of clay in which lots of fossils formed. The cliffs are continuously eroding, and it’s quite easy to find fossils.

Below you can see an example of a belemnite, a sort of squid (extinct now). The bit you find is the back part of their shell, which is shaped like a bullet. Some of them are crystallised very nicely!

Another common fossil that can be found here is the ammonite. I found the one in the photo on the left! It’s quite large, about 10 cm diameter. In the other photo Paul is trying to get a similar one out.

We had a really fun day searching for fossils, I was so fascinated by it! To finish our day, we climbed up to the Golden Cap, the highest clifftop (191 m) on the south coast of England, to watch the sunset – beautiful!

The next day we explored a different part of the coast, starting from Lyme Regis. The beach is very different here. At first it was rocky, until you get to this flat rock platform called a “wave cut platform”. There are some big holes in it that look like dinosaur footsteps

In the photo below you can see what the platform is really made of – LOTS and LOTS of ammonite fossils! They are very worn down, but it’s impressive to see so many! Further on you can find very large ones on rocks on the beach. Very impressive!

Just to give you a sense of scale, here’s one with my foot in it. Also showing how incredibly muddy my boots were from the previous day!

The next day it was time to head back… but as it was another beautiful day, we decided to take the scenic route home and see a bit more of the coast. Our first stop was Chesil Beach, a very long (30 km!) beach that is actually separated from the mainland. You can see it in the panorama below, taken from a viewpoint on the road.

The beach is made up of small stones and it’s tough walking on it. We walked back further inland, through very high reeds, with nice views of a ruin in the fields (the same one you can also see in the panorama above).

We then continued to Durdle Door, a famous rock arch. The coast there is spectacular!

We spent quite a lot of time here, and I couldn’t stop taking photos. The beach has a beautiful colour and it was just before sunset with very soft light.

A last view of the beach before leaving…

We drove the short distance to Lulworth Cove, just in time to watch the sunset. The rock formations are impressive, you can see all the layers. The second photo shows the village of West Lulworth, a nice little village!

This is the actual cove, or rather the entrance to it. The cove was formed when this entrance collapsed a long time ago, and let the sea come in.

And then it was time to drive back… It was a really beautiful trip! I’ve been wanting to see this part of the coast for a long time, and it didn’t disappoint

Let’s start with the good news: I found a job in Tromsø! I’m going to work for met.no as a weather forecaster. I’m really excited I’m not sure when I will start yet, as this also depends on the second person they are hiring (we have to do our training together). I’m so happy that I found a good job, and I am looking forward to “really” live in Tromsø (I’ve been a visitor all this time, unable to do the simplest things like opening a bank account). We’re also almost certainly going to keep renting the wonderful flat we are in now, but it will become unfurnished – we are excited about decorating/buying furniture. Yay!

I’ve had a busy week… on Monday I took the train to London, which takes only 1.5 hours. I met up with Tanja and her friend Mike, and after a pub lunch, we visited the Victoria and Albert museum. Quite a crazy collection of all kinds of things, very interesting. Below is a photo of Mike and I in front of the big entrance, and the beautiful cafe where we had a break.

We also went to say hi to Tanja’s biggest friend: the blue whale in the Natural History museum The museum is next door to the V&A; museum, and housed in a beautiful building. The photo below shows the entry hall, I love it!

On Wednesday I took a train to Lymington, on the edge of the New Forest. From there I walked part of the Solent Way, to Keyhaven and Milford on Sea. This walks takes you through an amazing landscape of brackish marshes on one side and the Solent on the other side. I always thought the Solent is a river, but it’s actually a stretch of sea. At this point, it is quite narrow and you can easily see the Isle of Wight on the other side. The day started out very sunny, but soon the clouds were increasing…

Some lucky people live in this beautiful old building in the middle of the marshes! This area used to known for salt works. Now the marshes are a paradise for birds. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right lens with me for taking photos of the birds, but I did catch these geese flying over.

The skies became darker and darker, until it started to rain quite heavily. In these marshes, there is nowhere to take cover so I got soaked. I didn’t mind though – I saw the best rainbow I’ve ever seen! Suddenly the sun broke through the clouds and the colours of the landscape became very vibrant against the dark sky – with a beautiful double rainbow as the icing on the cake

It briefly became quite sunny again after the shower had passed, but not for long. The tide was going down, exposing large muddy areas.

Near Keyhaven, there is a long spit with a castle at the end (Hurst castle). I could see it from far away, as well as “the Needles”, chalk cliffs at the isle of Wight behind it. I decided not to walk to the end of the spit though, as it was really windy and exposed and I didn’t want to get soaked again. I walked from Keyhaven to Milton On Sea to catch the bus back to Lymington. The public footpath was more like a small river, very wet and muddy. It had become very windy too, with some impressive cloud formations. In the photo below (on the right) I managed to get the reeds blurred as they move in the wind

From Lymington I took the train back to Southampton. I really enjoyed this area, Lymington itself is also a really nice looking town. I told Paul that if we ever move to Southampton, I want to live in Lymington – but unfortunately I don’t think I’m the only one, house prices there are rather high Anyway, no need to worry about that as we are now certain that we’re staying in Tromsø for at least another year

My youngest brother came to see me yesterday! There are direct flights from Amsterdam to Southampton, so it was an easy trip for him. We decided to visit Beaulieu, a village in the New Forest National Park, famous for its National Motor Museum. Beaulieu is of course a very French name, but they pronounce it as “Bjooly”. The museum was quite nice, but the most fun bit was “World of Top Gear”, an exhibition about the popular tv program, showing all the crazy cars they built, like this Fiat Panda stretched limo…

The motor museum is part of a large complex which simply calls itself Beaulieu. There is an old abbey, a palace, a monorail and an old bus driving around, all on a large area with nice gardens. Below are two photos of the palace. The second one is taken from the village of Beaulieu.

The village is really picturesque, I loved walking around there. I was quite envious of the people living there, what a nice place! Just look at the garden below, who wouldn’t love a view like that…

There are lots of ponies freely walking throughout the New Forest. We saw quite a few, also inside the village where they caused small traffic jams

Some more views of the Beaulieu river at low tide…

There is a really nice long distance walking path going through the village and following the Beaulieu river, I’d love to go back there and see a bit more. Unfortunately it’s difficult to get to Beaulieu, as there is no train station and only one very infrequent bus service. What I really need is a bicycle I guess

Last Saturday we picked up a rental car and drove to London. It was actually cheaper than going by train, which is pretty ridiculous! Anyway, we spent the weekend with Paul’s parents, and on Sunday we all went on a trip to Broadstairs. This is a small town between Margate and Ramsgate on the east coast of Kent, surrounded by seven bays with white (chalk) cliffs. We started walking from Botany Bay, the most northerly one.

This part of the coast has a smuggling history, and apparently Botany Bay is named after the smugglers who were sent to Botany Bay in Australia… (to prison, not on holiday ). I was really impressed by the chalk cliffs!

The cliffs are eroding fast, and you can find many caves. I took the photo on the left (below) from inside one of them. In the other, Paul and his dad are standing near the entrance of this cave.

A bit further on there was a (steep) path coming down between the cliffs. Paul called it the stairway to heaven because of the sunlight streaming through it (or because he found a toilet at the top??).

At the far end of Botany Bay, there is a cliff with a arch in it, large enough to walk through. On the other side is Kingsgate Bay.

The photos below are taken from Kingsgate Bay, looking back at the cliff with the gate in it. The cliffs in this bay have many caves, some very high up in the cliff. I found out later that they are connected by tunnels and were used for the smuggling activities. Some of the tunnels are still accessible, perhaps it’s best I didn’t know about this at the time

On the other side of Kingsgate Bay is Kingsgate Castle, built in the 1760s but now converted into apartments… what a place to live! We continued our walk through Joss Bay and Stone Bay. At Stone Bay, we took the steps up and continued on top of the cliffs. The photo on the right shows the view from up there.

Broadstairs is a very pleasant town, with nice buildings on the promenade. It was a sunny day and temperatures even reached up to 18 degrees, warm enough for an ice cream The bay in the photo below is Viking Bay. The man-made sand bank apparently protects the coast against winter storm damage, we saw a similar one in Botany Bay.

The photo on the left (below) shows the nice seaside promenade, with a lift (!!) going down to the beach and three stories of beach huts! On the right is the beginning of Louisa Bay, with a big newish apartment building. They have some courage building it right at the cliff’s edge, you can see they need concrete to reinforce the cliff. By now it was high tide and you couldn’t really walk on the beach anymore.

What a wonderful day! I really enjoyed it, such a beautiful place. I’ve always been fascinated by the famous white cliffs. Last year we went to Brighton to see them, but there is no real beach there and you walk on a concrete path underneath the cliffs. This was so much nicer!