Oh my – last weekend we had a lot of fun. If you get the chance – get to Norway. Just a really clean, organised part of the world. I didn’t realise that Oslo is a small city of just 500,000 people in total.
We spent the first day after arriving early on a British Airways flight leaving from the new (and now functioning) Heathrow Terminal 5. Landing at Oslo and catching the Airport Express Train to Oslo Sentral was all too easy. I started to get a feel for prices when my one-way ticket was NOK160 (roughly £16).
Early on Saturday we got into our hotel right in the middle of the city. After dropping our bags in a modern room we hit the streets of downtown Oslo. The first thing that surprised both Katherine and I was the lack of cars. Clearly it is seen as a privilege to drive on Oslo streets because no one is on them. Public transport is everywhere and I find out that it’s sister city is Melbourne – hence the familiar tram. I feel Oslo’s tramway layout is better in that the tracks run in the lane closest to the curb, with each stop constructed as what Melbourne terms a ’super’ stop. We tried to get to the Munch museum before it closed to see the recently returned ‘Scream’ portrait – only to find that ’summer’ opening hours haven’t started yet. We ended up walking the botanical gardens.
Saturday night we had a really nice meal (thanks Katherine) at Aker Brygge. I don’t drink a lot of champagne but Moët and Chandon is a nice drop. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and stumbled upon a really cool club that happened to be on the same street as our hotel – bonus. I don’t know how to say this subtlely but it’s true – Norway would be a single guy’s paradise.
Sunday was tourist day. After a visit to the very engaging Nobel Peace Centre, we toured the Fjord. A massive expanse of water. I want a beach house here. It really warmed up on Sunday while I hear South-East England was miserable. We came back to the hotel for a snooze that ended up being a full-on sleep. We ended up getting out after 9pm for dinner to find out that most Norweigan’s eat ‘early’ around 6pm. It’s funny the difference between the Scandinavians and the Spanish in their eating habits. Oh yes it was still light at 9:30pm – I’d hate to live here in winter.
Monday started well with a visit to the Vigeland Sculpture Park where Katherine and I had field day taking photos. Just so much going on in that park and the weather was perfect for photography. We gave ourselves plenty of time to catch our flight and our Airport Express Train didn’t let us down. The same can’t be said of British Airways. Unfortunately the plane was a late arrival into Oslo and meant that we missed our landing ’slot’ at Heathrow. I’ve never seen a captain front the passengers but what he said was first class and had me feeling sorry for him and the crew by the end of it. The thing that struck me was the lack of morale within the crew about their airline. With comments like ‘we may not get many things right’ had me a little concerned about the state of affairs at the national flag carrier. We ended up landing at 8:15pm delayed by 2.5 hours. We were home by 10pm and straight to bed – one long day!