Day 4: All aboard!

Whoo hoo - it's Ferry Time!!

Sunrise in Trondheim.
The view from our hotel room at around 10am

Today's adventure has us leaving dry land and embarking on the main part of our trip, a 5 day/4 night passage on the Hurtigruten ferry, taking us from Trondheim all the way up into the Arctic Circle and finishing up at the port of Kirkenes - and the snow hotel!   It's also our best chance of catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights - the further north you go, the better is your chance of seeing them.  We just need to keep our fingers crossed for clear, cold nights....

The ferry was not due to leave til 12pm so didnt have to get up too early this morning.  Obviously we were eager to check out what all the fuss was about for the buffet breakfast ("best breakfast in Scandinavia!" as voted by Breakfast Enthusiast magazine) and I was determined to break the fish duck.

Selected meats.  And trees.

I'd like to point out that those are potatoes.

As you tell from the pics, finally there were copious amounts of pickled, preserved and smoked feeshes on offer (a veritable picnic, Mumsie!).  I had a bit of the salmon - and it was delicious!  Well worth the wait!  The rest of brekkie was equally yummy and my ManpanionTM thoughtfully squirreled away some bread in his pants pocket, Napoleon Dynamite-style, in case of a carbohydrate shortfall emergency later on in the day.  Fully foccacia-ed up, we checked out and headed off to the ferry terminal.

Finally!  Bring on the feeeeeeesh!!

Treacle tart for breakfast??  These Norwegians sure know how
to party.....

We got a cab over to the terminal, even though it was a fairly short walk, as the pavements were a bit slushy so we didn't really fancy lugging our bags through it.  The first sight of our Hurtigruten ship, the MS Midnatsol, was impressive - you get the sense that is a ship that doesn't fuck about.  Built to withstand the Norwegian winter and, hopefully, any potential icebergs that might come our way.  Our ship's name translates into Midnight Sun - a bit ironic given we are at entirely the opposite end of the solar calendar right now, having just had the winter solstice!  If you are interested in learning more about either the ship we are on or the Hurtigruten ferry, here's the weblink: 

https://www.hurtigruten.com/

Thar she is!!  Our home for the next 4 nights!  Please
don't sink!!

Boarding was super easy (just walk up the gangway!) and the reception check-in desk was just inside on the right.  Unfortunately the boat was full so there was no chance of upgrading from our Unspecified Polar Inside Cabin, alas - but at least we tried.  Fortunately my ManpanionTM folds up into a small space, so I'm sure we'll be fine.  The lady at the desk gave us our room cards and we also opened up an account so all our on-deck purchases would be charged to it.  I know it will make it way too easy to not have any idea what we are spending but what the hell.  At least we'll just get one enormous sticker shock at the end, rather than multiple little sticker shocks throughout each day!

Intrepid ManpanionTM about to board

We were in cabin 441 on the 4th deck, just round the corner from the reception desk so it was easy to find (even for me).  We'd obviously checked out our accommodation online before the trip (hence the vain attempt to try and upgrade to something less tiny), so it was with some degree of trepidation that we slotted the card in the key and opened the door.  Here's what awaited us on the other side.....

No problem!  It was, as expected, completely tiny but it actually managed to absorb all our stuff and have a couple of storage drawers left over!  When needs must, its amazing how little space you can actually get by in.   And its fun on a boat too as everything has to be designed with that function in mind, so I always get a kick out of the little touches that are just different, like the latches that hold the cupboard doors shut so they don't swing out in rough seas (easily amused, I know).  

Each day, the itinerary is printed up so you can
see what you'll be missing as you sleep
in your cabin

We'd worked out a system so that Matt would go off and explore the ship while I unpacked, and then vice versa - this way we wouldn't be tripping over each other and getting in each other's way and getting cranky.  It worked beautifully - after his initial reconnaissance, my trusty ManpanionTM had scoped out where the bar and restaurant was, as well as the little gift shop and the main viewing decks and lounging areas.  When it was my turn, I also discovered where the gym and sauna were, as well as the laundry room and the deets behind the wine package option for dinner.  What a team!

On the envelope we'd received when we checked in were our assigned times and seating for our meals.  We'd decided to go full board, thanks to a good tip by A&K, so didn't have to worry about potentially not being able to get into the dining room because of a lack of space.  We were the second seating for both lunch and dinner (1.30pm and 8.30pm respectively) and. as we found out, sometimes that means they have run out of stuff by the time we get there.  So far there's been plenty to eat despite not having all the choices all the time, so we've not gone hungry (plus our caloric intake is far far exceeding our caloric output at the moment!).  Lunch was a buffet and was actually pretty tasty.  The ship and crew are very hot on hand hygiene, given the potential for contagious nastiness given the density of people, so as you swipe your room card to get into the dining room, a crew member pumps a dollop of hand sanitizer into your hands.  Of course, its not going to stop all the nasties, but its got to help and it was nice to see them taking health and hygiene so seriously.

Hot tub, anyone?

After lunch, we were both knackered (it really is kinda weird trying to adjust to the lack of light here, especially when jetlagged) so we decided it was post-prandial nap time.  Unfortunately, we slept through the rest of the daylight (as much as it was) so by the time we woke up, it was pitch black again outside!  We decided we should probably try and confine our napping to the 20hrs out of the day where it was dark, rather than the 4hrs of meagre sunlight - but ManpanionTM loves to nap, so we'll see how well we stick to that over the next couple of days....

Allegedly it was around 6pm (though time pretty much loses its meaning when its this dark for this long!) so we hauled our asses up to the viewing deck ("what a great view of the dark!") and I blogged for a bit, then ManpanionTM and I strummed a few songs on Baby M before dinner.

Bye bye Trondheim!

Dinner was assigned seating again (hellooooo, table 64) and we met our fresh-faced dining companions, Mark and Annisa, a young couple from DC who seemed to be doing exactly the same itinerary as we were (Oslo, train, Trondheim, Kirkenes) minus the snow hotel.  He is a forensic scientist, she works in a clinical trial lab on biomarkers, so it was nice to share a table with fellow science geeks.  Annisa revealed that she didn't eat fish, so we all commented how completely buggered she was going to be over the next few days.  Dinner was OK - the first course was some spelt with haddock, main course was duck-substitute chicken (the duck was off because it was..well, off) and dessert was some heinous disgustingness, seemingly made out of seaweed and sadness.  I did not care for it.

And, with that, we played some more cards (I won!), drank some more wine and finally headed off to our cabin around 10pm to watch a movie and clock up some more sleep time.  Alas, no Northern Lights made an appearance - but we have another 4 or so nights for them to show up, so not all is yet lost!!

Our route

Instructions for fart containment in tiny cabin,  Essential to
prevent your ManpanionTM from becoming a Stankpanion TM.

Not to be confused with safety instructions for evacuating the
vessel in an emergency.

Dinner!
Sea buckthorn.  Not to be confused with Sea Biscuit.
Though Sea Biscuit would probably have tasted better...

Random facts of the day:

Sunrise in Trondheim: 10am

Sunset wherever we were somewhere along the coast of Norway: unverified but sometime between the hours of 2pm and 4pm

Day 3: In search of Chili Bollocks....

Day 3: Oslo – Trondheim

Today's schedule has us transferring from Oslo to the port of Trondheim where our Hurtigruten Ferry adventure is due to begin and our search for the Northern Lights begins in earnest!!

Oslo Central Station.  Purveyor of fancy baguettes and trains.

So just in case you ever happen to be passing, Oslo train station is very fancy – its impeccably clean and with a myriad of shops that make me feel as if I’m back in the UK (Upper Crust, Boots, Ritazza coffee etc etc).  Of course, the prices are still eye-wateringly Norwegian but, given my maths is a bit iffy at the best of times, I’m not 100% sure of what I’m paying at any point in time anyway, so it feels as if it really doesn’t count (like calories consumed only by the light of the fridge door).

Pretty Christmas decorations in the station

Our train was scheduled to leave at 8.02am so we had to get up fairly early.  Breakfast didn't start properly til 6.30am at the hotel, but they had thoughtfully set out some bread, meats and cheese and jam for the early birds to forage on, so we made a couple of wedge thick sandwiches to chow down on to keep us going.  The bread was delicious - why can't we get bread this good back home, dammit?!  It really was a very short walk to the station, so we got there by about 7.15am, so had enough time to buy some food for the trip (huzzah for Upper Crust baguettes) before boarding the train just after 7.30am.

The train was as clean and well maintained as the station.  We had assigned seating, so didn't have to worry about fighting with the masses to get seats together.  I'd also booked us into Comfort class - so the seats were a bit roomier plus we got free coffee and tea for the whole trip!  The whole trip was scheduled to take just over 6hrs, getting us into Trondheim around 2.45pm.  The route would take us across the center of Norway, so we'd get to see some of the beautiful interior as well as the stunning coastline.  We'd been on the train for about an hour and a half before the sun finally rose up high enough above the horizon that we could see it, and it cast this beautifully delicate, sometime pinkish looking tinge across the landscape.  It was quite lovely.  I wouldn’t say it ever got to a full on daylight, rather more an enthusiastic twilight.

Unfortunately its a bit tough to take good pictures from a speeding train with smudgy windows, so I don't have many great pictures from the journey, I'm afraid.  I did have the realization about halfway into the trip, though, that we were basically traveling through forests and forest of Christmas trees, that were perfectly dusted with snow so that they looked exactly like the fake ones you stick on top of Christmas cakes.  I like this country.

Which came first?  Scandinavia or Vermont?

Trees a-plenty - with the sun just peeking up above the horizon

The ManpanionTM is awake!

Adorable houses litter the countryside like architectural confetti

One of the stylish, chocolate-box picturesque train stations en route
to Trondheim

My peaceful reflections were only occasionally interrupted by Satan Child, whose parents had also booked into Comfort Class (presumably with the hope of trying to keep it happy) but for whom the promise of free coffee seemed to do nothing to allay the full-on screaming tantrums it would throw at regular intervals.  "NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!!" it would yell LOUDLY.   We looked it up - "nein" is not even Norwegian for "no" so god only knows what that kid was yelling.  Perhaps he'd been kidnapped and was yelling for help.  We'll never know.

Anyway, the journey was very relaxed and easy.  I spent a couple of hours blogging while my manpanion(TM) slept.  We spent his limited waking moments eating chocolate Santas and enjoying a plastic glass of cava in the buffet car to celebrate our holiday (I know - bit of a thin excuse, but that's just how we crazy kids roll!).  Bang on time we arrive into Trondheim and, again, our hotel is only a 5 min walk from the station.  There was a bit of snow on the ground but not too much, so it only took a bit of effort to lug our cases through the station and across the street.

ManpanionTM and Oscar P. Lion in perfect harmony.

The beautiful town of Trondheim

Again, I was expecting our hotel to be a bit crappy (I don't know why) but it was pretty swanky!  The Hotel Scandic Nivelden was also well located with only a 10min walk into old town.  By the time we checked into the hotel, there was only about a half hour left of daylight, so despite being knackered, we dragged ourselves out to see the cathedral before it got completely dark.

Nidaros cathedral

Nidaros cathedral is the largest and northernmost cathedral in Scandinavia, built over the tomb of St. Olav.  The oldest parts are from the 12th century, though it had to be rebuilt in parts several times due to fire.  For the history buffs among you, here's the link to some more deets about the cathedral:  http://www.nidarosdomen.no/en-GB/  Unfortunately by the time we got there it was pretty dark and was closed, so we couldn't go inside (though we did hear someone inside banging away at the organ, which was nice) but it was good to see it.  We walked around for a bit more, exploring, but the whole town seemed very dead and sleepy, with most of the shops closed.  Presumably this was because of the holiday season, rather than regular life in Norway, given it was only mid-afternoon on a Monday!  It is a bit odd - we're walking around, there's nobody about and its completely dark - and its 4pm!

The famous flying buttocks of Nidaros cathedral

Matt practices for his alternate career as
a traffic crossing attendant

To keep ourselves going, we stopped and had a coffee and sat outside, wrapped up in our warm coats, under a heat lamp with a fleecy blanket draped across our knees.  It felt very Nordic and daring.

So, after wandering back along the river and admiring how beautiful the town looked, with the lights reflecting in the water, we got back to the hotel and completely crashed out.  Unlike my manpanion, I hadn't slept at all, so it was starting to catch up on me, so I pretty much passed out from 4.30pm to 7pm.  

Waking up, we both felt much more human again, so we headed out to find food for supper.  Yelp had served us well yesterday, so we decided to consult it again for today's selection - and found ourselves intrigued by Bare Blaber which offered the following description:

 "Join the throng that packs both the interior and dockside terrace of this popular place over near the Solsden waterfront area.  Its renowned for its cocktails, shorts and juleps - and for preparing what many believe to be the finest pizzas in town, including the intriguing chili bollocks (presumably a wintertime special)" 

Chili bollocks??  Well, that just sounded like an offer we couldn't pass up - plus it was again just a short walk from our hotel, so off we went in search of said frosty balls.  We found the place with no probs and grabbed a menu - but bollocks to the bollocks!  There was no such thing to be found!  It was all obviously a marketing ruse!  (or instead a description of what to expect on the walk over to the restaurant?).  They did, though, make spectacularly good pizzas, so with only the most marginal assistance from the waitstaff, I picked a Bacon-themed one and a chorizo pizza - and both were delicious!!  Very thin crust which was crispy and chewy and very tasty!  Washed down with some icy cold dry cider, and dinner was a success!

Duly stuffed, we waddled back to the hotel around 9.30 or so - to find that our gaff had become completely jampacked with lots of earnest looking types in fairly smart attire attending a jazz festival (JuleJazz or something).  We did contemplate for a brief moment or two bringing our Wicker Park/La Grange hipster groove to the throng and going down to join in the festivities but post-prandial sleepiness combined with jet lag had us saying bugger it to that idea in fairly short order.   So instead, it was Ocean's Eleven on the hotel movie channel.  Tomorrow, we need to be at the ferry terminal by midday, so at last we get to sleep in for a bit!  And - apparently - our hotel has been voted as having the best breakfast buffet in town, so I'm sure the pickled fish quotient will have significantly improved by then!

Pretending not to be cold as we sit outside and drink our coffee
just like the locals...

Umm...OK.

OK.  Are we sure we're not in Disney Epcot version of Norway?
This is almost too picture perfec to be real!

Another picture of... um.. perfection

Looking for the chili bollocks.
Finding only delicious pizza.

Our swanky-pants waterfront hotel

Day 3: Scores on the doors:

Pickled Fish Quotient: remarkably still a 0 (though I suspect this may be broken tomorrow!)

Bloody Hell Its Cold Score: 2 (a bit nippy walking around town, with some definite pretending not to be as cold as you really are in places)

Trondheim sunrise: 10.01am

Trondheim sunset:  2.40pm (that's a whole 4hrs 39mins of daylight, kids! count 'em!)

Off In Search of the Northern Lights!

Day 1/2: Chicago – Oslo

Oscar P. Lion and D.Mouse heading off into
adventure.
(Emirates jet purely for show)

It’s here!!!!  It’s here!!  Its Boxing day and we’re finally off on our grand adventure Chasing the Northern Lights!!  My first overseas trip with the man I love and one that coincides with our 5 monthaversary – and its going to be a corker!!  We’re heading off to Norway, by plane, train and automobile (and ferry and husky and snowhotel), following in the footsteps of the lovely A&K and taking the Hurtigruten Ferry all the way up north into the Arctic Circle, in hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis and some spectacular star gazing!  Its not going to be a fancy trip (our cabin on the ferry is almost laughably small) but it should prove to be breathtakingly beautiful with incredible scenery and stunningly festive landscapes. 

I’d spent Christmas evening at Matt’s place with the kids (he lives in the ‘burbs about 35mins drive west of Chicago) so at around midday, we said good bye to them and headed back into the city.  A quick stop via DSW and REI for boots and gloves, we got home around 2pm to enjoy a late lunch with Mumsie.  Mumsie is very kindly looking after the cats and house while I’m away – she’ll be spending the 8 or 9 days we are away figuring out her suitcases, ready for her return back to Cyprus mid-January.  It’s a thankless, Herculean task.

Anyway, after a quick post-lunch nap, it was time to finish up the last bits of packing, hail an Uber and head off to the airport.  I’d decided we should start our first international vacation together in style, so had ordered us a nice big Ford black SUV thing, so we had plenty of room for all our gear.  Given it was only 4pm on a Saturday afternoon, the traffic was very light so it only took a half hour.  We checked in our bags at the SAS counter with no line, made sure she stamped “PRIORITY” on our boarding passes so that we could fast track through security.  

The line to get through the security wasn’t that terrible – but it was moving fairly slowly.  I thought I’d initially made a Good Queue Choice, but it soon turned out I’d make a Poor Queue Choice and had failed to notice the Indian chap with a thousand children a few people ahead of us.   OK, maybe not a thousand, but he definitely had at least 5 which, at one point, all lined up in front of the scanner, tallest to smallest which was mildly entertaining.  It must have taken him and his whole entourage a good ten minutes to get themselves through the checkpoint scanner and, without any exaggeration, he must have used about 30 of those bins to corral all their stuff in.  At one point, he had so much stuff he was trying to jam through the machines, he ran out of conveyer belt to put them on, so instead single-handedly invited the new Olympic Sport of Airport Scanner Jenga, seeing just how many bins he could stack on top of each other without the whole amount coming crashing down.  The entire clan were being shepherded through the airport by an attendant of some description – she made absolutely no attempt whatsoever to hide her disdain with the entire protracted process.  I think she must have set a new world record for the number of eye rolls and bored glances per second.  

Playing for our hordes of adoring fans in the
SAS lounge

Anyway, finally they managed to get themselves squeezed through and out the other side, then a couple of minutes later we were through.  We’d overachieved on the Leaving Enough Time So We Don’t Have To Rush At The Airport front, so we had a good couple of hours to kill before our flight was due to leave.  Fortunately, due to my Extremely Important Status with United, we were able to access the lounges, despite traveling *gasp* Economy.  So we first checked out the SAS lounge which was nice enough, but virtually deserted and roastingly hot.  We camped in there for a bit with some pretzels, a nice Oregon Pinot Noir and Baby Martin, Matt’s travel guitar.  We sat in a little alcove (probably the old smoking area), joined by Oscar P. Lion and D.Mouse, and quietly picked away at a few tunes for our new band, TomatoTomato.  I’m sure the other folk in the lounge deeply appreciated the impromptu concert that was going down (who wouldn’t want to hear an acoustic version of Space Oddity, right?).  After a while, the excessive heat drove us to seek comfort in the cooler, far less friendly (but with better food) Swiss lounge.  After 10mins, we decided we preferred the SAS lounge, so back we went.  By this stage we only had about 20mins left before it was time to board our flight to Stockholm, so time for one last glass of wine before heading to the gate.

Yes.  We traveled economy. 

Yes.  It was quite cramped and shockingly devoid of flat beds and champagne.

But yes.  We survived.

Each Economy seat came with a flannel plaid shirt included.
Nice touch, SAS.

The flight was fine in that it was very smooth with no turbulence.  Despite the fairly cramped quarters, Matt managed to get some sleep while I tried, and failed, to nod off, so instead caught up on my celebrity gossip and repeatedly failed to crack level 572 on Cookie Jam.  My other main focus for the entire flight was Colonic Deflation Prevention.  Mumsie – maybe eating all those Boston Baked Beans the day before/of our flight wasn’t the best pre-flight meal plan I could have chosen.  Ah well. 

 

Which brings me to the First Rule of Flight Club: Don’t talk about Flight Club.

Which brings me to the Second rule of Flight Club: If I suddenly veer off in a different direction after a long flight and walk away from you.  Do not follow me.

Snow!  Down below!!!  Hellooooooo Oslo!!

After days and days and days (OK, about 8hrs) we finally arrived in Stockholm – and STILL no snow!!  What is going on?!  It did feel a bit chilly as we disembarked from the plane but fortunately we transferred immediately into the terminal building, so were not yet in need of our thick heavy coats that we’d packed away in our checked baggage. 

We were both pretty knackered by this stage – it was about 11am local time, so 3am in our heads but we shuffled through the terminal, passing through the immigration checkpoint fairly quickly (“just passing through!”) before we then ground to a halt for what seemed to be an entirely pointless security checkpoint.  WHY?  Why do you need to screen our bags and shoes and miniature musical instruments again?  We’ve only just got off the plane!  And, if its so vital, why do you only have 2 people manning one tiny scanner and a total of about 7 bins?!   But,  ah well, such are the vagaries of travel so nothing else to do other than wait patiently until we finally shuffled through and were out the other side. 

The enigmatic shops at Stockholm airport.  Wonder what they sold?
(fortunately they didn't employ the same sign-writers to let people
know where the loos where....)

By this time, we had just over an hour to wait until our flight from Stockholm to Oslo which, as I’d discovered while watching the in-flight map, was annoyingly back the way we’d just come!  We’d flown over Oslo on our way to Stockholm so it wasn’t that long a flight, just 50 mins or so.  Stockholm airport was very nice, with some fancy shops and, most importantly, several coffee shops so we refueled a bit and sat around like zombies until our flight.  It was lucky we made sure we were at the gate early – the flight wasn’t supposed to start boarding until 12.30pm, according to our boarding passes, but at 12.15pm, they opened up the doors and by 12.31pm announced that boarding was complete and we were off!! 

We finally arrived in Oslo just after 2pm and, because we’d already cleared immigration when we’d arrived in Stockholm, we just decamped off the plane straight into the arrivals hall (finally, that bit made sense!).  Our bags had the good manners to join us less than 20mins later and, after figuring out the best transportation options into the centre of Oslo (Airport Express train), we were finally on the last leg of our very long journey!  The train was supereasy and deposited us right into the centre of Oslo, the Central Station.  We took a cab to our hotel, the Clarion Hotel Royal Christiana, which was only 5 mins and $20 away (as we found out later, it was only a 2min walk from the hotel, so the cabbie obviously took the scenic route – ah well).  I was expecting it to be a bit crappy, but it was actually pretty nice, so that was a pleasant surprise.

The standard here in Norway appears to be twin rooms (chaste bunch, obviously, the Norwegians) but I managed to sweet talk the fresh-faced trainee who was checking us in at the hotel to switch us to a double room (or as he phrased it “the twin beds pushed together, ya?”).   So it was with much relief that we finally checked into our room and collapsed in a heap on the bed, asleep almost before our heads touched the pillows!

Well, hello there, friendly toilet.

The bed was very comfy (although by this stage, I think anything would have felt comfortable as long as I could lie down on it) but the doubleness of the bed curiously didn’t extend to the duvets, which were still twin bed sized, with two of them neatly tucked side by side.  (its actually pretty smart if you think about it – no more disproportionate stealing of duvets and the ability for individual temperature control!).  It also became apparent why this room was available – it was a mobility-assisted room so the bathroom was ginormous with a very interesting looking loo contraption.  I wasn’t sure whether to sit on it or shake its hand.  The general bathroom friendliness continued with a note printed on the top of the mirror above the sink which read “YOU LOOK GREAT”.  It was very kind to say so, but I can assure you, dear blogwatcher, after a full day’s traveling with bugger all sleep, I was not looking, in the least, great.

We slept for a couple of hours til about 6pm then dragged our unwilling, jetlagged asses out of bed, showered the grime of the journey off us til we vaguely resembled human beings again and then headed out into Oslo to explore and find something to eat.  I’d looked up places online via Yelp and my guidebook also recommended this place called Café Sara which was about a 10min walk from the hotel and was described as “dark but warm English-style pub serving a hearty mix of Norwegian dishes as well as pizzas, Turkish and tex-mex,  The house special is a meat stew with corn, rice and potatoes – perfect for a cold winter’s night”.  Alrighty then  - sounded perfect to us (despite the lack of an H), so off we crunched out into the night.

We were bundled up to within an inch of our lives and were very grateful for the various fluffy animals adorned about our persons, so it was a nice amble to the pub-restaurant.  I discovered I’d forgotten my inner liner gloves (doh!) but at least I’d remembered my hair conditioner this trip (see Barcelona blogpost).  I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up some suitably Norwegianly patterned ones at some point during this trip, so I’m not too bothered about it.  

Anyway, Café Sara’s was excellent, as advertised, and the food was very tasty.  We shared a delicious steak, smothered in some cheesy topping with yummy potatoes and a thick brown gravy, as well as a very juicy, succulent chicken skewer with pita and salad.  It was just the right amount of food for our confused, jet-lagged tummies and washed down with a flagon of crisp Bulmers cider, our restoration was complete.  Our adrenaline system got a nice jolt too when the bill turned up – this was one of the most modest priced places to eat but the check was still an eye-wateringly expensive $100 for the two of us!  Even the cheap eateries in Norway are not what anyone other than a Norwegian (bar, perhaps, the Swiss) would call cheap.  But c’est la vie – it is what is is.  After dinner, we wandered back to the hotel and had one final beverage in the hotel bar, staffed by a very chirpy hostess, before agreeing we’d done enough to have stayed up til 9.30pm and that it was, finally, time to call it a day and head off to bed. 

Last line on the menu,  Sounds fair.

The blissfully dark, welcoming interior of Cafe
Sara.  Norway - you are shaping up nicely.

Day 1 and we did good.  Tomorrow, Trondheim!

Vital Stats of the Day:

Oslo sunrise: 9.19am

Oslo sunset:3.17pm

Pickled Fish Quotient: 0 (none consumed)

Holy Crap Its Cold Index: 1 (warm and toasty throughout the day)