It's Time to Go Home

Ah, the day has arrived. Our ‘go home’ day. We had thought about waking up today and shuttling back to the Oslo airport, leaving our bags in a locker there, then taking the airport express train into the city…but we decided against that idea. It would mean an early, rushed morning; it would mean hoping that there was a locker open; it would mean at least another $100 in public transportation costs; and it would mean walking around the same area of Oslo we previously visited. So instead, we slept in and enjoyed a slow start to our long Saturday.

I went to the Thon gym, “Thon Active,” to get my run in. Wyatt begged me to take him (he loves gyms), so I did. He played on the machines, which I’m fairly certain is frowned upon, while I ran on the treadmill. But I was impressed; he did sit-ups, planks, yoga ball stretches, the works. This kid loves to move.

Back in our hotel room, Taylor was just waking up. She got out of bed only because we told her there was limited time left in the Thon breakfast buffet. We joined all the other travelers in the breakfast area, getting one more yummy and filling meal before heading to the airport.

Sooooo, this Thon Hotel included Oreos in their breakfast buffet (!).

Nothing screams healthy like Oreos for breakfast.

We checked out of the hotel at 11am and paid our 120 krones for a ride back to the airport on the hotel shuttle. After checking in for our flight, we went quickly through security and out the other side. On the departures board, we read that our gate wouldn’t be announced until two hours before our flight. We had some time to kill before that two-hour mark, so we played several rounds of Rummy.

At the Oslo airport, walking around before sitting on a plane for several hours.

At 1:15pm on the dot, the departure board announced our gate, and we headed to the correct terminal…without realizing that all of the international flights left out of the same terminal! Now we faced a line at Customs. Our hopes for a sit-down lunch were dashed; we grabbed some kind-of-crappy sandwiches at a nearby stand and stood in the Customs line. We moved on through the line, had our passports stamped, and then walked toward our gate. We really only had about 20 minutes before we boarded.

Mostly smiles before we board the plane.

And then we boarded our Norse plane and settled in for the nearly 11 hour flight home.

Norway was an absolutely incredible vacation. The country is beautiful, the people are respectful and kind, and nature seems to rule. We’ll share some of our observations of Norway in one more blog post, but it’s a destination we would highly recommend. We felt lucky to have been able to visit varied parts of Norway – from the capital to the Lofoten Islands to a couple more historical cities.

Traveling in Norway in August worked out well. Yes, there were crowds – mostly in Stavanger and Bergen – but the weather was totally reasonable. We had a couple days of rain, but really the only bummer weather was the fog on our Pulpit Rock hike.

About 98% of the people we came into contact with in Norway spoke English. That worked out well for us, because trying to speak Norwegian was challenging!

We learned a ton on our trip, and will forever appreciate softis, Norwegian convenience stores, and the Thon Hotel breakfast buffet (and everything else about Norway).