Well, I finally made it out to Norway yesterday. The journey itself was pretty uneventful – nobody blinked at the size of my bags and the only hold-up was whilst I worked out how to start the hire care (it seems you need to put the clutch right to the floor in a Yaris before the ignition will even turn). The sun was shining as I drove down to the IBM office and the temperature a positively balmy nine degrees. Although there was plenty of snow in the fields around the airport there was little in evidence in the city centre and none further south. Sadly the weather took a downturn today and the rain has removed the white coating from the hills surrounding the city centre.
I’m staying in the Scandic Edderkoppen for no good reason other than it was the first that came up after I’d lost patience with the IBM internal travel tool. They seem to have taken the options I selected when booking of not being on the first floor or adjacent to the lifts to the extreme. I’m tucked away at the end of the corridor on the top floor! Hopefully accommodation hunting will commence soon as there is barely space for me and all of my stuff in the room.
The hotel parking made me glad I only have a compact car. The steep entrance ramp is curved and only two metres wide and it was only when leaving the car that I realised that this was also the pedestrian access and exit. Makes me want to take my chances parking on the street. Driving hasn’t been too stressful, partly due to my new sat-nav (of which more in another post) and mainly because I’ve been heading in the opposite direction (out of the city in the morning and back at night) to the huge queues on the E18.
So apparently you’re working in Nordics for a while. Who knew?! (not me until a couple of days ago).
Enjoy.
We’ve just bought a Yaris and had that “feature” explained to us. At this point the non-PC part of me would like to think that the main demographic of Yaris owners is female and therefore removing the ability to start the car in gear with clutch engaged is A Good Thing 😉
Good luck in Norway, bet it will be a breath of (quite literally) fresh air!
Good luck with the house-hunt!
Thanks guys.
@Adrian – as someone who usually leaves their car in gear then I’m used to putting the clutch in when starting. Unfortunately this just demonstrates how loose the clutch probably is in our car as I just wasn’t pushing hard enough. It’s particularly annoying as I’m struggling with a bad back and that action seems particularly painful.
Dave,
I glad that you finally made it there. While searching for accomodation make sure that you will have to find a place with enough room to put up any friendly aussies that might be wondering through.
cheers,
Neil
@Neil – at the moment it looks like we’ll be lucky to get anywhere at all so I’m not sure we’re going to be able to be that choosy. What are the aussies wondering about anyway? Where they might a spelling/grammar checker?!
Dave,
I think the aussie will be wondering where they might FIND a missing word or two to share.
cheers,
Neil
@Neil – you’ve got me there. Although, I could of course go back and edit my comment…