Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Friday, August 15th, 2008
The day finally came for our departure from Norway. The apartment inspection was fairly cursory – undoubtedly a good thing but still annoying when you’ve spent a lot of time cleaning! We then drove to the airport and returned the hire car for the final time. We were flying BA as their midday flight was the most convenient. We weren’t particularly impressed by the “fast” bag drop which took over 45 minutes. The check-in staff did, however, manage to move my seat. I was on a separate booking to Christine and Emma and had the mistake of checking in first only to discover that I then couldn’t change their seat online.
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Posted in Family, Travel | Comments Off on Ha det Oslo
Friday, August 8th, 2008
655With some of my vacation still to go we decided to be tourists in Oslo for 24 hours by purchasing an Oslo Pass. This entitles you to free entry to a whole raft of local attractions. Many we have already visited on previous visits to Oslo so the following is not a definitive list of Oslo’s greatest attractions.
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Posted in Arts, Family, Travel | Comments Off on Oslo Tourism
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
646Sogndal was our decision point: should we continue north to Geiranger or start the journey eastwards back toward home. Geirangerfjord is supposed to be perhaps one of the most impressive fjords in Norway but we decided that we were all fjorded out and opted to take the tourist road over the mountains to Lom instead. This route is definitely worth making part of your itinerary – particularly when the sun is out as it was for us. The views across the Jotunheimen mountain range were stunning.
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Posted in Family, Friends, Travel | Comments Off on Back over the mountains
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
637Next stop from Bergen was Gudvangen where we were staying at Gudvangen Camping in another hut. Sat on the balcony of our accommodation we had a great view of the waterfalls tumbling down the cliff face opposite – all the more so when the sunshine was replaced by an impressive thunderstorm in the evening. It was hard to believe that the road we looked out over was the main route from Oslo to Bergen, particularly as the traffic seemed mainly to consist of empty tour buses!
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Posted in Family, Photography, Travel | Comments Off on Trains and (more) fjords
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
622Our first choice for accommodation on the outskirts of Bergen had fallen through and we picked Riplegården Sommerpensjon in a bit of a rush. We were a bit dismayed when the guy showing us around proceeded to tell us not to leave our car up the road otherwise the windows would get smashed and about the drug addicts they had to throw out in the winter. It also transpired that most of the accommodation was taken by long term residents so, poised ready to leave, we waited to see who came home from work. As it turned out, everyone was very nice and, although in need of a good clean, the pensjon actually made a good base for our four night stay in Bergen and did, as promised, have a good view over the fjord from the balcony.
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Posted in Family, Travel | Comments Off on In and around Bergen
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
616Having waved goodbye to Christine’s Mum at Geilo station the next leg of our journey took us away from the railway and up on to the Hardangervidda plateau. Perhaps due to the bright blue skies overhead it didn’t look quite as bleak and barren as I had imagined it to be. It was a pleasant enough drive though with some nice white peaks in the distance and the odd glacier to add to the scenery.
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Posted in Family, Food, Travel, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Mountains and fjords
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
610We had always planned to take some time off to explore Norway towards the end of our stay here and, with practically no-one left in Oslo to work with, the end of July seemed like a good time to go. We had thought about getting the train across to Bergen but practicality prevailed and we decided to drive the hire car across. We still intended to make the most of scenery though by taking the R7 throught the Hardangervidda.
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Posted in Family, Travel | 2 Comments »
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
604Christine’s brother Ian, and his wife Sarah were our latest guests. They arrived on Thursday night on the late flight from Bristol. Fortunately they had a good day out at the beach in the sun on Friday (whilst yours truly was working) because come the weekend the weather wasn’t so kind. On Saturday it was just threatening and we managed a walk out to UllevÃ¥lsetter but the heavens really opened up on Sunday. Our Oslo itineries don’t cater for bad weather (unless you’re a fan of museums) so we just walked around the city centre sheltering from the showers when we could. This provided my first chance to take a good look at the new Opera House up close. It’s an impressive beast and I must try and get back there with the camera when the weather is better. Ian and Sarah timed their departure just right as we got soaked getting back to the car from seeing them off at the station. They took with them some of our belongings – a sign that it’s now less than a month to go before we return to the UK (and that we’ve accumulated a lot of stuff whilst we’ve been out here!)
Posted in Family | Comments Off on Oslo in the rain
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