Day 11 Manchester to Oslo

We both woke about 4am and were not able to get back to sleep, probably a bit pre-occupied with the impending trip.

In the re-pack the night before, our bags are sailing close to the weight limit, and a picture we bought in Harrogate really needs to be taken as carry on.  We are not sure how snippy SAS will be about our piles of luggage.

I had also decided to re-package the picture, as the cardboard surround is much larger than the frame, ideal for postage, but not really necessary for carry on.  So I was scritting tape and hacking cardboard at about 6.30am on the floor of the living room.  Bless Heather and Tom for being so tolerant 😊

We loaded all the luggage into the car, said a very sad goodbye to H & T and headed off.  It was only a 10 minute drive to the airport, and we had left in plenty of time.  Just as well, because there was no signage to tell us how to get to the car rental return, and we remembered too late that it was near terminal 3, missed the exit and headed to Terminal 2 in error.  Dora was no help whatsoever, and we did a few laps of a few roundabouts before I was able to fire up google maps and get us to the right place.  Car dumped, we hopped on the transfer bus with all our junk.  The driver was a grumpy bugger, and took off before I had got all the bags secured, so one of my carry on bags went crashing to the floor.  Just as well it was the one with nothing breakable in it.  We arrived at Terminal 3, and everyone except us got off the bus.  We sat there expecting it to continue to Terminal 1 where SAS leaves from, but Mr Grumpy informed us that this bus only went to Terminal 3.  “Says that on front o’ bus” he grumped.  Didn’t bother to tell us that is was only a few minutes walk, or where to find another bus, just waited grumpily while we heaved everything off and then roared off.  Git.  Turns out it was only a 5 minute walk, so I wasted a pound on a luggage trolley and off we set.

We eventually found the board which told us SAS check-in was desk 76, and headed off, only to mis-read a sign that said access to desks 80-108 were via stairs, and if this wasn’t suitable, we needed to follow the signs to the lifts.  Of course there were signs to desks 80-108, but we were looking for 76.  D’uh.  After much cussing, we found the right desk, the very kind lady behind the counter looked the other was as the scales tipped 24.5 kg on one bag and checked us in.

Time for breakfast and coffee, while we waited to board. 

Our first glimpse of Norway

By some miracle, we ended up in row 3, so were off the plan quickly, but then got stuck in a huge line at immigration, we could not E-gate our passports and had to wait for a human.  It took about half an hour for us to get to the front of the queue, and we were stamped and sent on our way with only two questions asked, how long did we plan to stay and what did we plan to do.  Easy peasy. 

By this time the luggage was waiting on the carousel and we did another pack and re-org to further cram the overloaded bag to put in a storage locker at the airport so we don’t have to cart it around Norway with us.  Of course, the only lockers available were on the top row, at lead height, so both bags had to be lifted up and squeezed in, plus the picture.  I faffed a bit with this because I was determined to get as much as possible in one locker.  J was very patient and helped be lift both bags twice, but at last it was in and we locked the door.  It requires a bit of faith, because you only pay for one day and then if you’ve used it for longer than that, you pay the difference when you come back to get your stuff.  Hopefully it will not spring open in our absence.

Then it was time to pick up the rental, super easy as it’s on the same floor.  This time we have a Citroen C3, which actually has a decent boot space for a small car.  Off we went, J driving, a manual car on the right hand side of the road in a country we have never been before, with no clue where we are meant to be going.  They have thought of everything, and there is a little area where you can pull over once you are out of the terminal building, so your GPS can acquire a signal and become useful.  Couldn’t be easier, straight on to the motorway, and nothing to do for about 26 miles.  Nice.  Time to get used to shifting gear with your right hand, and not grabbing the door handle every time you need to shift up or down.

And we are off …….

We pootled along quite happily, mostly, although we notice the speed limits are constantly changing, varying from 80, 90 and 110 on the open road, to 30, 40, 50, 60 & 70 in  other places.  We passed through the town of Notodden, which had a spectacular set of rapids/waterfall running through the place.  This is where things start to get interesting driving on the other side of the road. By now we were off the motorway and onto single lane roads with no median barrier, and lots of roundabouts.  Possibly distracted by the waterfall, and possibly also getting a little weary, we almost collided with a bus at a roundabout, as J forgot to look left to make sure it was clear.  He as only alerted by me screaming “bus BUS” and he slammed on the brakes just in time.  We missed the bus, and the guy behind us was able to go to the side and avoid rear ending us too.  Phew.  It was a bi sobering, and we pulled over for some deep breaths and a change of underwear.  I took a spell at driving at this point, yikes, and we headed on to our first tourist stop, the Heddal stave church, the largest of it’s kind in Norway.

Unfortunately it was closing at 5pm and we were too late to go inside, but we got lots of photos, hopefully some without people gawping at it.  It’s a stunner of a day, 25 degrees and sunny with a mostly cloudless sky.  

We carried on to our first accommodation for the trip, the Lovheim Gjestehus, a Bed & Breakfast in Sauland.  This sets us up for a long day of driving tomorrow as we head to Lysebotn.

We have noticed that the sun is also really high in the sky, so as I’m typing this as 8pm, it feels like it’s about 6pm on a NZ summer evening.