Oslo Recovery

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Geo: 59.9138, 10.7387

Initially, we had expected our Arctic adventure to be casual. Plenty of downtime, opportunity to relax and take it easy. It didn't quite turn out that way. Whilst it may have been one of the highlights of the trip, it turned out to be one of the most exhausting. Early starts every day, no sunset, daytrips everyday, plenty of hiking, even to get to the town for food it was a fair walk. Our time in Svalbard, sadly came to an end with a typically exhausting conclusion. We woke at 2am Tuesday morning in broad daylight, for a shuttle to the airport for a 4.10am flight to Oslo, getting in at 7am.
By the time we caught the metro train from Oslo airport to the city and found our hotel we were half asleep, queasy, half sick and jetlagged. Thankfully, we scored a free early check in at 9.30am rather than 3pm. This meant we even scraped in a free breakfast. For the remainder of the Tuesday we didn't even leave the hotel room. We had an afternoon nap, and free afternoon tea and evening meal in the hotel lounge. Norway is expensive, and the most excellent part about the hotel is the food inclusions with the room fee. Included; a buffet breakfast in neighboring restaurant, afternoon tea between 3 and 6pm, and 'light meal' between 6 and 9pm, the latter two in the hotel lounge on level 7. Afternoon tea is waffles, cakes or slices and the late meal is one soup, one hot dish (eg. Spaghetti or Stew), cold cuts, cheese, olives and a cake. This means that for our first two days, we haven't had to spend a cent on meals. We do a late breakfast, late lunch/ afternoon tea and late light dinner. The price you would pay for a reasonable dinner and drink for two in Norway alone, is equal to the price we paid for a nights accommodation in our hotel.
Today, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll about the city, starting from the nearby church and up the main street to the Royal palace. Palace tours were booked out, and we had seen enough Scandinavian palaces of late, so instead, a stroll around the corner to the Oslo History museum which proved very interesting. We spent an hour or so here, as well as time in the park in beautiful 22C sunshine and blue skies. After our afternoon snack we had a light gym session and I continued trying to teach Natalie to play chess. Shes getting there. Tomorrow is going to be another nice day, our last in Oslo, so we will be out and about. Trying to take it easy and we are both tired. Nats cough is getting better, and we are on the mend. In a couple days we are looking forward to staying with family in Holland.

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Comments

[Mum]

Got your package on the 9th and one of the steins is broken!

[tofor85]

Glad youve got it. So just one is broken? At jan and linas now. Saw john and jeff yesterday so that was a nice surprise. Get skype going!