Ireland day 1217. Monday 27 January 2025- Oslo Day 1

Today’s summary	Caught the bus from Malahide to the airport then took a flight to Oslo. I’m staying here in Norway for a few days of R&R while Val is away skiing. A very straightforward flight and transfer to the hotel by bus and train across Oslo. I’m staying in a nice spa hotel and made use of all the facilities in the evening, then room service dinner and call to Val afterwards. Lots of snow, but wet
Today’s weather	Overcast and threatening to rain in the morning in Dublin, though it stayed dry long enough for me to catch the bus without getting wet. Moderate southerly wind. Appx 7c. Calm and snowy in Oslo. Appx 0c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where I walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

A day with a difference today. With Val away on her travels, I didn’t want to miss out on the excitement so I had gone ahead and booked myself into a short break in Oslo. It might seem like a strange destination for this time of year – especially for someone like me who isn’t terribly keen on cool damp weather. But I hadn’t been there for at least 50 years (apart from a fleeting transit through the airport in 2019) and I thought it would be a fascinating place to go back to. I don’t have any specific plans – I’d like to see some of the museums and art galleries, depending on what’s open at this time of year and on the weather – and of course relax in a sauna!

I had a good journey to Norway. A noon flight meant catching the 102 bus to the airport from Malahide at about 9:15. Passing through the airport was fairly straightforward although for reasons I don’t understand, my bag had to go through the scanner three times. That slight delay still left plenty of time to get a coffee and croissant as I made my way to gate 106.

The flight was good – the plane was only about half full – and actually left a few minutes ahead of schedule. I had worried slightly that we might fall victim to the vicissitudes of Storm Herminia – the latest meteorological mishap to hit Ireland – but it turned out to be a non issue.

A couple of hours later and I landed in snowy Oslo. But sadly it’s not the nice fluffy snow of years gone by, but more the wet stuff that turns to dirty mush after a few hours.

I was off the plane and through immigration in double quick time – despite having to have my passport stamped, as we Brits do nowadays. Then, it was only a short wait for the super-slick train to whisk me (at considerable expense – NKK 252 or about €20) into Oslo city centre.

From the train station it was a bit of a faff trying to find where the no 84E bus went from, but eventually, with a bit of Google-mapping, I located it down a side road about 500m from the station.

The bus was quick and efficient and I managed to get my “Ruter” app working so I could buy an online ticket. After about 30 minutes I pitched off the bus into the middle of nowhere, in the dark and a heavy snowstorm. Fortunately, my hotel, “The Well”, was just across the road – exactly as Google had said it would be. My only difficulty was in clambering over the snowdrifts in the verges, obviously left by the snowploughs when they cleared the road, to get to the other side and the hotel driveway.

Anyway I eventually made it and got checked in. Where I’m staying is actually a spa hotel so I spent the evening relaxing in the facilities (which were numerous) then later on a quick video call to Val in Switzerland, and a room-service burger.

Tomorrow I’m going to head back into Oslo to do a bit of touristy stuff. I’ll report back afterwards, but in the meantime it’s all systems go for Norway!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Super-speedy train arriving into snowy Oslo Central Station. Even here, the platform isn’t as cold as Connolly Platform 6!	Downtown Oslo, hunting for the bus. Thank goodness for Google Maps!

Walking in a winter wonderland (at least I was once I’d negotiated my way across the road via the snowdrifts)	My hotel – “The Well”

Room service. The burger felt well-earned. An evening in the spa is such hard work	View from my hotel window just now. Trees and snow and that’s just about all!

The driveway to my hotel