We’re Home

Saturday, 16 July
Latitude at departure from Oslo: 60°19’42” N
Latitude at arrival in DC: 38°56’50” N

Hard to believe that our two-week trip to the Norwegian Arctic is over. Our days were filled with adventure, exploration, and fun. That’s probably why they whizzed by at the speed of light. I’m ready to re-pack the bags and go right back. Since that’s not possible, however, I’ll just wrap the trip up with one last post to bring us from Norway back to the US.

Up at 5:30a, we were ready to go down to breakfast an hour later. The post-cruise package I had booked at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia included breakfast. Not your ordinary buffet with a limited selection of offerings as we found out yesterday morning, but a really extensive one offering many different kinds of cereals, cheeses, meats, breads, pastries, fruits, juices, local specialties, and hot dishes. A real smorgasbord to start the day out right.

Our original plan had been to take the train to the airport, but as luck would have it, maintenance got in the way of that idea. No problem; we found out about it before we left the US and I booked an open reservation for a time of our choosing on the Flybussen instead. (Discounted from NOK140/person to NOK115 [$25 vs $20], including tax, when purchased online.) The best part — the shuttle bus left from our hotel! Can’t beat that for convenience.

We made ourselves comfortable on the 7:30a shuttle and were soon on our way to the airport. The bus made two stops en route to pick up passengers — one at the bus depot downtown; and another one at a parking lot somewhere on the freeway. Even with that, the ride to the airport was under an hour. Having little to no traffic early on a Saturday morning helped I am sure.

The airport was crowded, with a long queue for check-in. While Mui waited in line, I attempted to use one of the self-check kiosks, but I simply couldn’t get it to recognize any of the requested information as being valid. So, we had to do things the old-fashioned way by waiting our turn to talk to a desk agent. 30 minutes later we were checked-in and on our way to the security checkpoint. Though this line snaked around, it moved fast and we made it to Gate 53 without further ado.

The gate area was much too small for the number of passengers waiting to board the plane; there was quite a crush of people milling about. Boarding was quite messy since it wasn’t done by calling rows. In any event, we were in our seats by 10:45a. SK Flight 907 was wheels up at 11:20a, winging us back to the US. In our two-together seats, we enjoyed the amazing scenery of mountains, and glaciers, and fjords until the Airbus 330 climbed above the cloud deck, leaving us with just a view of a puffy white sea stretching out to the horizon.

Farvel Oslo!

Clouds and mountains from 36,000 feet (11,000 m) in the air.

(I decided to process the photos I took out of the porthole in B&W because the Plexiglas was scratched up and “foggy” :-( … oh well; I like them better this way anyway.)

Once we reached cruising altitude, lunch was served — a small salad of field greens; medallions of pork and potatoes in a creamy sauce; crème brûlée (more a vanilla pudding really). Quite reasonable for airline food.

Afterwards, Mui did what he usually does on a long-haul flight — surf the entertainment channels before settling in for a snooze. I did a bit of surfing of my own, but the audio was really bad, so I gave up on watching anything. Instead, I reviewed my Oslo photographs to weed out the really bad ones and took some notes for the blog.

With the laptop put away, I took out Cold Recall, the book I had purchased at the Fram Museum. I was soon lost in the words, imagining myself right there with Amundsen and his men as they made the trek to the South Pole. I have to say that the book is a good quick-read with images from the lantern slides Amundsen used during his lecture tour following the expedition. I’ve read other books on the subject, and sometimes they get a bit heavy, if you know what I mean. But because this book is based on the manuscript of the lecture, the words are simpler, more succinct, and easier to follow.

I had the in-seat screen set to the moving map. When that map showed that we were over Greenland, I turned to the porthole to see what I could see. Beautiful; we actually had breaks in the clouds and were able to catch glimpses of glaciers and icebergs peeking through. Now my interest in visiting this ice-blanketed land has really been whetted. But I have to find the right itinerary first!

Once past Greenland, the clouds moved back in below us, dashing any hopes of seeing bits and pieces of Newfoundland and Labrador. So I focused on finishing my book before it was time to land. We were wheels down at Newark International at 12:45p and through passport control 20 minutes later.

Luggage in tow, we went through customs, re-checked our bags, and continued on to the Continental counter to get boarding passes for the final hop home. Here we got caught in the Continental-United post-merger net while the agent tried to figure out which flight we were booked on. Luckily, our reservation was intact; the problem was determining what the new flight number was. After about 10 minutes, boarding passes for the flight operated by Colgan Air clutched in our hands, we were on our way to the last security checkpoint of our travel day.

Welcome to the US — Newark International.

Flight 3262 was delayed over an hour. But once we were finally airborne at 4:00p, the 40-minute hop aboard the Dash-8 Q-400 was uneventful and reasonably comfortable. Things went smoothly after we deplaned at Dulles. Our bags were on the carousel by the time we negotiated the maze through the airport, and getting a cab was easy as usual. Even the traffic cooperated. By 6:00p, faced with an empty larder at home, we were having dinner at Sweetwater Tavern, one of our favorite restaurants.

Wheels down at Dulles International.

When I post this blog entry, the adventure that took us from 38° North to 80° North and back will be officially over. No wonder I’m having a difficult time clicking the “Publish” button. I don’t want to let go. But like all good things, this one must come to an end. There will be other adventures. So for now … farewell, and as the Immigration officials say to returning US residents, Welcome Back Home!