Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts

20 June, 2012

Day Two in Oslo

Well, I woke early, it was the suns fault rising at such an un-godly time!!! We had arranged to meet at 10am, allowing me to get a little 'sleep-in' (yeah right!). But instead, we got away at around 9am, and headed for some more spotting - but this time, it was some 'Ship Spotting'!

Mr C drove me around, he offered for me to drive, but NO WAY was I going to, as I wanted to see what there was to see, and I didn't want to crash his car!!!

We went to a spot that looks up the harbour and offers a nice view of the city centre and its surrounds. Luckily, there was a ferry coming upstream from Denmark, so I managed to snap it! I must say, the 'thrill' of ship spotting with me, isn't going to take I'm afraid...

Pearl Seaways

After this, we drove to collect Mr T. He was flying later in the day back home to Bergen. But, we had another full day of spotting to do, and first up, it was to the top of the ATC tower, some 94m high!

OSL Spotters

It was a great view from up there, and I am grateful for the experience. I managed to get a couple of good shots!

Icelandair


Korean Air Cargo

We then went to a total of about 6 different spotting locations around OSL airport! And this isn't all of them either!!! Throughout the day, we shot the usual suspects, SAS and Norwegian, but I also got a few of the bigger stuff we just don't get at home, Qatar and PIA!

Lupinus


Mr T


Fungi


PIA

It was another FULL on day, and after saying goodbye to Mr T, we headed back out for a little bit, before the fading light (clouds) gave in and we headed back to the apartment. I said my goodbyes to Mr C and thanked him for his hospitality, and I showered, changed and headed out for some city sights and dinner! I have found a little cafe bar nearby, good food and reasonably priced, so I headed back there. Afterwards, back to my apartment and after a quick Skype call home, I found some well earned sleep.
Hoo roo for now...
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19 June, 2012

Hello from Oslo!!

Yes, I know, I've been slack lately with my blogging, but I've not had much to really post about... Not that THAT is an excuse either, I've just been slack!

Anyways, as I write, I am on a train from Oslo to Kristiansand in Norway. My trip began many weeks ago, when I signed up to go to a conference. It morphed (over time) to include both a visit to the Prague Botanic Gardens in the Czech Republic, and also to the World Horticultural Expo in Venlo in The Netherlands!

It was a booking of sorts, that whilst fragmented, was a great routing... Let me give you the highlights...

Monday 18th June 2012

This saw me fly out of Sydney aboard one of the newest airliners SCOOT. They are a LCC of Singapore Airlines, and are using a B772; which is an ex SQ plane. There are NO bells and whistles at all with them, and this for me is OK, but I only wished that they had the moving map on monitors on the bulkhead walls. This would give me the situational awareness of where I am!

Anyway, I had a 'FlyBagEat' ticket in economy, which is pretty much that, I can fly, with a bag, and I can eat! The later of course you pay for! The flight was good, the crew were friendly ex SQ girls, and in just a shade over 8 hours, I was in Singapore. I had a 3 hour transit here, but due to a delay getting out of Sydney, it meant it was a 2 hour layover.

From Singapore, I flew with Finnair, which for me, was the second time I have flown with them. This flight was over 11 hours, and after a long laborious take off, I quickly nodded off, and only woke up for the breakfast some 2 hours short of Helsinki! I must've been tired!

Arrival into Helsinki was great, and it bought to a close the end of my long haul flights from Sydney - I just had a short, 90 minute, flight, to Oslo. Helsinki airport is very easy to get around, its clean and in typical Nordic blonde timber and lots of glass. I found my departure gate, and I was off again, this time on a smaller regional plane.

Tuesday 19th June 2012

My short flight across from Helsinki to Oslo was pretty much uneventful. The crew again were very polite and served me a coffee ex Helsinki. Our arrival into Oslo, as I had not been here before, was difficult in that I didn't know where the airport was! Soon enough, we were turning for finals, and I had it in sight. I was to be meeting up with some friends in Oslo, and even though I could not see them from my aircraft, I was actually sitting on the right side too, they got a photo of my arrival into Oslo!

I cleared immigration, there was no-one there, and before long, I was outside shaking hands with my Norwegian friends! I was asked IF I wanted to be taken to my apartment, but as I had slept almost the entire journey SIN-HEL, I was fine and we went straight out to meet up with some more local spotters and spot for the rest of the day.

Soon after, Mr C got a text message asking if the 'Kangaroo' had arrived, and not long after that, a van with two more people (and a dog) came out to welcome me!! Such nice people!! Anyway, we spotted and here are a couple from the day...

Estonian Air


Lupinus


Dandelion

I was driven into town to my apartment, and once I had my keys, headed downstairs and had a nice long HOT shower; it was SO refreshing. Soon, I headed outside in a much more respectful manner, to a cafe nearby, where I had dinner, a Norwegian beer, before heading home for a sleep. Oh, and I forgot about the Norwegian light, it was still DAYLIGHT at 11pm, and the sun was up from 3.30am!!!

So that is, basically, how I got here...

Hoo roo for now...
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