The Long Trip Home

 Annie arranged for the restaurant to open at 6:30 so we could have a meal before our 7:30 departure.  A bus transported us the short way to the airport where the single gate agent began weighing and tagging our luggage.  We met up on the other side to wait for our plane that would to us to Bodo where we would switch to a larger plane for our flight to Oslo.  We only had fifteen minutes to switch planes, which sounds like a tight connection but the airport is small and proved to not be an issue.

Upon landing in Oslo we said our goodbyes while people went their separate ways.  We made the executive decision to stay at the airport hotel,  The Radison Blu was steps away from the airport which meant we could sleep a little longer tomorrow.  After dropping our bags, we took the very efficient train located right outside the hotel to Oslo so we could collect our bags we had left a week ago.  Before hand, we had our lunch/dinner at Olivia a block away.  

Gathering our bags, we had a few last goodbyes as people passed in front of the Grand Hotel.  We caught the train back to the airport where we turned in early for our 7 am flight from Oslo to London Heathrow.  It was quite a walk to our gate, having to pass through passport control along the way.  Several of our group joined us on the flight.

We had several hours in Heathrow before our flight to DFW.  During our stopover we visited the American Express Lounge which is small but not too crowded.  We had an unpleasant surprise while we waited.  Dallas was expected to have storms on Thursday night so our flight to Tulsa was canceled.  I booked a room at the Grand Hyatt, located in the airport because I didn’t want to look for something upon our arrival.  

We had a pleasant surprise once on the plane.  a flight attendant we visited with on our way over was working our flight home!  The flight was pretty uneventful although we definitely encountered turbulence as we neared Dallas.  A storm was directly over the airport which meant circling for two hours while we waited for it to pass.  We got to our room a little before nine and went directly to bed.  The next morning we had time to have breakfast before boarding our final flight home.  To say our travels had been exhausting was an understatement.  However, arriving in the morning allowed us to unpack and start laundry while trying to stay awake to beat the jet lag. 

In conclusion, Norway is a beautiful country and well worth a visit.  I think I would enjoy it in the summer too although the possibility of seeing Northern Lights is gone.  We’re looking forward to our next adventures.

For now, goodbye and happy travels.

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