Norway Day 28 ~ Final Thoughts

We woke at 4am and got ready, grabbed a quick bite at the hotel, took the shuttle bus to airport, checked-in, passed through all the security and passport control, and waited for our first flight to Heathrow. We left/landed on time, hung out in the very nice lounge at Heathrow, boarded our second flight to Florida, and were home by about 8pm. An easy day, for sure!

Final thoughts……in no particular order…….

• We loved Norway. It is beautiful – with glaciers, canals, fjords, mountains, trees – weeks later as we finish the blog, we are still talking about it and thinking about when we can go back.
• We drove 5,400 miles. That is the equivalent of driving from Seattle to Miami to Denver. 
• We loved wild camping and the freedom of having no plans – and Norway is one of the few countries that makes wild camping easy.
• The camper was not in great working order, even being only a couple years old. We had issues with the battery, heater, leaks, propane not getting to the stove, broken cruise control, etc… We managed (and were compensated for the inconveniences😉), and we really weren’t terribly bothered by it, but it was disappointing because it was not an inexpensive rental.
• The food in Norway was terrible.  Before going, we joked that we’d be sick of eating cod all the time, but mostly it was a land of pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs. The best meals we had (at restaurants) were Thai and Indian, except for, maybe one or two. We had to search for cod, and then it was mostly fish-and-chips.
• We realized while writing this blog that we talk about sleeping a lot – it was one of the few (only?) vacations where we had very few occasions to get up early and we enjoyed sleeping later than typical.
• We ended up taking showers at a variety of places ~ campgrounds, marina, gas station, grocery store.
• We thought we’d hike more, Next time!😀

A few final photos - yep, some are repeats. ...

💗Norway💗

Norway Day 27 ~ A Day in Oslo!

We woke by 7am - slept well - nice to be clean – the rig - especially floor - could get dirty quickly. 

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel. We asked the concierge about getting an Uber to Oslo center (about 40 minutes away) -  she said that the traffic would be terrible and it would be faster/easier to take the train.

 So we took the airport shuttle bus to the airport…..

 

….then grabbed the train to Oslo…..

 

 

It was pouring rain when we got to Oslo, but onward we went……

 

We wandered all around….first stopping at the Royal Palace…..(still raining)

 

….we walked by the Nobel Peace Center….(still raining)

 

….saw tons of passenger ferries….(still raining)

 

….walked over many canals…..(still raining)

 

…checked out the Tjuvholmen Sculpture Park….(still raining)

 

…had lunch and our last skolebrod…..(still raining)

 

....walked and walked, enjoying the city views.... (still raining)

….walked to – and explored – the Akershus Fort – an historic castle and fortress that currently houses military personnel….. (still raining)

…passed floating saunas…..(still raining)

 

…to the Oslo Opera House,,,,(still raining)

 

At this point, we were soaked – our jeans soaked through to our skin, so we headed back to the train station, took the train to the airport, the shuttle bus to our hotel, and had hot showers.  Since the bathroom floor was heated, we laid all our soaking wet clothes on the floor overnight to dry! 😁

We (okay, Suzanne – Brad stayed out of the way) reorganized our luggage for our flight home tomorrow, had a light dinner at the hotel, and went to bed with a 4am alarm set for the next day.

Norway Day 26 ~ A Sad Day.......

We slept well, even though it was a bit warm. Both of us were truly sad that our Norway adventure is coming to an end. In some ways feels like we just got here, and in others like we have been gone longer than nearly 4-weeks. We really enjoy the wild camping and no plans. (Have we said that a lot? 😊) We had about a five hour drive ahead of us to find our last place for tonight……..

As we drove, in typical fashion of this trip, we changed our minds about where to go.…we were originally just going to find a place near the camper van offices for the night and spend Thursday morning cleaning, dumping, packing, gassing, etc…to return Master Renault by 10am the next day. But we didn't want to just be in some large parking lot for no reason and felt that our day tomorrow would be better spent with an entire day in Oslo, rather than just an afternoon (our original plan). We also really liked our last wild camping spot and wanted that to be our last night in the camper.  So we drove and dumped the toilet canister for the last time (14 times on all), got gas for the last time, and packed.

All the places we overnighted in Master Renault…………..

 

We returned the camper by 4pm, chatted with the guy way too long, and got a ride to the hotel where we reserved an extra night. 

We checked-in, grabbed dinner nearby - surprisingly good Indian food - and enjoyed long hot showers and a real bed. (That being said, the bed in the camper was very comfortable – but not the pillows.) 

 But we weren’t done yet…….

Today’s route…..

Norway Day 25 ~ The Southern Coast!

We slept okay - warmest night yet - in the 50’s. We had our alarm set for 7am and hung out with coffee/tea - both bummed that our time in Norway is winding down. We REALLY enjoy wild camping with no plans.

We finally got going around 9am…stopped for breakfast and continued onto Tonsberg – Norway’s oldest town – built by the Vikings in 9^th century – and meandered around the medieval fortress and grounds for a bit.

We drove to Riser and walked around for a while enjoying their harbor and 17^th century white painted houses…..

….well, except for the one rebel owner! 😆

 

There were fresh water spigots everywhere too!

We continued onto Arendal, which was much more modern and not quite as charming…..

 

…but had a parking garage built into a hill…..

 

We eventually ended up in Lindesnes at the lighthouse….

 

……with its beautiful views…

 

We then found beautiful wild camping spot down the road. When we arrived, there were already a couple of campers, so the nice couple who ended up being our neighbors for the night moved their camper a bit so we could fit. We chatted with them for a bit and then enjoyed our dinner.

After dinner, we walked along the Spangereid Canal, which dates back to the Viking Age.

Today’s route…..

Norway Day 24 ~ Driving the the Southern Coast!

We slept well, woke at 8am and after a leisurely morning, we decided to head to southern coast of Norway.

Clean clothes was our priority, so we ended up finding a lovely campground that let us stay for a couple hours to do our laundry. The weird thing – they had a washer for us to use, but the dryer was in the owners house, so when we asked about laundry, she told us that once the wash was done, to bring it to her and she would dry it. Ummm…okay… 😕

When Suzanne went to get the wash, it was still spinning and a different woman (who we are pretty sure worked there) said that she checked the laundry and didn’t like how wet it was after spinning, so she took the wet clothes, brought them into the house, re-spun them in her own washer, and then put them in the dryer. Suzanne offered to go with her thinking it strange to have some random woman drying our clothes, but the woman said no. Okay then….. About an hour later, the woman brought us our (almost fully) dried clothes….not folded. 😉

While all this was going on, we wandered the lovely campground by the river…..

 

…with a cool outdoor steam room….

 

…and just chilled and napped.

 

Back on the road......

.....we stopped at some point and had dinner - seemed like this day got away from us - what should have been a 4 1/2 hour drive to Tonsberg took us all day……

We parked around 7:30 in a quiet marina.....

View across the water……

Today’s route….