Our journey from Copenhagen to Oslo was in two parts, due to engineering works, just like home! The trip from Copenhagen to Gothenburg was going to involve changing trains four times and take several hours longer than usual. Our travel agents took pity on us and booked a bus connection which proved to be fast and comfortable.

We left at 8.50am and after a brief stop at the airport we crossed the Oresund Bridge familiar as the location of the first crime scene in the TV series “The Bridge”. Mid way across we entered Sweden and drove into the city of Malmö to the bus stop at the central train station.

The journey hugged the coastline for the next couple of hours and the landscape was generally very flat, reminiscent of East Anglia and the Netherlands. We reached Gothenburg right on schedule, just after 1pm. We had planned to have a leisurely lunch before our train to Oslo left at 2.15pm.

Unfortunately that plan was disrupted when Terry realised he had left his phone on the bus. Initial enquiries indicated that the bus had left and the only option was to register with the company’s online ‘lost and found’ service. As Jenny set about doing that, and Terry started cancelling his bank cards it occured to me that the bus was scheduled to return to Copenhagen at 2.30pm so, it must still be in the bus station and with it Terry’s phone. Peering through the station windows I spotted the bus, and the driver parked across the far side of the station. There were lots of high fences and signs forbidding pedestrian access, fortunately another bus driver took pity on me and, waving a hi-vis jacket escorted me across the bus park. The driver had found Terry’s phone and after teasing me that he was going to keep it he handed it over, probably pleased to avoid the inevitable paperwork it would have required to register the find. Crisis averted. We still had 15 minutes to spare before our train left.

The train to Oslo was very busy and unfortunately we were unable to find seats in 1st class, we did find four, rather uncomfortable seats together and the rest of the journey passed without incident. Looking out the window we watched the landscape change from flat farmland to much more rocky scenery with forrest and beautiful lakes and fjords. We crossed the border into Norway and continued heading North.

Oslo is a beautiful city and our hotel was right next door to the station and opposite the modern Opera House. A great location to start our 1-day visit. We woke on Monday to cloudy, threatening skies and decided to find something to do indoors. Oslo has a museum peninsula across the fjord close to the royal summer palace. Mark and I had heard about the Fram Museum celebrating the ship that made some of the pioneering exploratory trips to the Arctic. The museum told the story of several early expeditions including those led by Roald Amundsen. The stories were astonishing and well told with masses of expedition photos. The star exhibits were Amundsen’s boat Fram and the Goja, the first ship to navigate the NW passage, it was possible to go onboard both ships and experience the conditions the crews endured.

We also had time to visit the Kon Tiki museum, with another preserved boat and the story of Thor Heyerdahls perilous crossing from Peru to the Pacific Islands on a traditional raft.

Eventually it was time to get the bus back into town, after some down time at the hotel and dinner in a local pub we got ready for bed, looking forward to the scenic train trip to Bergen. More on that to follow.