Day of Departure

Its Monday morning at 3am I think as the alarm is quickly silenced. The bags are already downstairs waiting to be loaded into the big yellow bus so its into the shower and get dressed and on our way. The long stay car park seems deserted as we drive in following the directions we were sent when we booked the ticket. There's the airport bus we chorus as we go round a roundabout for the third time and realise we should have taken a left and not a right as the signs told us. Oh dear, the long stay car park is as vast as it is full, this is going to be fun! We pull into the first section an find a space near the bus stop, result. Just "lift the phone and dial for the bus" it says on the sign, no dial tone and none answering the phone. Nothing for it, we will have to walk to the terminal. I ask for the bosses bag to balance the loads out and she heads off to find a trolley which are all outside the chuffing terminal building! Into the terminal and baggage check-in, straight through and well inside the luggage limits for this leg of the journey. Up the stairs to security which will be a first for me as I haven't flown for quite a few years. I have heard all the complaints and wasn't looking forward to it. Take off your coat and empty your bag into a tray then walk through the scanner, three times in my case. Into the cubicle for a full body scan, no problems sir pick you coat and bag up and have a pleasant flight. Breakfast next and its only 4:40am, we sit around for a while and then the flight is called and its game on.
The flight was a lot better than I had expected and in what seemed like a very short time we were landing at Schipol. This flying malarkey doesn't seem as bad as I remembered. The gate for our next flight is at the other end of the airport. Schipol is a very big airport its also a very busy airport but very well sign posted. The time sitting at the gate seemed to pass very quickly as everything seems very new to me. Soon our flight was called and we boarded and headed for our upgraded seats to see if they really did have more legroom. They did and right next to the window which was handy as I had my camera out for most of the flight. Soon land appeared in out of the windows and the announcement came that we would be landing in 10 minutes. Gardemoen isn't as big as Schipol but they are doing a lot of work to double the size of the terminal which is already very modern. Passport control done and we are heading out of the terminal at 12:30 for our hotel for the next two days. The staff are very efficient and within minutes we are in the lift up to the 3rd floor to room 3402 which is lovely. We opted for the extra day so we had more time in Oslo to explore. Down to the airport train station and 20 minutes later we are in the centre of the city looking for our Tuesday morning departure point near the Town Hall. We exit the train station and head for the new Opera huset, it is a very new building and is covered with Carrera Marble and glass to look like an Iceberg. After taking a few pictures we got our bearings and headed for Kronprinsesse Marthas plass which is just to the side of the impressive town hall building that dominates the harbour. We spent a few pleasant hours wandering round the city center marvelling at the architecture and trying to locate a vegetarian restaurant we had seen in a guide book. Having struck out on the restaurant we headed back to the hotel and decided to have dinner there and plan our next days trip.