Day 1 - Oslo

Initial view of Norway

Our flight was several hours late, but entry into Norway was easy.  We approached from the north, so my first view of Norway included snow.  This soon changed to green farmland as we got closer to Oslo.  After a quick passport check at immigration we found our luggage and headed for Customs. When we got there we found that you only had to get in line if you had something to declare, so we followed the people just heading towards the exit. The Regent agent was waiting there and we had no problem finding him.  He directed us to a meeting place where another agent directed all the Regent passengers to the bus.

It was a 45 minute drive to Oslo. They let off two couples at the Grand Hotel and took the rest of us to the Skandia KNA.  The setup for greeting us at the hotel was not as good as we experienced in Auckland last year, and the room was no where near as nice as the one in Auckland.  The bed was comfortable enough for us to get a few hours sleep before dinner, but the rest of the room was pretty basic, with no amenities. The only things in the bathroom besides towels and tissue were liquid soap and shampoo in dispensers.  The air conditioning was almost non-existent.

We went down for dinner about 6pm. It was crowded with both our group and another tour group, and only 2 people to wait on tables, so it was almost 9pm before we finished and went back to our room.  All we had were Caesar salads, and it took that long!

We were very tired, but we stayed up until 10:30 so we would be able to sleep through the night and get onto Norway time.  Tomorrow is boarding day.