Looking for Sarah Palin

It's Saturday morning....a big day on our calendar as we are flying from Oslo to Kirkenes in order to catch a 6 day cruise down the western coast of Norway. I first read about this cruise last June in the Globe&Mail. The cruise departs Sunday. Been waiting a long time for this weekend to arrive.

We take the train to Oslo's airport....get checked in, drop off luggage and clear security. Cath tells me we are at Gate 15 and then catches me checking the departure board. I only took a quick glance because I thought it said 12:30 as our flight time when in fact we were flying at 9:00.

We sit tight at Gate 15 and suddenly my phone rings. I don't recognize the number so I disregard the call. A minute later the same number calls so I answer it. "Hello, Mr Dilworth? This is SAS at Gate 4. Where are you? If you are not at the gate soon we will have to remove your luggage from the plane."

"We are at Gate 15 and will be there ASAP." I check the time.....the flight was to have left 2 minutes ago. Guess they don't believe in paging customers.

Obviously we are the last to board what appears to be a full flight. Holy crap..how did that happen?

Two hours later we touch down in Kirkenes. We flew in a day early in the event there were flight issues on Sunday that would threaten our missing the cruise departure !! HA.....best laid plans, eh??

We have our luggage when suddenly another flight arrives and we spot passengers who were sitting near us at Gate 15 in Oslo. THAT explains what happened. Cath spotted info for a flight to Kirkenes....what she didn't realize was the info was for the second flight departing roughly 15-20 minutes after our's.

Whew. We're where we are supposed to be despite the near miss. Cath's Plan B was to buy tickets on the second flight if in fact we missed(got booted)the first flight !! She's very bright....just somewhat blind without her glasses sometimes !!

Kirkenes is in the far reaches of NE Norway and VERY close to the Russian border.So close in fact, that Sarah Palin would chime in and say, ?"I can see Russia from my backyard."

It is 3C here.....20+C back in Oslo. We get a shot of hail later in the afternoon after we had walked around town. The town sits on a fjord surrounded by snow capped mountains. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of towns like this over the next week.

Tomorrow....cruise day #1. Not sure how much internet we will have but will do our best to add stories and believe me, there's ALWAYS a story when we travel !!!

Pics...2 maps to show our location, 2 coming in to KirkenesRead more