A long couple of days

I arrived in Oslo after midnight, just two hours short of two full days travelling.

QANTAS had not been able to check my baggage through to Oslo, only to Heathrow. There were explanations, but none of them seemed very compelling given the original booking had been made months ago, and has been fiddled with a few times since. That meant clearing immigration and customs, then going to the departures hall to check in again. I was told checking in wouldn't be possible until four hours before the light, in some nine hours time.

Faced with the prospect of sitting around at Heathrow and doing something much more interesting, I arranged to meet my son for lunch in Rochester. In one of those moments of travel serendipity, when I got to Rochester station, across the tracks on the other platform was my daughter-in-law waving madly at me to attract my attention. We had a little chat, and I managed to get to her platform just before she needed to get on to her train heading into London.

I had a little time to kill and thought that it would be an opportunity to explore Rochester Cathedral. This wasn't to the. For some reason, the cathedral was closed until later in the afternoon. So I wandered around the cathedral and then along the High Street to entertain myself while waiting for my son.

We had a nice lunch at a cafe called the cheese room, after which we went back up to Daniel's place and then I headed back to the station and then went to the airport.

That was so much better than just waiting around all day at the airport.Read more