Oh my, what a travel day!

Miles: 3.4 Steps: 8139
Flights stairs: 7

Today was CRAZY! I guess if we flew enough times we were bound to eventually have a really tough time of it. And today was it.

We had a late morning flight out of Amsterdam for Oslo. We were set to get to the airport about 3 1/2 hrs early (which we never do) but because of check out times and such, it worked. Figured we would get thru security, have a leisurely breakfast, hang out there and eventually meander to our plane. Easy peasy.

We were actually the first ones at the check in counter (it was a good start), got our backpacks checked (offered by the airline so why not) and headed to security - it was 11:00 and our flight didn’t leave until 1:40. We were sitting pretty. Then, we hit the unexpected lineup at security. It seemed a bit excessive, but weren’t sure being an airport we weren’t used to. Well, long story short, we waited in the security line for TWO AND A HALF HOURS. It was a first. Yeah. 2.5 hours. It was miserable. Met some really nice people in line, but still. They only had one scanner open - apparently covid left them with a labor shortage they haven’t recovered from. 2.5 hours!

Our flight was due to take off at 1:40 … so we made it thru security at 1:32 and RAN thru the airport to our gate. We boarded right at 1:40. Little did we know they were going to hold the plane trying to let as many people make it on as possible from line. So we sat in a hot airplane, with no air for 90 minutes. People were still held up at security and they couldn’t wait any longer, so they closed the doors short 100 passengers! But … it didn’t end there. They had to get all the bags of those 100 passengers off the airplane! - so pulled them off and sorted them, right there, outside our window. Chalk up another 60 min in the plane waiting.

So we stood in line for 2.5 hours, then sat in a very hot plane for another 2.5 hours. We eventually took off (had to pay an excessive amount of money for sandwiches on the plane as we never got breakfast and it was now well after 3:00 and were STARVING) and then had an uneventful, beautiful flight into Oslo.

Then we had to board a train to take us from the Oslo airport to the city center - 35 min ride, shouldn’t have been difficult. And of course, we boarded the wrong one! The nicest train conductor lady informed us of our error about 20 min in when we showed her our tickets - she got us off the train at the next stop, and headed back the right way. Yeah. Icing on the cake.

We got in so late all we could do was grab dinner and get to the hostel. Just staying one night here and heading out in the morning by train for the beautiful fjords — urghhh. What a day! Crossing our fingers for a better travel day tomorrow.Read more