Oslo and Fog.

7-12-15 OSLO, NORWAY: Our flight from EWR to OSL was delayed an hour due to gate changes at Newark Liberty, and the plane having to be towed to the new gate. So we arrived at Oslo a little late because we supposedly made up time on the flight. The flight was quite smooth. I think the airlines give themselves a lot of leeway in the predicted arrival times to help their stats.

Our trip is to Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago 300 miles north of the top of the Scandinavian peninsula, and tonight we are to fly to Longyearbyen, the capital on Spitsbergen, the largest island. Tomorrow we board our ship, Akademik Sergey Vavilov, for cruising up to 80° N Latitude, close to the Arctic ice pack. We expect to see polar bears, walruses, seals, lots of Arctic birds, and maybe whales and narwhals.

After a day on the Oslo waterfront and a short harbor cruise, we came back to our hotel for a nap before the evening flight. We checked out walked across the street to the airport and went through security to find our flight on SAS was canceled. Apparently Longyearbyen is fogged in and even an earlier flight had to return without landing. Our bags had been checked through from Newark to Longyearbyen so we had to reclaim them and then take a bus to the hotel where SAS is putting us up. We are here until the weather relents.


The hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded.

Displaying the flag.

City Hall with swans and a nice clock.

Street scene.

National Theater is also the name of the train stop. The train looks like a bullet and zips from the airport to downtown in about a half hour.

Street ped mall with lots of bistros.