EUROPE BLOG May 14th, 2023 - OSLO to IRELAND

5/14/23- We wake up at 4am for our 7:55am flight to London. This will be the first of two flights as our second is scheduled for the afternoon. It was cheaper to book a round trip ticket to Oslo to go this route with “don’t-give-me-no” SAS airlines, but we will have to pick up our bags in London and recheck them in.

Kelvin is ready earlier than expected so we walk the 6 minutes to Oslo Central Train Station and board the Flytoget (airport train) to the airport. The cost is quite high (around $21 per person) but it gets us there in 20 minutes.

Checking in is simple as we use the electronic terminal to get our bag tags and self-bag drop-off. From there, we continue to our gate (which happens to be the furthest gate there is – F34), and take a seat. It’s still 2 hours before our flight so we have time to relax and chill.

Around 7:15am, the flight crew comes in like a scene from “Catch Me If You Can” with the pilot strutting along and the flight attendants laughing and giggling behind him. Soon after, the gate attendant rushes in and informs everyone that they need to leave the gate to be checked in properly. Seems odd but we all comply, and wait about 10 minutes in the lobby before she confirms our ticket and passports. Another 10 minutes goes by and when they open for boarding, we all just go right in. A bit disorganized but it works.

The plane ride is smooth as I slept most of the 2 hours, and once at London Heathrow, we go through passport control (which is the 3rd time this trip here so I’m very familiar now). Our bags are already waiting for us at baggage claim, and soon after exiting we find the lift back to departures to check into our next flight.

Security is a breeze and of course our gate is not available yet due to it being 4 ½ hours early, but we have lounge access with Aer Lingus so we go straight there. Wow, behind closed doors opens up a quiet room perfect for relaxing and taking a much needed load off. They have complimentary WiFi, breakfast, coffee, snacks and a bar with soft drinks, juices, wine, rum and even cognac. I bring Kelvin a Guinness Beer and his eyes light up like, “These next few hours just got more interesting”.

We take full advantage of the lounge with soup for lunch and taking some extra snacks for the plane before we get our gate number for our next flight. As we wait for boarding I notice our group is Aerspace, which is their first class section, and are delighted when we get the front seats on the plane. I’m so happy I’m able to give this experience to Kelvin as he literally can’t believe it all.

The flight is a short hour as we’re treated with a meal and more drinks, and touch down at Shannon airport in Ireland around 4:15pm. After getting our bags, we find National rental car right outside the baggage claim exit and pick up our car. I originally reserved a manual transmission, but after thinking about having to drive on the opposite side of the road I pay the difference for an automatic (which turns out to be a brand new SUV). I can live with that.

We finally reach our hotel around 5:30pm or so (Kelvin is amazed and freaked trying to get used to me driving on the left side) and settle in for the night. We think about going out but the lounge gave us so much food and drinks that we are just spent. Besides, we were able to plunder quite a bit to last us a few days.

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