Got. To Oslo Day 8 - The journey home

Today was a sad but a happy day. Sad that our journey was over but happy that we were going home. I missed my wife and my home comforts. Again, Mauro and I woke up early and headed for breakfast. No fishy pancakes this time. Thankfully they were replaced by meatballs, Scandinavia's other staple food... well it is if you go to Ikea. Sadly they weren't as tasty as theirs so I could only stomach a few.

We had a lot of packing to do before we left for the airport, not just our clothes and stuff but also the bikes. After a gash appeared in the box when we got to Gothenburg I was going to make sure it didn't happen again. I had to match up all the bits of foam tubing that I brought with me to the various parts of my bike. I managed to piece it all together again. Off came the pedals and handlebars. The wheels came off and the skewers protected. Actually, I think I packed it better this time in a car park better than I did at home before we left home. The wheels certainly fitted back in the box better than they did before. After the bike was packed I used so much tape around the box reinforcing it everyone started to laugh. You can never be too careful though. Nothing worse than it splitting and all the contents coming out.

Bob was coming back from Gothenburg this morning but we were meeting him at Oslo's main airport. We packed his bike and then loaded up the van. Amazing that we got all the bikes and all our luggage back in there. I swear there was more stuff than before even though Shaun had gone home yesterday. Then again we did have Fred's bike with us but it wasn't in a box as he was driving back to Gothenburg after dropping us off at Oslo Torp airport.

We set off ahead of schedule. First stop was Oslo's main airport to pick up Bob. Amazingly enough, when we got there and went into the car park there he was and we were able to get on the road again straight away. We had to go back the way we came and back through to Oslo before heading North to Oslo Torp. Luckily the journey was all by motorway and so although we had around about 60 miles (100 km) to go the time passed fairly quickly. We passed through a number of tunnels through hills which you don't really see at home.

Arriving at the airport we unloaded the van and bade our farewells to Fred. It was sad to see him go, as it was with Shaun the day before, but he had to get home again himself. Again, we had fun putting bikes on trollies and trying to navigate them through airport doors. Because we were early the flight hadn't even opened up for booking in. Luckily there was someone there from the UK behind one of the service desks and he got it opened for us. I weighed my big bag and found I was almost a kilogram over my weight allowance. Had to remove stuff from it and pack it into my rucksack. Sorted!!! We then booked ourselves in and put the bikes onto the large luggage conveyor.

With a couple of hours to spare we just sat in the café area. Had to take out some more money out of the hole in the wall. Ended up spending most of it on a hotdog, a small container of Chinese food and a small packet of sweets. It's the one thing I won't miss about Norway... the prices. Don't think I will ever moan about them over here in the UK again.

The flight home was a chance for me to update my notes of the past week. It was amazing to see how Norway looked from the air as we rose into the air. You could see vast expanses of trees and lakes. I guess the stereotypical view of Norway. Soon, land changed to water as we crossed the North Sea. After that it didn't seem long till we were ready to land at Prestwick.

We disembarked the plane and went to pick up our luggage. Before that we had to go through passport control. Tom went through and then came back again. The little boy, Jack, whose name we were doing all this in, had a teddy bear and we had taken him with us on our journey. We got passport control to stamp his little teddy bear passport so that we could then give it back to his mother. It probably doesn't seem like much but we knew that Jack's mum would appreciate it.

Luggage all collected we headed through to arrivals. Mauro's sister was there with her kids and his dad. They had a banner welcoming us home which was fantastic. I must admit I had a bit of a tear in my eye when I saw my wife. My mum and dad were there too with my niece Lucy. It's always nice to go away to interesting places and meet wonderful people but when all is said and done there is no place like home.