Friday 18 October

Our room at the Scandic is very warm. The bathroom has heated tiles right through to the shower floor. This may sound lovely, however it is so hot on the tiles you cannot stand for long without shifting. Vern immediately felt he could get some quick washing and drying done of essentials, and it transpired that he was right.  Never one to miss an opportunity my efficient man.

I found a heater in the bedroom and promptly turned it off. It helped a little but not enough, so open went the nice big windows facing the pretty little harbour.  The windows stayed open all night and we were still too warm for liking, albeit our washing dried in record time in the sauna-come bathroom.

I slept soundly in between the usual wake up and Vern reported that when he woke at one point he had to close the windows due to a howling gale.  Pity I missed it as I love that sort of weather at night.  Little did we realise that wind would ruin the next stage of our holiday.

We had an early wake up and were well prepared (planning on paper each timing required right up to bag drop).  Our takeaway breakfast boxes had been ordered when booking months ago, and again on check in.  Despite this, the early breakfast lady knew nothing about it. She was very apologetic, and offered  me a couple of seeded buns with ham, cheese, a bit of salad and mayo, and a large apple juice each out of the snack fridge.  I quickly grabbed a coffee from the self serve area and off we drove the 6km to the airport.  It was raining and a bit gusty, however, nothing that we felt was gale force at this point. Car was dropped off, safe and sound with some sadness to leave the very comfortable Lexus behind.

After checking in our bags for our 7:15am flight and going through security the first announcement said the plane coming from Bodo could not land due to weather, however it was hoped the delay would not be too long. Next announcement was that the flight was cancelled and all consequent flights were full. On offer was a refund or a bus to Tromso (yay 6 hours on a bus) or to Narvik (2.5hrs) for ongoing connecting flights.

Either way, we were going to miss our special and much anticipated scenic rail trip from Bodo to Trondheim due to depart Bodo at lunch time. A slight note of explanation – I was aware that weather could disrupt ferries and flights from Lofoten.  We felt that flying would give us more options that the infrequent ferries, for example if the early flight cancelled then the option to get on a second flight. The flight time from Lofoten to Bodo where the train departs is about 20 minutes, so we thought that the first flight at 0700, would allow for the 0900 flight if things went wrong. Ferry crossings take around 4hrs for the fastest, and 6 hours normal. 

The theory was good, however, all other flights were full so we were not provided that option.  At this point I just wanted to have a meltdown and it felt like one of menopausal proportions.  I was so, so disappointed I just wanted to cry and couldn’t think clearly what we should do.  We have insurance for events like this, and I hope we can get it sorted once home. We also have a credit card and at times like this you just want to work out the best option for not ruining the rest of your holiday.

We discussed various scenarios and used the phone to see if we could transfer our train tickets to tomorrow. There was a train departure at midnight that we could have connected, however, I did not see the point of a scenic rail in the dark.  On calling I got informed that my advance cheaper purchase tickets (although first class) were not refundable or transferable.  Despondency was hovering close to settling in. Pushing that back we made the call to try and get to Alesund early and forget the train and overnight in Trondheim. We could have purchased new ones  and claimed on insurance, however, we would have lost a day in Alesund.

We asked the staff at Widerøe if they could assist us, which they kindly did.  We only had about 5 minutes until the transfer bus left, and were relieved to have the service staff transfer our tickets from Trondheim to Alesund on the 19th to today, and the transfer to Narvik covered the flight we should have been on this morning. 

View from bus, leaving Lofoten

As it happened we were fortunate to be able to join those dots as the plane from Narvik to Alesund (via Trondheim and Bergen) was 100% full.  Next item was to cancel the hotel in Trondheim, which was done easily and with a refund,  and book an extra night in Alesund.

The weather at Narvik was around 10 degrees with a good strong breeze of about 24 mps strength as recorded when we went over the bridge to the mainland.  We had about an hour till our first flight at 13:30 so we had a nice giant Norwegian hot dog and coffee and worked through our disappointment.

The bus trip was actually pleasant, no worries about scratching a car, and resigned to the days changes, both Vern and I nodded off (twice for a second or two) and rested well for the journey. Along the way the sun teased us by coming out a couple of times; I tried not to frown at her.

The weather in Trondheim (16 degrees) and Alesund is fine today, so the train trip from Bodo down to Trondheim would have started very dull and rainy but eventually fined up. At what point I am not sure, but console myself thinking that for the most part the scenery would be limited visibility, then dark, and it is likely that we have seen some of the most spectacular scenery already on holiday so we would not be missing much in that regard.  We do love a nice train journey, and it would have been nice to add this scenic one to our experiences.

Narvik Airport lounge

The flip side is that we will have a full day in the good weather tomorrow to enjoy the Geiranga fjord trip – if the forecast is correct. This is regarded as the most beautiful drive in Norway.  We also will not have another early start to catch the plane in Trondheim, so will have more charge in our batteries. 

Whilst we have been on holiday for a few weeks and planned to pace ourselves, it still takes a lot of energy especially negotiating the left hand driving.  Add to that sleeping a bit lighter over the past 9 nights to be able to catch the lights affects recharge time. 

Alesund is not in the Arctic circle so it is not so common to see the Aurora there, however the way the atmosphere has been this year, it has been seen more frequently all over the globe, so I remain hopeful that the right conditions may prevail – just one more time!

Flying into Trondheim the scenery is very different and it struck me that you do not realise how different it is above the Arctic circle compared to below until you experience the two.  Already the far North seems somewhat distant, like a world we entered for a time with it’s own landscape, rules and pace.  Like the door to Narnia.

The approach into a (Norwegian) warm and sunny Alesund was very scenic over an archipelago. We felt happy and excited about our last few days in Norway. Then events came around and threatened to ruin everything.  On leaving the airport building I reached for my phone in order to turn it on and help with our hotel check in.

I couldn’t find it. I asked Vern to check his carry on bags. Nope.  Ah well, maybe its gone deep inside our bags and we would check at hotel. Bad decision, but more on that.

We paid the reasonable fare on the airport bus which runs every 10 minutes into town. Alesund is on another little island, and the 20 minute drive went quickly, with one tunnel taking you under the water to another island. When we alighted at the last bus stop we could not see our hotel.  As the iPad had run out of its data and we didn’t have the phone, we ended up asking for directions. It was a short 8 minute walk through a pretty and clean old town to our Thon hotel on the harbour side.

Check in ran smoothly, and we quickly tipped out our bags once we got to our room.  No phone to be found. I then did what I should have done at the airport – turned on the iPad and “find my phone”. There it was on the tarmac of the airport – obviously in a plane. However, it was not Alesund Vigra, but Bergen.

For f*ks sake. The plane had done a quick turnaround with my phone on board. If I had checked the iPad I would have saved myself a lot of grief.  The thing was, we have never left a phone behind anywhere and both checked the pockets of seat before we left as we do by habit. So it never entered our mind that we had ‘lost’ it on the plane.

The next thing was we had no way of ringing the airport as there are no phones in rooms these days, so I went to reception with my iPad and asked a big favour – for help ringing the airline. The reception lady was amazing. She found it most interesting watching the live tracking on my iPad as my phone now moved off the tarmac into and around the buildings of Bergen airport. She said it was like a movie.

It was Friday night, around 8pm, and try as she might, she could get no-one to answer the phone. She enlisted her colleague from the office to see if he had some contacts. The best they could come up with was a number to ring in the morning.  I sincerely thanked them and returned to my room to have the meltdown that had been building all day.

I also explored my options with the iPad find my phone, which gave some hope and then dashed it.  You can put a message on your phone via the app, that will show with screen locked, and give a number to ring. I did this, and put Verns number on it. His phone rung within seconds.  The man who had the phone basically said that they do not ship lost goods and I had to collect it from Bergen.  Following that road block I put in a query on line to Widerøe via lost items.

It was that point I became quite low.  We could not get to Bergen and were departing on Tuesday via Oslo.  My phone was lost, but not lost.  I put in a claim for insurance, however they would not cover full replacement of course and I would be notably out of pocket for a replacement.  I tried to contact Spark on line, to see if we could transfer my roaming onto Verns phone and whether I purchased insurance from them at time of purchase, however, their site blocked me as I was in Norway.  FFS.  

So we are made to rely on our phones for everything, but when you travel – even with travel insurance you are limited if you loose the phone which has everything on it!!!! You can’t even ring a help number, and you can’t access the online helpline, app or anything else.

For us it is the inconvenience.  We have Verns phone, however not on roaming. We have the iPad, which has back up of everything. We have printed copies of every accommodation and transit. We have online Dropbox accessible copies of everything. So loosing the phone is not going to change or impinge on anything for the next week other than it’s linked to our iCloud and very very user friendly and a dam good phone for whatever you want it to do except make a cup of coffee.

Vern calmed me down, and suggested we go for dinner. We went downstairs, and again consciously pushed aside the negative feelings and enjoyed a quiet dinner with magic night views of the harbour.  Our dinner was not too bad – chicken salad and a hamburger with fries.  Typical of the average dining, which is very very boring and not anything to write home about.

The final positive to end the evening is that again we have a sumptuously soft Norwegian bed and widows that open.

Appreciate the little things, don’t sweat the small stuff – good sleep was very much needed.