How lovely to have four nights in the one place and in (for us anyway), a luxury business hotel. The Radison Blu had a great internet special that we grabbed. The location was well into the suburbs, a good hour (by underground train and walking) but suited our purposes and budget.  

Oh, the included buffet breakfasts at the Radison Blu were out of this world! Everything imaginable including whole smoked salmon, caviar and pickled herrings. We lingered long over those breakfasts! 

It turned out the visitor centre that we couldn't find the night before (mentioned in last blog) had closed early due to a party and because all the signage had been taken in and the lights were off we hadn't found it. They were full of apologies when we complained and refunded our underground tickets we had used so far when we bought our Oslo tourist pass.  

Oslo has the most incredible museums and we took in as many as we could. A real surprise was the Resistance museum that told the history of Norway in World War 2 and the terrible deprivation suffered at the hands of the nazis. The resistance movement was very strong and imaginative ways were used to smuggle information. The Viking museums were outstanding and we also loved the Museum telling the story of the Kon tiki.

The weather fined up and young Norwegians spread themselves out on the steps of the Opera house sun baking. We decided to hang the expense and actually go to a harbour side bar for a wine in the sunshine. A message from a friend who had been to Oslo before, said we should find a particular sculpture of a pair of eyes and he sent us a picture. So the hunt was on. Oslo has incredible outdoor sculptures and good footpaths. Eventually we found the sculpture in question after a lot of fun wandering around showing the picture to Norwegians and being sent in different directions looking for it.  

Our last night in Oslo was in a cheap hostel close to the train station for our morning airport train. Heading for home ..... always an exciting time. Whilst in Oslo we had tried to change our flights to direct instead of a Singapore stopover but they could not be changed. There is that feeling at the end of a trip of just wanting to be back in Australia no matter how wonderful the trip has been.

My tablet device went missing at airport security. We are so careful - always. This time the security personnel put our things through again taking Avan's camera out and putting through separately. They must have also taken my tablet out of my bag. Half an hour later I discovered it missing and went back to security but it was not there. Bizarrely, when I opened up my laptop while still at the airport there was a message on my facebook from someone who said they had picked it up in error! Our flights - Oslo to Dubai and Dubai to Singapore - were not very comfortable knowing the tablet had been picked up by someone else but we only had a name and no details.

We had booked a room in IBIS Styles for a 2 night stopover in Singapore. Not conveniently located in terms of sightseeing but we only had two things planned - visit the Changi Jail Museum and catch up on sleep. It was close to the museum and the airport and very cheap.

Finally our last flight took us home. An amazing 8 weeks covering Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Qatar, UK, a 14 day ship expedition to the Arctic, then more Norway independent travel. This time we did have a few hiccups in our travel - a fall requiring stitches, a missed flight and a lost tablet device but hey 

"no matter what happens travel gives you a story to tell"