We got up at 6am, had breakfast at the hotel and walked across to Oslo Central train station to catch the 8am train to Halden to meet Kjersti, a friend we had spoken to over the internet for the best part of a decade. During the train trip we had heavy snow at times and arrived in Halden at 9.45am meeting Kjersti on the platform. Kjersti drove us up to hill, Rødsfjellet, with view across Halden to the fortress before taking us back into town for a coffee.

After the coffee we went up to fortress and walked around the icy paths with views over the town and harbour before having lunch at a restaurant in the fortress grounds.

Next we drove out to the Norway-Sweden border at Svinesund and walked out onto the old bridge that crosses the fjord that forms the border before driving on via Kjersti's work to her cottage nearby.

Our last stop was at Rød Herregård (the red manor) with a quick walk around the snow-covered gardens before heading back to the train station to say goodbye and catch the train back to Oslo. It was good to finally meet Kjersti and spend the day with her looking around Halden after seeing so many pictures and hearing about the town for so long. We caught 4pm train and arrived back in Oslo at 5.45pm.