Oslo

TSH and Diva have arrived in Oslo to await the departure of their next Silversea cruise. Two large suitcases, one small(er) and two pieces of carry-on are essential for such an expedition. During the packing process, Diva had to swap an evening top.She had carefully rolled (to prevent creases) a batch of clothes together and then stood on it, breaking a delicate Mother of Pearl button. Bring back plastic! This is going to mean new buttons and a trip to the wonderful local lady who does alterations. Replacing buttons is definitely an alteration.

Bacon butties in the airport lounge in Manchester and an excellent chicken sandwich on the SAS flight.

The flight was enlivened by a large group of men from Cumbria who seemed to have indulged at the airport. Their ages were such that they should have known better than to be quite so noisy. TSH recognised the accents immediately, as he comes from there himself. But normally Cumbrians are known for not speaking much (except for Cumbrian grunts) and maybe this lot should have stayed true to type.  They were overheard asking one young Asian woman: 'Are you Chinese? Do you know Kung Fu?' Embarrassment all round.  Fortunately she was polite and seemed not to take his stereotyping to heart.

Airport to hotel was by airport bus, which stopped only 100 yards from the hotel.

Oslo is a grand but walkable city and an hour or so was enough to see the Royal Palace, University, National Theatre, Town Hall, Parliament, Cathedral and Central Station.

Dinner was pizza, no booze and cost over £40 at a street cafe. Only eclipsed by £8 on two small bottles of water from a kiosk. Roll-on the all-inclusive cruise!!