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Time to move on. Our flight to Stockholm was scheduled for 12:50 so we had a leisurely breakfast, packed up and caught the tram for the Central Train Station. The Oslo airport is located 20 minutes from downtown and they run an express shuttle train from the Central Station. It’s sleek and fast. They also have state-of -the-art technology to make it as painless as possible. You don’t even get a ticket anymore. You just swipe your card once on the ticket kiosk and then when you get off the train at the airport you just swipe the same card and it charges your account. It was so fast and efficient that we arrived almost three hours early. We killed time by eating and hanging out in a restaurant. After years of airline travel you come to expect the worst from airport restaurants. So it was a pleasant surprise to find near gourmet food there. I had fish soup that was amazing! It had a cream base with fennel and other spices and pieces of cod, salmon and some mussels. When Susan tried it, a look of rapture came over her face that I have rarely seen. She said it tasted like "kretmerk" (homemade noodles, hot milk and butter) just like her mom used to make. Clay destroyed a delicious looking burger and an order of truffle fries and Jean had a chocolate scone. We might be spoiled forever.
We worked our way down towards our gate and got shunted through the duty-free zone. It consisted of high-end jewelry, fragrances and liquor. Normally I hate that stuff but as it happened we had Norwegian Kroner burning holes in our pockets that we had to spend before getting on the plane. They had us hooked. We ended up purchasing a bottle of Absolut Vodka that would be put to good use later on.
The flight ended up being delayed an hour due to a “bird strike” but took only about 90 minutes. Seeing the ground from the air, it was striking just how intense this heat wave and drought has been to Scandinavia. Fields and forests were dried-looking and brown. When we arrived in Stockholm, it looked like early fall. Bad.
We picked up our rental car and made the convoluted trip to our home. It was one of the most confusing trips that I had ever taken. It was rush hour to boot. But the traffic kept moving and after one false start, we located our little house. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. It’s very tiny. But it is arranged masterfully, with modern amenities and a great layout. The house is in a semi-rural area on a property with a couple of other houses.
We had only just moved in when Clay looked out and spotted a baby deer contentedly grazing in the yard next door. Apparently, this one and another makes these houses regular stops on their daily rounds.
We made a major grocery run and then dined on a sumptuous quesadilla dinner. We got a visit from Tony and Vincent, Lena’s ex and son. They were very friendly and offered up a lot of free advice on where to go and what to do. Good people. I had somehow slept wrong on my neck and woke up this morning with an incredibly stiff and sore neck. That made doing just about anything painful. So after dinner and cleaning up, Susan and I climbed up into our little love nest and went to sleep.
Susan's note: Lena is the hostess of the AirBnB we rented in Stockholm. This house was very little but it was immaculate and had everything we needed. Jean was so impressed with it that she wanted to build one back home!