London to Oslo and the Queue from Hell

Honeymoon in Norway – Day 1

Heathrow Airport Hell

After a beautiful wedding day, it was time for us to pack our hiking boots and raincoats and make our way to the airport for our exciting honeymoon in Norway! But getting from London to Oslo ended up way more stressful than expected.

Our flight was in the afternoon but we knew the situation at the airports where chaotic so we went 3 hours earlier. Initially, it didn’t seem there was too much mayhem… but we were wrong.

We dropped off our baggage within 10 minutes (which we found surprising) and we went looking for the security check. Just a couple of steps further down, we saw a sign for the security control and just underneath it people queuing.

We asked one of the people in the queue if this was the queue for security and they said “yes”. So we walked back to find the end of the line…. and walked…. and walked …. until we were told that the queue was starting outside the terminal! Horrified and in disbelief, we went outside where an airport staff member showed us to the end of the line, which was indeed outside … during the UK heatwave.

Londo to Oslo - The security queue and Heathrow Airport — The security queue started outside the terminal

And not only this, but the actual security check was on the first floor. It took us 1:45 to pass through security. I have never seen that!

Thankfully, that was the only inconvenience that we had during our journey to Oslo. The flight was on time and all our luggage arrived, by 5pm we were all set in our hotel and ready to roam the streets of Oslo before dinner.

City of Oslo

Oslo turned out to be a beautiful and surprisingly quiet city. In the centre, you rarely see any private cars. Only taxis, buses and the trolley. No crazy drives that honk the second the lights turn green, no motorcycles (or cars) raving the engine until you turn deaf because they need to compensate for something. None of that!

Londo to Oslo - Photo from Oslo center — Oslo city centre

We strolled a little through the harbour and then looked around for a place to eat. Then we decided on the Rorbua Aker Brygge, a lovely Norwegian restaurant with the decor that goes with it. From the menu, we chose some Nordic dishes including a bucket of cold shrimps, steak whale (conscious didn’t let me have more than one bite, my husband chose that one) and reindeer (delicious this one).