We had a rather long travel day ahead, involving 3 countries, flights and some long trains. Our morning in Krakow started with no more more snow, but a nice fresh morning for our departure from Poland. As we hauled our bags down the stairs and out onto the bus to the airport, we had some nice cold wind and snow falling. Snow was forecast for the next few days, so we were sad we were going to be missing it here in Poland, but where we were headed had plenty of snow.

We’d enjoyed our time in Krakow and Warsaw but we were looking forward to some Scandinavian adventures for the last week of our trip.

Airport Chaos

Once we reached the Warsaw airport chaos reined. The IT system was down and there were no information screens throughout the terminal so it was impossible to tell which of the 300 check-in counters were for Norwegian Airlines. The airport staff had resorted to giant sheets of paper to update people on gates and flight times. Very old-school!

Once we found the right counter and got our bags checked through, security was an interesting experience. I got flagged and had the most thorough pat-down, part-massage, and overly enthusiastic checking ever. Nothing was left unchecked, but I did eventually pass and was allowed to rejoin the rest of the family.

Once we had reached the Warsaw airport we had checked all our coats, beanies and gloves, to avoid carrying them. This plan was foiled by having to go outside onto a bus to a remote gate and then stand on the tarmac waiting to climb the stairs in snow and an apparent temperature of minus 3, in nothing but a long sleeved shirt. Thank goodness at the other end, in Oslo, we got an air bridge!

Scandinavian bound…

Our flight to Oslo took off on time and the 1 hour 40 minute flight time passed quickly with lovely views out the windows.

Our flight took us 1100km north to Oslo and as we approached Norway we had spectacular views of snow and ice. Landing revealed giant piles of snow on the runway and snow being shipped off.

It was a pleasantly cold minus 6 outside, and once we had our bags we were reunited with our coats and beanies…… which was lucky as the train platforms were rather chilly and also had plenty of snow on them.

We had to head from the Oslo airport into central as we needed to catch a train through to Sweden that afternoon. There is a lovely airport express train but it’s exorbitantly expensive. We opted to take the slower (by 3 minutes) not express train – because it was half the price. We were still into Oslo central in under 25 minutes. With the bonus of beautiful views out the window of the Norwegian landscape as we whizzed by.

Oslo sunsets….

We unfortunately had around 2 hours to kill in Central before our train to Sweden, and the station was very busy with nowhere to sit, despite it being a rather large station. We eventually found an area with some seats and took it in turns to mind some seats with our pile of bags, while one adult would take an excursion to grab supermarket supplies or go for a walk.

This was actually the first time for any of us in Norway, and we were only here for a couple of hours. We were planning to return in a few days time but first we were visiting friends who lived in a tiny village in Värmland County, Sweden. This happens to be a shorter train from Oslo than Stockholm. We’d also been to Stockholm a couple of times before so this time we were more than happy to check out Oslo as part of our stay with Björn and family.

After Anto had procured us some supermarket snacks for the next train trip, I was keen to go for a wander with the camera to stretch my legs and check out some Oslo scenery. I could see the sun setting out the windows (at 3.30pm) so went for a little explore just outside the train station and down to the water.

There was so much snow everywhere, that it was ploughed into piles higher than people at times. Despite the fact that I had my snow boots on it was also rather slippery as sections had clearly melted and refrozen. I did carefully make my way down to the water and enjoyed the views across the water as the sun set.

It was rather scenic and I was looking forward to returning in a few days and exploring more of Oslo.

We were somewhat glad we’d gotten to Central in plenty of time for our train to Sweden, as when I went back inside to find the others there were messages that a train had got stuck in a nearby tunnel. This was causing most of the airport trains to be cancelled as well as a heap of outbound trains. Luckily it looked like our train was on time…… sadly the tunnel issue did affect us and we left 25 minutes late and had to take a different route to avoid the tunnel. We were glad we had our coats and beanies as the temperature out on the platform was still about minus 7.

Off to Sweden….

It had already been dark for several hours by the time we were on the train. We enjoyed some snowy views and the lights of Oslo as we head South, and then East towards the Swedish border.

The kids enjoyed a dinner snack on the train, we’d procured in a Central station supermarket and some meals we’d ordered with our train tickets. Soren thought the meatballs were as good as the IKEA ones.

The tickets for the train from Oslo through to Arvika, Sweden were fairly reasonable for first class for this time train. It turns out that the first class cabin was near on deserted. There was also free coffee, fresh fruit and a bowl of chocolates for our carriage. The kids were in heaven with the fruit and chocolates!

After several visits to the carriage kitchenette the kids then collapsed asleep for a bit. It had been a very long day of travel!

We crossed into Sweden just after 7pm and were an hour late getting into Arvika, just before 8pm.

Our friend Björn (who we are staying with) met us at the tiny Arvika station and took Anto and Soren to grab our hire car. I waited with the girls while we admired the snow and lights of Arvika. We were definitely waiting indoors though as it was minus 8, feels like minus 13 outside!

Anto and Soren returned with our hire car and we had a very snowy, icy and dark drive on the wrong side of the road (for us). It was lucky we could follow Björn as once we left Arvika there was nothing but darkness and a lot of snow and frozen ice on the road!

We made it to their tiny village of Brunsberg by 8.30pm without Anto having any driving mishaps. Björn and Linnea had prepared us a lovely home made taco dinner with the family, which gave us time to catch up. Of course our kids well and truly had a second wind by now and despite the long day of travel were not keen to go to bed. We did at last despatch them at around 10pm.

It had been a long day with 3 countries but plenty of stunning scenery! After a very hectic 6 weeks of travel we were all looking forward to a few quieter days hanging out with friends and enjoying some Swedish snow.

Up next…

Snow, and sledding in Sweden!