Friday, 21 February 2025
Aaaarrrgh! The alarm went of at 5.30am so that we could shower and dress and head downstairs to meet Meredith and Fiona to commence the l-o-n-g journey home. Not like the European passengers who disembarked yesterday morning and were going to be home in time for afternoon tea. Australia is just so far from everywhere.
It snowed overnight so first we had to walk to the National Theatre Station in dark and icy conditions. We still had our ski jackets, hats and gloves to wear but had switched out our fleece lined pants, ski socks and long-sleeved merino T-shirts for lighter clothing that would be suitable for the plane and our arrival in Melbourne late on a hot summer’s evening. We survived the treacherous walk to the station without freezing or falling over because, of course, we had packed those ice-grippers away too! So happy to have survived the holiday without a fall. Others were not so fortunate.
On our way through the station we purchased cinnamon buns for breakfast. Although we were supposed to have ‘breakfast to go’ (sandwiches) this morning we couldn’t see them anywhere to collect on our way out. The cinnamon buns will be yummier anyway!
Thanks to our reconnaissance yesterday we made our way to the correct platform without any trouble and managed to purchase our Flytoget (Flight Train) tickets from the ticket machine without difficulty. We had a few minutes to wait for the train and decided since it was relatively warm in the underground station that we would take our coats, etc off and pack them into our suitcases so that we didn’t have to do that at the airport before checking our bags in.
The train arrived right on time and we were off to Oslo Airport to catch the first flight of three that we will be taking between here and home. Ahem, maybe we were a little premature with packing our coats. The station at the airport is covered BUT it was not situated snuggly underground or enclosed. It was COLD. Thank goodness it was only a short walk from the platform to the airport terminal.
Although Bernie had checked in on-line we did not have boarding passes so had to proceed to a staffed counter to organise our boarding passes and bag drop. We had our bags checked-in in no time and off they went, hopefully to the same plane that we are booked on and from there all the way to Melbourne. Fingers crossed, but not as big a drama to have bags delayed on the way home if they miss a connecting flight. We only received ONE boarding pass with all three flights listed on it. So much better for the environment than receiving three boarding passes each. I guess it would have been greener still if we had them on our phone(s)? Something reassuring about having a hard copy boarding pass though.
We tracked down some beverages and devoured our cinnamon buns while we waited for our flight time to come around. For a flight within Europe we only had to be at the airport two hours before our flight but, as usual, we had made sure that we arrived earlier than we needed to. It’s always less stressful to be sitting around at the airport terminal than to be on the road or on the train delayed by unforeseen circumstances.
When we packed our coats back at the National Theatre Station we did not envisage having to leave the shelter of the airport terminal to board our SAS flight to Copenhagen via the back stairs! Thank goodness it wasn’t raining or wet snowing just COLD! And it took so long to get inside the back of the plane with passengers taking an age to stow their carryon bags in the overhead lockers. Not to mention the traffic jam caused by people with seats behind us boarding from the front of the plane. Bad knees apparently!
Despite it seeming to take such a long time the plane was loaded ahead of schedule and we took of a few minutes early for our short flight to Copenhagen. No window seat this time for the short flight between Norway and Denmark but there was nothing to see anyway with the airplane flying above the clouds.
After we arrived in Copenhagen we cleared immigration and then proceeded to the gate for our international flight. Approaching security screening I remembered that I had water in my complimentary Hurtigruten water bottle in the side pocket of my carryon bag. Damn, if it was just a bottle of water I could relinquish it but I want to keep my Hurtigruten water bottle! I had to chug my water in the queue so that I had no liquids to go through screening.
Aargh electronic items out again at this screening point. I didn’t realise that Bernie received instructions to also remove his camera from his carryon bag. So, of course, my bag was shunted to the side for extra attention. I had to open it to show my camera and then it had to go through the X-Ray machine again. It took a while but at last I was cleared to proceed.
Boarding commenced soon after our arrival at gate C39 and we made our way all the way to the rear of the plane finding ourselves seated in Row 60 of 62 rows. Our flight pushed away within minutes of our scheduled noon departure and we were in the air by quarter past twelve.
The crew started serving snacks and drinks and that was when Bernie discovered that his tray table was stuffed. The clasp mechanism was completely jammed and there was no way his tray table could be lowered. Not even the crew could get it undone. There was a vacant seat across the aisle and forward one row so the crew asked Bernie to move there for his meal. Bernie spent the flight alternating between resting/sleeping beside me and eating across the aisle. Another passenger told him he was doing OK with a bedroom and a dining room on this flight, ha, ha.
Once again we were underwhelmed with the entertainment offered on KrisWorld Singapore Airlines In-flight Entertainment. Even though it was still afternoon in Europe I wanted to sleep a bit on this leg so that I could be wakeful on our final leg which would coincide with afternoon on the east coast of Australia. With our flight getting in at 9.30pm Saturday night I wanted to be feeling like sleeping when we arrived home to try to align with Australian Eastern Daylight Time sooner than later.
So I dozed for a while listening to Lana Del Rey and then, when I gave up on trying to sleep, I watched a two-part documentary ‘ABBA: Against the Odds’. There were not any movies that interested me.
Oh, and lunch and breakfast were pretty ordinary again. To add insult to injury the crew looked after displaced Bernie delivering his meal to him in his ‘dining room’ while they were distributing the special meals. I, of course, was nearly last to be served ‘lunch’. The only positive to come out of it all was Bernie being offered a $100 voucher to apologize for the inconvenience of his broken tray table. We’re flying with Singapore Airlines again in May/June so should be able to redeem the voucher then.
And, final whinge, we were surrounded by children, including one baby that cried for nearly the entire flight. Probably didn’t but it sure seemed that way! That family certainly did not get any rest during the twelve and a half hour flight to Singapore. Thank goodness for my epic fantasy novel which was sufficiently engrossing to occupy and distract me for quite a few hours.
Steps: 5,925 (4.02km)
Saturday, 22 February 2025
We arrived in Singapore about half an hour early so had a bit of extra time to hydrate and find our way to our on-bound flight. Our boarding cards printed yesterday indicated that we would be departing from Terminal 3 but we did not want to take the train to Terminal 3 until we were certain that our flight would be leaving from that terminal. We had to wait about half an hour before SQ217 to Melbourne found its way to the bottom of the departures board. Yes, still departing from Terminal 3 so it was time to go for a ride on the Skytrain.
More waiting around. First just outside the gate with security screening not yet open to the passengers on the Melbourne flight and then, after the joy of screening, more waiting in the gate lounge. Bernie had to take his footwear off again. They really don’t like hiking boots at Changi! Despite being belt-less I set the X-Ray machine off and had to step to the side to have the wand run over me. Maybe it was my watch? Maybe it was the zips on my pants? After a once over with the wand I was cleared to proceed.
On time again. We have done really well with the flights on this trip with all of them leaving a few minutes early or within minutes of the scheduled departure time. Have to be happy with on time departures because no-one needs to spend any extra time inside an airport terminal!
For this flight we had moved a few rows forward to Row 53 of 62 rows. It’s still a long, long way from the pointy end though! It was my turn this time for some disruption when the woman beside me peeled the top off the small water container that came with the meal and showered me! Thank goodness it wasn’t soft drink or yoghurt! She was so embarrassed and said to me that it is the sort of thing that she would expect to be telling her children off for.
On this leg I watched ‘Christopher Robin’ staring Ewan McGregor as an adult Christopher Robin being reunited with his friends from the 100 Acre Wood to help him remember that there are more important things in life than working. A nice little film.
Nearly all the way from Copenhagen to Melbourne our flight was encountering intermittent turbulence with several announcements being made about returning to our seats and keeping our seat belts fastened. Each time the cabin crew were allowed to continue serving passengers with caution so I guess that means that the turbulence wasn’t too bad. The worst that we bobbled around in was about three and a half hours out of Melbourne and even then it wasn’t too bad.
In the final couple of hours I watched another documentary ‘Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story’. I knew it would tug at the heartstrings and, sure enough, tears were shed!
Our final meal before we arrived in Melbourne was a pizza snack and it was probably the best thing that we were served on any of our flights. Just enough that we won’t need to arrive home and be making toasted sandwiches before bed.
Finally, FINALLY we arrived in Melbourne a few minutes early just before 9.30pm. This time we did not walk past any eGates, we did the electronic re-entry to Australia at the very first kiosk that we came to. As opposed to the toilets. We skipped the first toilets deciding they would be much too busy and nipped into the second set of facilities. Then we walked past all the people queuing at the bank of eGates that are just before the Duty Free shops. With our slips from the eGate kiosk we continued straight out to the baggage carousels once again untouched by human hands.
Groan, it took a while for our cases to appear on Baggage Carousel 2 but, appear they did. Yay, they made all the connections that we did and made it home to Australia. Three flights had arrived at around the same time so the Customs queue snaked from the Custom’s desks all the way around Baggage Carousel 1. We had nothing to declare so we were processed fairly quickly through Customs and we spilled out into the Arrivals Hall. Time to message our friend Cathy that we were ready to be picked up.
OMG, what a warm evening in Melbourne! We left on a mid-30s day and it has been in the mid-30s again today. It was still 29°C at 10.00pm so somewhat warmer than we have been accustomed to for the last fortnight. We’ve been in the habit of putting layers on to go outside and taking them off for indoors. Tonight was the opposite with us shedding our jackets as we came out of the terminal and wishing for sandaled feet!
It’s a little bit messy being picked up at the moment with some building work going on and temporary fencing reducing parking space and visibility but we were soon loaded into Cathy’s vehicle and on our way home. This has been a very short trip to Europe by our standards but we feel like we packed a lot into our trip exploring the coastline of Norway from the North Cape to Oslo.
Steps: 6,640 (4.41km)
… and in just 12 weeks we are off another adventure, this time to Africa visiting Cape Town, Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls.
