Day 10-1. Sarpsborg to Oslo by train.
After a slow breakfast we walked up to Marianne's church to watch a Norwegian service and hear her play her flute and Carl-Andreas play the church organ. It was interesting to watch as although this was a Protestant church I found the service reminded me more of a Catholic mass than the Anglican mass. We were welcomed and talked with various members of the congregation. It was wonderful to see the small community that Marianne had, something we don't seem to have here in the Netherlands.
We returned to Marianne's flat and got ready to go on our way. Saying our good-byes and thanking her for her hospitality we cycled slowly up to the station. There we booked tickets up to Oslo then Oslo to Geilo. While we were waiting a Norwegian gentleman came up to me and said he had someone on the line to speak to me. Being unncessarily cautions I said that this could not possibly be true; eventually he convinced me by telling me who I was and what I was doing in Norway. When I took the phone from him it turned out to be Marianne playing a good joke on us. Her friend had by chance phoned her from the station and she thought it would be funny to play a trick on us! It made me chuckle (and made me smile as I wrote about it).
We arrived quite late in Oslo, luckily a tourist information kiosk was still open so Damae was able to find the Color Line ferry booking phone number and a map to help us get up to Camping Ekeberg. We still had to arrange our return from Norway to Copenhagen so we would need to book the ferry and a train ticket or two. In contrast to earlier visits to Oslo the square outside the central train station felt a bit edgy, despite a Christian group holding a service for the homeless of Oslo.
It was then the long climb up to the campsite, the downside of having a wonderful view of the city. Before we were halfway up Damae was far behind, and after a while I gave up waiting and carried on up to the site. By the time she turned up I had registered us for the night so all we had to do was put up the tent and make some tea. We'd booked tickets to get us to Haugestøl for around lunchtime which meant a very early start. The train would leave at around twenty-five to seven in the morning, and we had to still pick up the tickets we had bought over the phone.
After a meal of pasta and curry we packed up everything except for the tent itself and our bedding. We didn't bother with the wing even though the weather was less than ideal. The Psion, and our heart rate meters were set to go off at five thirty and a quarter to six respectively. This would give us enough time to get to the station, bearing in mind most of the trip would be downhill and steep.
It was late when we finally turned in, after showering and packing up. We were not going to get the ideal night's rest we had hoped for.