June 23
Our trip home was scheduled to take two days – one to get from the Lofoten Islands to Amsterdam with an evening in the city and then an easy trip home. Nonstop Amsterdam to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to Pensacola.
The flights from Svolvaer to Bodo, then Oslo and Amsterdam went as planned. We had some fun trying to spend the last of our Norwegian Kroners and in the end I still found a 100 Kroner note in my pocket when we got to Amsterdam.
We stayed at the Citizen M hotel at the Amsterdam airport. It’s a funky, modern hotel with tiny rooms and very unusual bathrooms. Just fine for a couple but I wouldn’t stay in a Citizen room if traveling with a friend. We took the train from Schipol airport to Amsterdam Central and wandered around to find a place to eat. The European prices seemed like a bargain after Norway. For 70 euros we had wine, appetizers, a salad, two entrees and a dessert at a little café. For the same amount of money in Norway the night before we had two glasses of wine, a bowl of soup and an appetizer!
It felt a little odd to have the sky turn dark at 11pm, after 3 weeks of sunlight 24 hours a day.
The trip home turned out to be less than perfect. As we were scheduled to arrive in Atlanta, summer thunderstorms shut down the airport. We were diverted to Nashville to wait out the storms and refuel. By the time we did arrive in Atlanta there were no open flights to Pensacola. We ended up flying into Mobile, staying at a crappy little hotel and having George drive over the next morning to pick us up.
Glad to be home and very grateful to have taken this trip.
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