Our first train of the day was cancelled. There was an alternate we could take and still catch our connector (with a tight layover) so we thought we were fine.
When the conductor came to check our tickets, he recommended that we get off at the station before because it was a smaller station and easier to catch the connection to Gothenberg.
What we didn’t realize was that the train he was telling us to catch was a completely different train and made us miss our connection in Gothenberg.
When we actually arrived to Gothenberg we went to the reservations office. We had identified a train we could take 4 hours later and needed to make reservations. The lady at the counter started speaking in Swedish to her coworker and then dismissed us and told us to talk to the coworker but she didn’t translate what was discussed.
We walked over to the man who was talking to a woman and a couple. He never really acknowledged us but motioned in our direction a few times while talking to the woman. The next thing we knew, the man printed off 8 tickets on a single piece of paper and told us to go with the woman. H and I looked at each other with a questioning look of what had just transpired. The woman noticed and quickly translated that the man had booked us all on a bus that was leaving in 30 minutes and we should all go grab some food. It was quite random how things transpired but it worked out for the best! The woman had 3 daughters, 8, 10, and 13. Her girls spoke enough English for them to communicate with Cat. They spent the next 30 minutes playing with Cat and the bouncy ball and laughing a lot!
We saw 2 Ikeas in the first hour (in Sweden)
On this trip I had expected to see a lot of these (Windmills). Sadly this is only the second.
Unfortunately there were more of these than we could count.
It was a beautiful ride through the countryside and we definitely saw things that we would have missed on the train.
We got off the train and said our goodbyes to our new friends and walked up a huge hill with our packs to get to our hotel.
Once we were settled we found a great restaurant on the seafront. It was a bit chilly so they got Cat a blanket to stay warm.
Cat braided my hair for me.
And we all enjoyed the views and the people watching.
On our walk back to the hotel there was a small group of people looking at this boat and a lot of blacked out vehicles parked around. Of course we had to go look.
It was Bill Clinton and after some chatting with some official he came over to the group.
Yes ladies and gentleman. This hand shook the hand of Bill Clinton. He looked me in the eye and winked while he did. We had a moment! 🙂
Funny that we had to come to Norway to meet the ex POTUS….
