Norwegian Summer 2026 – Days 16-17: Son, Frederikstad, Oslo Airport

Let’s start with today’s smallest drama: trying to buy a Coke on a ferry. The snack counter handles small card payments through Vipps, a phone app, and it turns out Vipps accounts are open only to Norwegians and Swedes. Go figure. After a few rounds of me waving my phone around and pointing at the app installation screen that wouldn’t, the operator gave up and said, “Just take it.” Free Coke! Seems like a strange setup for a boat that must carry plenty of tourists, but I wasn’t going to argue. 😂 More on that ferry in a bit.

First, rewind to yesterday: only our second day off the bikes in almost two weeks. We spent a lot of it just staring out at the Oslo Fjord, which is sometimes quiet and sometimes bustling. At one point we heard harbor porpoises exhaling before we ever spotted them, and then there they were, surfacing just offshore. According to Geir, they’re regulars this time of year.

Geir had arranged a family gathering for us, hosted by his daughter Ingvild, so we drove (!) about an hour to Fredrikstad, where lunch and a mix of old and new friends were waiting.

Ingvild and her brothers Øystein and Åsmund were probably the closest thing to cousins that Liz had growing up. The visits were infrequent, but Geir and his family have been part of her family’s story since she was very young. So it was fun to see Ingvild and her son Sebastian, along with Øystein, his wife and their two girls.

They live in a historic, preserved part of Fredrikstad, which meant we parked outside the limits and walked in with the rest of the tourists. Every so often a stray would wander right into our party by accident. Just how it goes when your neighborhood is an attraction.

Øystein runs a small software team with his brother, making strategy games, so the two of us had plenty to talk about. Sebastian’s father Fabrice was there as well, helping keep us all cool by rigging up shade from sheets. He’s a sound engineer who has worked with a lot of touring artists; originally from Bordeaux, he’s been in Norway for decades now.

So we had quite the menagerie and not a minute of downtime. Everyone was careful to keep most of the conversation in English, which is not something you’d necessarily think to do when you’re amongst family. A joke or a quick exchange would slip into Norwegian here and there, but someone always pulled us back into the fold. It was a very fun crew and we’re very grateful they made the time to get together with us (“The Americans are coming!”) on a Wednesday afternoon even!

We took a short walk around the historic zone, got a peek at Ingvild’s studio (she’s a professional dancer, among other things), and then said our goodbyes.

Back at the Son house the evening was a beauty, so we grabbed one last group selfie. Good looking crew!

Grethe was heading out for the night to pick up her son and daughter-in-law (or possibly her son-in-law and daughter, I’m ashamed to admit I can’t remember), who were arriving back from vacation in Turkey with their kids. A mother’s job is never done! They would swap into our spots at Son right after we left, so the party was just getting started for Geir and Grethe! So we said our goodbyes to her as well.

Our swim attempt the evening before had been foiled by a large and persistent crowd of small jellyfish, whose stings are, I’m told, “not pleasant.” But by this evening they had moved along, and Geir and I took the plunge.

Then more relaxing, warming up and winding down at 11:00 PM:

This morning we had no plans beyond catching the 12:10 ferry from Son to Oslo, a journey of a bit over two hours. So: a leisurely breakfast, closing remarks from Geir, and we were rolling again. All fifteen minutes of it, back into Son.

Under normal circumstances we’d probably have taken the train, but the line is under construction this summer and the replacement bus service doesn’t allow bicycles. Honestly, it worked out for the best, because the ferry was fun and completely different from the others we’ve ridden: room for two hundred passengers only (and a handful of bikes), with over a dozen stops at small towns and islands on the way up to Oslo. Great people watching.

On arrival at the ferry terminal in Oslo we biked the ten minutes to Oslo Central Station and caught the first train to the airport, where we had a room booked and our stored luggage waiting for us. We were anxious to get on with the next phase: disassembling and packing the bikes, then getting to bed early. Time for one more plant-based Whopper for us from the BK at the airport, then the alarm was set for 4am for a 6:30 flight to Amsterdam, then on to Minneapolis, and finally home to Madison.

It’ll be a long day, but as I write this the bikes are packed and we’re pretty much ready to go. Next stop, our own beds… eventually.