Oslo

[radeng]

Sometime back, I asked here about connecting in Oslo to Kristiansand (KRS), and got good advice about allowing plenty of time. Thanks, everyone, it was needed.

Tried Rignes beer in Oslo airport and besides needing a mortgage, didn't think much of it. Christiansand Beer (CB) was better but still a wicked price. Wine even worse - house wine in one restaurant was nearly £50 a bottle.

Norway is incredibly expensive, and I was very unimpressed coming back. No Fast Track for BA, the OSL lounge is poor - not even any gin! - and you get a SMS to tell you a password for WLAN. But my 'phone battery was dead and the charger in my suitcase....

So if I go to KRS again, I'll try via either CPH or AMS. Probably CPH as offering a better chance of getting my luggage.

Thanks for all the advice.......Now any suggestions for going to Minsk? Somehow I don't fancy Belavia. So far, the best looks like BA to Prague and Czech on from there. The net price for the 4 star Marriott at Prague airport is under €80, which is good.....

[davidjohnson6]

Have you considered Lufthansa, LOT or Austrian as a way to reach Minsk from the UK ?

[radeng]

The LOT website keeps telling me that there are no flights from London to Warsaw on my dates in September! For London to Minsk, there's an over night stop each way. BA don't get me to Warsaw in time for the LOT flight.

Lufthansa takes you to Vienna and then on Austrian, or rather Tyrolean. Going out on Tyrolean gets you there very late at night, and coming back means either leaving the meeting before its finish (dangerous, 'cos things get slipped through right at the end!) or staying an extra night.

Other airlines (e.g. KLM) take you somewhere to change onto Belavia.

Trains don't offer anything either......

[ConstantFlyer]

Via Istanbul, Kiev or Riga? TK go from BHX too.

[Pax Vobiscum]

If you're going to have wine in a Norwegian restaurant, I wouldn't recommend the cheapest option. The duty adds about £30 to each bottle, so you may as well go for something decent at £70-80 rather than spend £50 on something basic. They generally don't import rot-gut since it's all going to be so expensive anyway!

That having been said, I actually picked up a 'bargain' bottle of Dom Perignon in (the old) Oslo duty-free - £50 when the best price I could get it for in the UK was over £80.

[Tableview]

On TUE THU FRI you can connect on LO via WAW using LO operated services.
LO 286 0635-1005// LO 705 1130-1345

On MON WED SAT you can connect onto a LO flight number at WAW but it's a Belavia operated service WAW MSQ

[Bigmouth]

If you can connect through Copenhagen, I would. Much more reasonable attitudes towards the finer things in life than OSL, and connecting times are almost as short. If you are going to sprint from one flight to another anyway OSL is fine, but not for any kind of layover.
Personally I can´t stand any of the large central european airports. Granted some of them have plenty of shopping and lounges and restaurants, but the distances involved in getting from gate to gate and the lines in immigration and security and of course the congestion delays and frequent slots arriving and departing...

[radeng]

I need to go out to Minsk on Sunday Sep 23 and come back on Friday Sep 28. Preceding that is a requirement for being in Berlin Monday Sep 17 and 18, and Nice on 19, 20 and 21. Then the question is whether or not to go home overnight on Friday 21 and travel to Prague on the 22nd, or go to Prague and have a day in Prague on Saturday 22nd. From Berlin to Nice, it's as fast to go via Heathrow as via Munich on LH.

[Tableview]

You have direct flights BER/NCE (EZY and DLH) so why go via anywhere else?

And I'd choose the day in Prague! Even if you've been there before many times, there's always something interesting to see, even if it's just to walk up to the castle and have a meal in Mala Strana.

[radeng]

BER/NCE direct flights are at the wrong times. I have very little flexibility in times - they have to fit with the meetings.

Is there a railway museum in Prague?

[Tableview]

Oddly enough, there is, a very good one, it's part of the Technology Museum and it's an easy walk from the centre of town and close to the river. I know it was open about 4 years ago when I was last there but please check before taking my word for it.

(Someone is now going to call me an anorak but I love railways too!)

[radeng]

Thanks. I'll look into that.