September 29, 2018 Bucharest to Oslo. Lunch – Lille Herbern

September 29, 2018 Bucharest to Oslo. Lunch – Lille Herbern

We rose at 3:00 for our flight to Oslo. I ate several pieces of toast smeared with fish roe salad and drank the last of the feteasca alba and a bottle of rose and showered.  We dressed and ubered to the airport at 4:30 and the Wizz flight lifted off at 6:00 with the cabin almost fully filled like a long skinny tube of sardines.  The seats are rigid and all three seats on our row were filled. Although Suzette had several inches of leg room, I had about ½ inch of freedom of movement, which made for a rather tight unpleasant 3 hour ride to Oslo, but at about $50.00 no one was complaining and there were some guys bigger than me, who must have been even more miserable.

We arrived at the Vestfold Airport, which is almost at the southern tip of Norway and took an express bus the 113 km. North to Oslo, which provided a lovely 1 ½ hour scenic introduction to Norway.

When we were delivered to the Central bus terminal we were oriented by a pleasant information booth attendant, who gave us directions to our Scandia Holberg Hotel, which is located at Holberg Plass, which is a tram stop for the No. 18 tram, which we took from the bus terminal directly to our hotel.

We arrived at our hotel at around 12:00, we were given our room assignment and the desk attendant helped orient us to go to the Viking ship Museum.

We took the tram to Jernbanetotget and changed to the No. 30 bus to the Bygdoy peninsula.  Although we ate slices of apple with smoked Romanian cheese and the last of our milk chocolate and hazelnut bar, we were hungry and Suzette started looking for a restaurant near the museum on Bygdoy.  She soon found a recommended fish restaurant named Lille Herbern on a small island named Lille Herbern near a bus stop named Lille Herbern. So we disembarked the bus at Lille Herbern and walked to the path to the boat dock where we could catch the small boat limited to 11 persons to Lille Herbern.  On Lille Herbern was only a boating and water sport facility, the ferry office, and the restaurant plus hundreds of shorebirds congregating on the sandy beaches of the small island.  We walked to the restaurant in a strong breezes took a table with a view out the windows of the archipelago and beach.  We ordered and then did a bit of bird watching and saw many different types of boats go past the island and out in the fiord.

Suzette was hungry and ordered steamed mussels and fish and chips made with haddock.  I ordered a large order of Greenland shrimp.  The mussels were served in a white wine broth and were exceptionally tender.   The fish and chips was equally fresh and delicious, but I was blown away by the shrimp.  First of all they were served in a large bowl.  I later found out that there were 400 grams of shrimp, which a little less than 1 lb., but they were small and there must have been over 150 of them.  Eating them was further complicated in a good way by the fact that almost every one of them held a clutch of eggs between their legs.

Here is a picture,

So to eat one properly you first had to suck the eggs out of the legs, then remove the head and suck the bit of tomalley from the head, then peel the shrimp out of its shell, then dip it in either the aioli sauce of dill and sour cream sauce.  There were also slices of French bread and butter so on several occasions I gathered a pile of about a dozen shrimp and made an open faced sandwich on buttered bread.  It took me over two hours to eat the bowl of shrimp and help Suzette eat her steamed mussels and fish and chips.  The fish and chips was served with cottage fried halved new potatoes mixed with smashed green peas.

Suzette drank three glasses of German Riesling while waiting for me to finish my shrimp, which she was reluctant to help me eat.  I drank an English apple cider that was fermented from fresh fruit that was lovely.

After we finished it was about 5:00 and we were both very tired and went back to the hotel.

We had several cups of tea and both took showers and enjoyed crawling into a good bed for a change.

The food is not cheap but where in the world can you find this fresh seafood.

Bon Appetit