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We had cause to visit Haugesund, on Norway’s beautiful west coast. We would have to make two journeys out there, one for a couple of days, then another a couple of months later. The only viable option would be to travel on Ryanair, due to the fact we had to be in Haugesund and there is a direct flight from Stansted that takes 90 minutes. The only other option would be on SAS through Oslo, which would take at least 5 hours with the transfer and would mean travelling from LHR rather than STN.
Trip 1
We booked the flights just over a month in advance. There were no special offers on so the flights cost us just over £287 for two people, of which £200 was the fare and the £87 was all the taxes and charges.
The itinerary was as follows:
GOING OUT
From London Stansted (STN) to Haugesund (HAU)
Tue, 23Jun09 Flight FR2254 Depart STN at 10:55 and arrive HAU at 13:40
COMING BACK
From Haugesund (HAU) to London Stansted (STN)
Thu, 25Jun09 Flight FR2255 Depart HAU at 14:05 and arrive STN at 14:45
23 June 2009
We woke up to a beautiful misty morning, and I took a quick photo before we set off.
We set off early on the Tuesday morning for the two hour drive down the A1 to Stansted. We arrived at Stansted at around 8am, and made our way through security to the gate area. Not knowing where we would be going through, we made an educated guess by looking at the departure screens that we’d be going through the 40-59 gates, based on the destinations of the other FR flights that morning. Most Euro flights were going through these gates, the only exceptions seemingly being flights to NI/ROI which went from the 80-89 gates.
We took position outside of the "Hamley’s” toy shop, a move we would later regret. After 20 minutes of hearing a little drumming toy going "Tap tap tap....whirr whirr whirr...Tap tap tap...whirr whirr whirr” constantly, I had enough and had to go and switch off the offensive toy!
I pondered how things would progress for this lovely airport, with a second runway in the planning stages, loads of room to grow and great transport links already in place, I thought how Stansted could realistically be London’s main airport in a few years time.
I passed the time by surfing the web a little, and grabbed a couple of coffees from Starbucks for us. At the magical "45 minutes prior to departure”, our gate popped up and off we went to gate 42. On the way we were accosted by FR staff trying to sell us priority boarding, but being first in line we saw little point in doing this. We assumed position right near the front of the "non priority” line, and sat and waited.
A group of pretty raucous 20-something travellers joined us. They had come in from Spain on Ryanair that morning and were headed for HAU. It seemed they were on some sort of tour, as the passports we saw included an American, South African, Spanish and Norwegian. We got chatting to the group who were friendly enough, and the American guy asked us "Can I just ask why anyone would choose to go to Haugesund?”. We advised them the reason for our trip and had a good chat before we were called for boarding and headed down the stairs to the ramp.
We headed straight for the back stairs and were greeted on board by a friendly F/A.
Date: Tuesday 23 June 2009
From: London (Stansted)
To: Haugesund
Airline: Ryanair
Flight: FR2254
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 26F
STD/ATD: 10:55/10:52
STA/ATA: 13:40/13:39
Block Time: 1:47
We were welcomed on board by the friendly captain, who advised us we would be on our way shortly.
It wasn’t long before pushback began along with the safety briefing. We made our way out to runway 05, a pretty lengthy taxi but the pilot was doing the usual Ryanair trick of keeping the speed up along the taxiways. We were number one for departure and taxied straight onto the runway, before powering up and off we went. I took a couple of photos as we climbed away from STN:
We climbed through the clouds and headed towards Clacton on the "Clacton 4 Sierra” departure:
We then took a left turn over Clacton and followed the Suffolk coastline before it disappeared into the distance. To be honest the flight was a typical Ryanair affair, lots of food doing the rounds, (chargeable of course), as well as duty free and scratchcards. The only view I got was of the North Sea, which looked very warm and welcoming in the summer sunshine (not that I was planning for a ditching of course).
The captain came on again to announce we were at our cruising altitude, but I don’t remember what it was
I passed the time by just gazing out of the window, the North Sea did look nice but after 90 minutes of water it starts to get a little boring! Eventually we saw the rocky outcrops of the Norwegian coastline in the distance. We made a left turn and at this point I was pleased I’d sat this side of the aircraft – the scenery was typically Norwegian, and very beautiful. We passed off the coast of Stavanger.
We began our descent just past SVG, and it became apparent by the lack of turns we’d be landing on the northerly runway at Haugesund. The captain came on to confirm this, and advised we’d be landing in approximately 15 minutes. The fasten seatbelt sign came on, and the crew came through to clear away the rubbish. The flaps started to be extended and we were soon on final approach to runway 32.
The approach was pretty bumpy over the rocky outcrops that litter the final approach path into Haugesund, and the slight dogleg turn on short final only serves to exaggerate the feeling of a bumpy approach.
The town of Haugesund in the distance of this shot.
Touchdown!
As we reached the other end of the runway and turned to backtrack towards the apron, the famous Ryanair fanfare was played, to the usual reception of laughter and clapping. "Welcome! You have arrived on another on-time Ryanair flight! Ryanair - for the best prices AND the best punctuality record!”
I can imagine the flight crew would tire of this after hearing it 6-7 times a day, but it never fails to cheer up the mood in the cabin after a flight.
We pulled on stand alongside a SAS 737 on one of the several daily rotations to Oslo.
We deplaned through the front doors onto the apron on a lovely warm summer’s day. This was the first time I’d been to a Ryanair destination that wasn’t a major airport, having only previously used EMA, DUB and ORK. It wasn’t as "bad” as I had imagined, in fact it was pretty pleasant. A very intimate little airport in a quiet location. After the SAS 737 headed off for OSL our Ryanair 737 was the sole occupant of the apron.
The one thing that was a bit of a pain was immigration. Although undergoing considerable renovation in the terminal, the immigration hall was woefully tiny and the queue from our sole plane full of passengers stretched round and round the hall, by the time we got to the front of the queue the back was stretching out onto the apron. Not bad in this balmy summer weather but given the unpredictable nature of the Norwegian weather I can’t imagine it would be fun standing out there in the midst of winter with gale force wind and pouring rain!
We made it through the terminal and found our way to the ‘Kystbussen’ that would take us into town. It was just about to leave by the time we had taken out cash and got outside, they don’t hang around for long!
The journey to the Radisson SAS took us around 15 minutes through some lovely countryside, looking very different to the snow covered wilderness we experienced in Tromso back in December.
After our appointment in Haugesund on the Wednesday we headed into the town, which was a pretty little town with lots of shops. Not a great deal to do here, the real fun here is to take a car and drive around the fjords, but nevertheless there is plenty to do in town for a couple of days, and loads of shops.
Midnight sun was a bummer though, we were only a couple of days after midsummer and at midnight the sun wasn’t up, but it was still broad daylight. Even with blackout curtains we struggled to get to sleep!
On Thursday it was time to head back to the airport, and as we had been rushing around sorting a few things out the morning flew by and we were soon running late! We caught a taxi directly to the airport and surprisingly had beaten the rush.
Security weren’t letting us through yet as there was a delayed Eurocypria flight sitting on the ramp, and the international gate was still full of passengers bound for Heraklion. Once again we questioned why someone from such a beautiful country as Norway would want to go abroad for a holiday – I guess everybody needs a break sometimes though.
We eventually went through, and the security agent was pleasant but firm. Needless to say it was a breeze, and we were soon in the airport’s international gate. The gate at Haugesund is a cramped affair, with a seating area down below and a duty free shop above. It reminded me a lot of Zakynthos a few years ago, or indeed any of the smaller Mediterranean airports. The airport is getting pretty busy these days though, with Norwegian and SAS both operating multiple flights a day into Oslo, Ryanair operating EDI and STN flights, and SAS operating flights into Newcastle. Then you have the charter flights, and finally a few prop services to Bergen and other coastal airports. A modernisation of the airport is taking place at present, but a new terminal is what the airport really needs.
The Eurocypria flight remained at the gate for a long while, with passengers all boarded and doors closed. No idea what was happening but it was still there when we left later on.
We were soon raised from our boredom by the sight of an aircraft on approach, which was our 737 arriving from Stansted.
The flight deplaned and we stood near the front of the queue ready to pounce, assuming the position
Then came the announcement "Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly begin....” at which point such a crush pursued that the rest of the announcement was drowned out! Glad we got to the front early then!
Date: Thursday 25 June 2009
From: Haugesund
To: London (Stansted)
Airline: Ryanair
Flight: FR2255
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 25F
STD/ATD: 14:05/14:15
STA/ATA: 14:45/14:41
Block Time: 1:56
We walked across to the aircraft and again headed straight for the rear stairs. Again we were greeted by a friendly F/A at the back door. I picked our seats on the right hand side, in the hope that I’d get a better view of the south coast of England on our way in.
The captain welcomed us aboard and said although we were running a few minutes behind, we had favourable tailwinds on the way back so we should still have an early arrival into Stansted.
Most of the passengers on this flight were Norwegians from the Haugesund area coming over to London on holiday by the looks of it. There were also a few old English couples (socks and sandals material), presumably returning from a holiday driving around the fjords.
The crew soon came through the cabin shutting the overhead bins and shortly after we were being pushed away from stand. Off we headed to runway 32 for a northerly departure.
We rotated about halfway along Haugesund’s 2120m runway, getting a view of Haugesund for the last time in a couple of months.
It felt very strange leaving such a beautiful place to come home, knowing that in a little under two months we would be back, in fact already holding tickets and hotels for our next visit to Haugesund. It felt almost as though we were taking a holiday away from Haugesund, but equally going home to work and normal daily life. Very strange.
We climbed away from the Norwegian countryside over the North Sea, when the plethora of wares was thrust at us. Again we had food, drink, duty free, scratch cards, are we sure we didn’t want duty free the first time, you get the picture. Once again the North Sea looked balmy and blue, almost as though we were in the Caribbean when in fact we were somewhere halfway between Newcastle and Norway.
We soon saw "land ahoy”, and we got a clear view of the English coastline to the south of Lowestoft:
This photograph shows the town of Southwold, Suffolk right below the end of the wing, further up the coast where the land juts out is the port of Lowestoft, as the land bends round even more at the top you can just make out the long sandy beach of the seaside town of Great Yarmouth – what a great view of the East Anglian coastline from up here!
We flew over RAF Wattisham, and got a good photo of the airbase and my brother’s house in the bottom left hand corner of the picture (although I didn’t know this until I researched the picture after we were home – how ironic!):
We soon began our descent and the crew began their rubbish collection duties again – a thankless task. The fasten seatbelt sign was soon illuminated and we began our series of turns to line us up with the ILS for runway 05.
Cue fanfare and "Welcome! You have arrived on another on-time Ryanair flight! Ryanair - for the best prices AND the best punctuality record!” Laughter and applause again before we were welcomed by the Eastern European sounding stewardess.
We taxied in and pulled up at gate 40, and made our way to the rear steps to disembark.
After transiting the terminal and going through immigration, we were in the carpark within 10 minutes and ready to begin our drive home.
Within two months we would be back here at Stansted, ready to do the same trip again, but this time for a 10 day stay in Norway...
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PART 2
We returned from our first trip to Haugesund, and with an unscheduled business trip to Scotland in between (trip report to follow), the next flight was off to sunny Haugesund again.
We had booked the flights whilst away on our first trip, and there was a special offer on for one leg, meaning one way was £5 inclusive of all taxes, but the return leg we had to pay for. We had also taken two suitcases this week (cheaper to load two suitcases with home-bought food than pay Norway prices for 10 days), in total the price was just over £156 for the both of us, of which £49.98 was the actual fare and the rest taken up by taxes and charges.
The itinerary was booked as follows:
GOING OUT
From London Stansted (STN) to Haugesund (HAU)
Thu, 13Aug09 Flight FR2254 Depart STN at 10:55 and arrive HAU at 13:40
COMING BACK
From Haugesund (HAU) to London Stansted (STN)
Fri, 21Aug09 Flight FR2255 Depart HAU at 20:30 and arrive STN at 21:10
This time, rather than drive to and from the airport for our flights, on a friend’s recommendation we decided to stay the night before and after in a Travelodge in Harlow. This was right next door to the railway station, in turn a 20 minute train ride straight into the bowels of the airport. We could park the car at the rail station for a lower price than airport parking, and with the hotel each end it didn’t work out any more than the parking at the airport would have been.
So here we were, for the second time in as many months, heading down the A1 on a Wednesday afternoon for Harlow. It was a scorcher of a summer’s day, and after hitting a snag of traffic after coming off the M11 into Harlow, and after driving back and forth for a few minutes trying to find the place we eventually pulled into the Travelodge car park.
This particular Travelodge was a nightmare from the start – no air conditioning and our room directly overlooked the Harlow ring road. With the windows open the room was still like a sauna, and we were kept awake most of the night by lorries and boy racers flying up and down all night. Morning came and we made our way across the car park to Harlow rail station in time for the train to Stansted.
The train was pretty quiet for such an early train, and within 15 minutes we pulled underneath the terminal building at Stansted. We had been fearing the worse at this point (especially as the previous week had held huge delays checking in baggage at STN due to a lack of counters being open). This was the reason we were stood here, at 7am, four hours before the departure of our flight. If this wasn’t early enough then it was tough! As it was however, there were no queues at this time, we dropped our bags off and headed for security.
My wife had to carry some syringes through security, and we were worrying about whether they would allow us through or if we’d be delayed. As it was, we simply handed the guy a letter from the clinic, who read it and said “that’s fine”, before shouting to the X-ray guy “Needles in this one mate”. And that was it – very straightforward!
We made our way down to the 40 gates presuming that we’d be going from the same end again. Drumming toy was still drumming and for 3 hours we had “tap tap tap....whirr whirr whirr.... tap tap tap....whirr whirr whirr....” grrrrr...
Couldn’t be bothered to turn it off this time, I put my headphones on and caught up on some South Park and Simpsons on my laptop. The time flew by, and after the obligatory Starbucks coffee, gate 42 flashed up on the screen. We were off!
We made our way to gate 42 past Ryanair staff who were still trying to sell priority boarding – were they still here? After a short wait at the gate, boarding was announced and we made our way down the steps onto the apron, and headed toward the back doors of the waiting 737.
Date: Thursday 13 August 2009
From: London (Stansted)
To: Haugesund
Airline: Ryanair
Flight: FR2254
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800 EI-DAR
Seat: 26C
STD/ATD: 10:55/10:53
STA/ATA: 13:40/13:25
Block Time: 1:32
For this flight I was generous and decided to let the other half have the window seat. I took the aisle seat ready to move to the middle should I need to, thus reserving us a nice row for the both of us. For this reason there aren’t many photos of this flight!
The captain welcomed us aboard, giving us an overview of the route and our flight time, which today was estimated at around 1:30.
We pushed off stand a couple of minutes early, and began our taxi out to runway 05 again. The engines powered up and off we went. Again we followed the Clacton 4 Sierra departure, out to Clacton-on-Sea and then following the Suffolk coast over the North Sea to Norway.
In many ways this flight was identical to the last flight to HAU back in June, even the weather was very similar. The flight was around 95% full, with only a couple of spare seats (one next to us!).
The crew came around selling food and drink, and I settled down to watch some “Air Crash Investigation” on my laptop. This didn’t go down too well with the Eastern European steward, who gave me a look of bemusement and said “I see aeroplanes – they are crashing!”. Ah well, it was interesting viewing and even more appropriate when on a flight! Once this finished the other half pulled me towards the window to see an aircraft just below us.
Sure enough, outside the window and maybe 2000ft below was a SAS MD-87 flying alongside us. This was the first time I’d ever seen an aircraft so close for a period of time while flying, and I tried so desperately to get a good shot but the aircraft had positioned itself directly below the heat coming from the back of the engine – so all attempts to get a nice photo were ruined by the heat haze! I was gutted, could have got a full frame shot here with even some ships and oil rigs in the background, but alas it was not to be.
I went back to watching some South Park, and the flight soon passed. We soon began our approach to runway 32 at Haugesund, in exactly the same fashion as before. Our approach was the “Sola 6 Victor” arrival, as on our last flight:
A small bump later and we had touched down in Haugesund. Cue fanfare and “Welcome! You have arrived on another on-time Ryanair flight! Ryanair - for the best prices AND the best punctuality record!” and a round of applause.
After deplaning we headed through immigration, again there was a long queue to be processed. We eventually made it through to the baggage hall where a long wait pursued. We watched the bags coming off of the aircraft, but it seemed that most of the flight had bought hold baggage and they were all being loaded onto the one baggage cart. Eventually they started to peel through and our bags came off near the beginning.
Next hurdle was to collect our rental car for the next 10 days. We had been allocated a brand new Opel Corsa, which was actually really nice. We headed for our first hotel of the visit, the Park Inn Haugesund Airport, only a 5 minute drive from the airport. We had this hotel as the Radisson SAS was fully booked this night, so we would have one night here and the rest at the Radisson. They had been very kind and upgraded us to a deluxe room, which was very smart.
The following day we had an appointment then went off to the Radisson. The next week was spent between appointments and sightseeing, we did a lot of driving and took lots of photos.
Soon our time in Haugesund came to an end and it was time to head back to the airport. The town had been very busy as there was first the Silde Jazz Festival in the town, followed by the Norwegian International Film Festival the week after. As such the airport had been very busy, to the extent they had erected a temporary marquee to handle check in! The airport was bedlam with buses, taxis and lots of people – I had never seen Haugesund Airport this busy!
We queued to drop our bags and headed for the cafe for a bite to eat, as we were not able to go through security just yet due to the lounge being full of passengers for a charter flight heading off to the Mediterranean. We went through to the baggage carousel and waited, it was getting later and later and no sign of our aircraft. The screens showed the inbound aircraft as “delayed”, and the aircraft was now due in 90 minutes late. Great, we thought. However, shortly after that, and bang on time, the Ryanair 737 came into view on final approach. Where they had got the information about the delay from is anyone’s guess.
However there was now another problem. After heading through security the passengers for the charter flight were all still in the gate area. `However there were now two 737s full of passengers trying to squeeze into the gate. To say it was cramped was an understatement! Something had to be done as the atmosphere in the gate was now deteriorating rapidly.
The charter flight was soon called for boarding. Strange we thought as there was no aircraft out there for them to go from. The passengers were boarded on a bus which then took them down the outside of the terminal to one of the domestic gates, where they were led into the domestic gate. Now the gate was only very busy instead of heaving!
Next it was our turn, and the gate agent announced our flight was ready for boarding. Usual procedure, priority and families with children first, everyone else crushes through separately. As usual there were only a handful of passengers daft enough to pay for priority boarding, and we were at the front of the standard queue.
We walked across the tarmac where it was raining, and on boarding at the front we were greeted by a friendly flight attendant.
Date: Friday 21 August 2009
From: Haugesund
To: London (Stansted)
Airline: Ryanair
Flight: FR2255
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800 EI-DAI “Nyköping”
Seat: 10C
STD/ATD: 20:30/20:30
STA/ATA: 21:10/21:03
Block Time: 1:33
The front few rows were all blocked off so we figured we weren’t too full tonight. We made our way to row 10, a few rows after the empty seats, and took seats A and C again.
The captain welcomed us aboard and advised we would have a good tailwind over the North Sea and therefore should be in around 10 minutes early.
We pushed back from the stand and were soon on our way home. We taxied to runway 14 and took off to the south, climbing straight out. We turned to the right and headed across the North Sea back towards home. We bought a Panini from the cart when it came round, and observed a flight attendant getting quite stressed out with one of her Eastern European colleagues.
You see she had been handing out people the wrong food, and the wrong change. The more senior F/A told her off at the row in front of us when she’d given somebody the wrong drink. She said “That’s going to mess the figures right up at the end of the flight”. She gave us a look that said “for crying out loud”, and we placed our order with her. The colleague went to get something from the kitchen, and I smiled at the senior F/A and said “Having fun?”. She said “Don’t.... You wouldn’t believe she’s been with us for six months now, and I’m surprised she’s lasted this long”. Now it was nice having a little conversation with her, but couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t really appropriate for on-duty flight crew. I have to say after numerous flights with Ryanair this is the first time I’ve seen a crew member act like this, normally they are very professional.
We continued on our south-westerly path and it seemed no time at all until the captain announced we were in the descent, and would soon be landing.
We came in for approach to runway 23, which was pretty interesting. We seemed to be going very level at a low altitude, and weren’t descending. I said to Rachel “This doesn’t seem normal”. We were still several hundred feet high over the end of the runway, and we could see the terminal building quite a way below us. “This definitely doesn’t seem right” I thought. Suddenly, the aircraft dived towards the runway, slamming into the tarmac with full force. It was the sort of force where you can hear the entire aircraft going “Oooooohhhh” at the same time. We had touched down maybe halfway along the runway, and vacated to the left. We had only a short taxi into the stand as we were on one of the 80 stands at the southern end, maybe this is why we touched down so late?
After deplaning we ran ahead to the train and boarded an empty train just as the doors were closing, looking out at the crowd of passengers following us down. Result! The empty train (apart from us) made its way back to the terminal remaining empty, and we got into the immigration hall ahead of the rush. We went straight through, and headed for the travel centre to pick up some train tickets back to Harlow.
Within 10 minutes of deplaning we were on the train waiting for it to leave, and 15 minutes later we were back in Harlow.
We checked into the Travelodge, where we were in a room at the back of the hotel this time, which was a lot quieter than the front was last time, although there were still boy racers doing donuts in the car park most of the night.
The following morning we set off home and were back for 10.30am.
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