From Saskatoon

From Saskatoon

YXE-MSP-ATL-JAX

Sunday, June 7, 2015

I arrived at Saskatoon International airport around 3:15 AM using a taxi cab. Since it was so early there was no one at the Delta counter. Then around 4 AM people came and I checked my luggage and got the boarding pass. The Starbucks opened around 4:00 AM too and got coffee and waited at the gate.

We boarded the plane on time around 5:50 AM but never took off for another hour or so as the pilot needed to get some clearance from the ground and main office due to some problem with a light. Finally we arrived at Minneapolis-St Paul almost one hour late. The Delta people requested that those who had connecting flight to leave early.

At MSP, I had to go through both immigration and customs. Fortunately, the Automated Passport Control (APS) and the airport helped me finish the process quickly. Then I had to wait for the luggage to arrive and cleared through customs and rechecked the bag. Fortunately, again the my gate was literally next to the plane from Canada. I then arrived at ATL around 1 PM.

My final flight to Jacksonville was at 3 PM and that arrived at JAX by 4 PM. I was surprised to see my luggage make it all the way from Minneapolis especially when it took a long time before everyone had collected their luggage.

I paid for the parking fee and headed home and arrived by 8 PM.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

June 1-7, 2015

During my stay several things I noticed in Saskatoon that are different from the US. Some of things I saw are posted here.

Since I was in Saskatoon in June there was lots of light both at the end of the day, say till 8:30 PM and early in the morning, say 4:30 AM.

View of downtown Saskatoon, SK from the South Saskatchewan River 

Post Box in Canada

There were lots of gophers in the University of Saskatchewan Campus. The South Saskatchewan river flows through the city.

Gandhi Statue in Saskatoon, SK

Canadian Light Source

Canadian Light Source

44 Innovation Boulevard, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

June 2-6, 2015

I came to the Canadian Light Source (CLSI) last night and stayed at the Ogle Hall. The taxi driver dropped me off around midnight and the CLS has provided the codes to open the door and arrangement has been made for me to enter the room.

I was kind of sleep deprived since I was still in ED Time Zone and Saskatoon was in MD Time Zone, so I had shower and went to bed quickly.

But around 4:30 AM there was lot light out since it is summer time and the latitude is around 62 North. So I woke up early and went to registration office by 7:30 AM and met with Shaun and got everything situated by 8:00 AM.

The Data Collection Workshop began by 9:00 AM and went on until 4:30 PM with lunch and coffee breaks. Then we toured the Facility and adjourned late in the evening.

Onward to Saskatoon, Canada

To Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Monday, June 1, 2015

I arrived at Jacksonville International airport around 4 PM. Parked my car in the Economy Parking Lot 1 and took the airport shuttle to get to the JAX airport.

Then my Delta flight to Minneapolis-StPaul left Jacksonville airport around 6:30 PM EDT and scheduled to arrive at MSP at 8:40 PM CDT. The flight was about 3 hours long and it was okay flight. Due to summer there was sunlight as we landed in Minneapolis-StPaul. I had to run to new terminal to catch my next flight to Saskatoon, SK.

My next flight was from completely in a different part of the terminal so I ran from F terminal to C terminal and there was only about an hour time and I had to have something to eat. I grabbed some sandwich at the C terminal and soon boarded flight to YXE. The flight was 2 hours long and arrived at Saskatoon, SK around 11 PM.

I had to go through both immigration and customs. Since it was a small airport there were only two agents and by the time everything was over, it was almost 11:40 PM MDT.

Unfortunately neither of my cell phones worked (T-Mobile prepaid and Mobal International). So I tried to log into Gmail. That got rejected because I was logging in from Saskatoon far away from home. So not wanting wait I took a taxi and went to Ogle Hall at the University of Saskatchewan campus. The ride was quick and costed C$22.

Gamla Stan and Skansen Stockholm

Royal Swedish Palace, Nobel Prize Museum

Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Toward Stockholm

Towards Stockholm
Oslo Gardermoen to Stockholm Arlanda

Friday, August 8, 2014

Our friend in Oslo gave us a ride to the Oslo Gardermoen International airport from our Hotel. The ride was pleasant as we chatted about our trip to Bergen and our friend updated about his family.

We picked up our luggage from his spacious Volvo car and run inside the airport as we had about an hour left before our scheduled departure to Stockholm. We were thinking it will be an international departure and hence more than 1 hour is needed. Fortunately for us we had more than 1 hour, the flight to Stockholm was delayed by 1/2 hour and the flight was more like a local flight and the crowd that morning was thin.

We picked some coffee and boarded the plane Blue1 for an 1-hour flight and arrived in Stockholm by 10:40 AM local time. Fortunately both Sweden and Norway were in the same time zone.

We then picked up our luggage and as we exited the arrival lounge found the Information Center. There we picked lots of information about Stockholm. Then we bought the to-and-fro tickets for Arlanda Express (since they were on sale for the summer), Stockholm Card for two days.

We then boarded the Arlanda Express and went to the Stockholm Central Station. Since we had difficult time in Oslo, we booked a taxi and arrived at the Omena Hotel at Torsgatan. As it turned out the Hotel was less than 3 minutes away and we decided to walk back on our return journey that way saving 110 SEK.

We arrived at the Hotel before noon and hence our pre-sent codes didn't work. We picked up the lobby phone and called the front desk. They checked to make sure our room was ready and it was and gave new codes to enter the building.

We came inside the room took shower. VtS and I went out to look for his record store and laundry. We couldn't find neither the coin-laundry nor his store. But found a dry-cleaner but he was closing for the weekend.

We then took some rest and in the evening walked around the neighborhood of the Hotel and visited the near by park. The park at Norra Bantorget was flanked by Olaf Palmes Gata and Torsgatan and we then picked some breakfast items at the corner 7Eleven and went to bed early for tomorrow's trip to Gamla Stan.

Aurlandsfjord and Nærøyfjord trip

Aurlandsfjord and Nærøyfjord

Norway In a Nutshell Fjords trip

Thursday, Aug 7, 2014

Today we left in the morning from Bergen, Norway using NSB Lokaltog (Local train) with our tickets from Norway in a Nutshell. The trip retraced the route we took when we arrived in Bergen yesterday morning. Finally we arrived in Myrdal after 2 hours. During the trip we met an American family from New Jersey.

We got of at Myrdal and we could see in the town and on the way there were ice covering the mountain sides. We were about 900 meter above the sea level and the temperature was 14 deg C. We waited for few minutes to get on Flam Railway (characteristic green colored train). The train journey lasted for an hour with a stop for nice water fall and slow descend back to sea level and we arrived at Flam. We visited the souvenir shop.

We then boarded Fjords1 cruise liner and took a two hour fjords trip via Aurland, Undredal, and finally arriving at Gudvangen. On our way we went through Aurlands Fjord and Naeroy fjord (very narrow and with different kind of mountain type).

From Gudvangen we took about 1 hour 15 min bus ride back to mountain side and arrive Voss (it was station between Myrdal and Bergen). We went to the souvenir shop there and took the NSB Lokaltog back to Bergen.

Since we already deposited our luggage in the station we had dinner (it started to rain) and stayed at the station until our night train back to Oslo S.

There we took the Router ticket and arrived at our Hotel. Our Indian friend gave us a ride back to Oslo airport.