6 June - raw salmon and reindeer

After expensive lunch and dinner over the past couple of days (practically double the price of the UK), we go for just sandwiches for lunch, plus a few coffee and cake stops as it’s turned rainy. Tris has a fancy for some reindeer before he leaves tomorrow, so we find a traditional Norwegian restaurant for dinner – the oldest in Oslo apparently; Engebret café. It’s old and dark, with a very different vibe to the trendy waterfront, but the service is excellent and the food just what we’re after. I start with a selection of raw, marinated salmon done in various different and delicious ways and Tris has the pickled herring he’s been wanting. Then we both have reindeer tenderloin with a rich red wine and berry sauce; a great end to a foody weekend in Oslo.

5 June - halibut with the beautiful people

After a late start and a longer-than-expected walk to find the Munch Museum via the opera house, it gets to almost 3 by the time we’re heading for lunch and I’m feeling wobbly and grouchy and desperate for some food, so we just go into the first place we find and I opt for burger and chips! Not very Norwegian, but actually quite tasty and once the food starts to filter through and my mood improves, not a bad spot to sit.

It’s another beautiful sunny evening, so we opt for seafood again, this time on the other side of the harbour in a really cool restaurant called Solsiden; which translates rather aptly as ‘sunny side’ as it catches the evening sun. More beautiful people and a really nice vibe in what’s essentially just a dockside shed, but feels wonderfully light with the sun streaming in through the huge open windows and the light sparkling on the water reflected on the white ceiling.

I go for the fish of the day, which is halibut with a lobster cream sauce with creamy mashed potatoes with spring onions – really good. Then we share a dessert; chocolate mousse on a chocolate brownie base with passion fruit sorbet. The rich chocolate and sharp passion fruit are a perfect combination.

4 June - Oslo lobster

We arrive in Oslo in more fantastic sunshine and just in time for a late lunch. We pick more-or-less the first outdoor café we come to and manage to work out goats cheese salad from the Norwegian menu (the words chevre and salat are enough to give us clue!). I also spot that the people at the next table have a carafe of some really nice pale, rose wine, so we go for some of that too. Great start to the weekend!

After a look at the little city guide in our hotel room, we head down to the harbourside for dinner in one of the seafood restaurants. It’s clearly the place to be on a bright sunny evening and there are several cool bars full of beautiful people. We opt for an in-between sort of place – not super-cool, but not TGI Friday’s! D/S Louise turns out to be a good choice. I start with beef carpaccio, then lobster thermidor, which is delicious.

We sit watching the world go by and waiting for the sun to go down, but give up at about 11 and wander back to our hotel, still in daylight!