ARCTIC ROMANCE

We stood on the tip of a frozen jetty overhanging the coal-black water of the Oslofjord. It was 5.30pm but felt like midnight. The sun had been down for more than an hour and the temperature was plummeting.

We could have chosen Bora Bora for our January break – or balmy Barbados – but instead we were in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, in mid-winter, dressed in full Arctic gear, catching snowflakes on our tongues. Clearly this was going to be a very different kind of romantic getaway.

We woke the next morning enveloped in the sheets and kittensoft blankets of the magnificent Thief hotel and threw back the curtains to find Oslo quilted with more than a foot of snow. More was falling as we sat in our polo-necks and enjoyed possibly the best hotel breakfast known to travelling kind: local