Sidney and I wrapped up the two week Norwegian holiday with a trip to Oslo this week. Kimber drove us to the airport and we departed Stavanger and arrived in Sandefjord (south of Oslo), where we boarded a train to Oslo. There was work on the tracks, so we switched to a bus for the rest of the trip to Oslo.
Once there, we got right to work seeing as much as we could in two and a half days. Our first order of business was to purchase an Oslo City Pass. For 410 Norwegian Kroner (about $70) the 72-hour city pass gave us admission to all museums, free public transportation (even ferries), discounts on food and shopping, and even a two-hour cruise aboard a sailing ship with a shrimp buffet included! We probably saved around twice the cost of the pass while there.
We first went to the Royal Palace, where we walked the grounds and saw the Changing of the Guard. Here is Sidney with one of the guards. It was a good ceremony, and I must admire these guys for standing out in the warm sun in those very thick uniforms.
We then went down the hill and visited Oslo City Hall (where the Nobel Prizes are awarded) and the Nobel Peace Center. The mural in the picture is one of several in the City Hall Great Hall where the prize dinner is held. Sidney enjoyed the kid's scavenger hunt in the Nobel Peace Center and was able to add her name to the "Peace Tree" on exhibit there.
Afterwards, we went by ferry to the museum island of Bygdoy, where we visited the Viking Boat Museum and the Norwegian Folk Museum. The Viking ships are three original ships recovered from burial mounds near Oslo and preserved for display. They are 1100-1200 years old, and are exhibited with many other artifacts found in the mounds. The Folk Museum contains buildings, demonstrations and other features of Norwegian culture and history, including the stave church pictured here. There were cooking, music and dancing demonstrations as well as more historical artifacts on display. Also on this island are the museums for the Polar Ship Flam, the Kon-Tiki and the Norwegian Maritime Museum, as well as the Holocaust Center, but we did not include these on this trip.
We instead took a bus from this museum to Vigeland Park, where there are several sculptures by this famous Norwegian in a beautiful urban green space. I must admit the sculptures are very appealing, though the expressions are a bit strange. Sidney also enjoyed this park as it had a Castle Park (a huge playground that looks like a castle.) After a little while relaxing in the park, it was back down to the waterfront area for dinner. I broke down and we went to TGI Friday's (yes - same menu as in the USA!) and we had hamburgers and buffalo wings. One thing I must admit here is that the Norwegians have made me a bit self-conscious about how I eat hamburgers and sandwiches in general. They eat theirs with a fork and knife. I hate to look like a rude American, but I must eat my hamburger with my hands!
After a good night's rest, we went on our two hour cruise with the shrimp buffet (Sidney ate as much as I did). We saw several sights along the fjord, including the new Oslo Opera House. We also saw the royal yacht Norge, and some fantastic views of the harbor. Several cruise ships and large ferries were in port, and Sidney commented on each one.
We went from the cruise to Akerhus Fortress and Castle, where Sidney enjoyed actually getting to go inside a real castle. While she didn't see any princesses, she did get to see the king's room and lots of really cool old castle buildings. I found it interesting to encounter a statue of Franklin Roosevelt on the way up to the fortress, but I suppose it has to do with the American support for Norway during WWII (kind of a contrast with what we saw in Kirkenes.)
We then traveled to the east side of town to the Museum of Natural History and the Munch museum. Sidney was getting tired by the time we reached the Munch museum, but still enjoyed another scavenger hunt for various paintings. She also learned to identify two of his most famous works, "Madonna" and "The Scream", though she calls the latter "The Man That Was Screaming." This picture is her impersonation of this famous work.
We had dinner at an Arabic restaurant in the Greenland neighborhood before returning to the hotel for a swim before bed.
Our last morning included a visit to the reptile museum (Sidney wanted to see the snakes eat - we didn't see that, but did see a Cayman crocodile eat a large cricket) and a little shopping. We then boarded our bus, then train, then plane back to Stavanger to meet Kimber in the car for our final ride home.
Oslo was a very easy city to navigate, and public transportation was readily available everywhere. Pictured are a couple of trams, which make up the public transportation system along with buses, ferries and the subway. Everything runs pretty close to schedule, and there are digital signs at most stops that tell you when the next bus is to arrive.
The next post will probably be a slightly-overdue post about Kimber's experience offshore, but the travels occured before she could post it earlier. Until then...
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