I have been on holidays for two weeks! And the best part was that my lovely, amazing wife Nicole was here to visit me for my holidays. I was really starting to feel like I needed some time off away from work, so it was good timing, a chance to relax and reset. Sure I am now quite behind on many things and have many things to do in the next little while, but that's okay, it will keep me busy now that I am back to being on my own.
Nicole arrived on Sept 7 around mid-day. We headed back to my apartment so she could drop off her bag and have a shower. We then took the bus to town and just walked around a bit, checking out Tromsø's downtown. We did some minor grocery shopping since the grocery stores are not open here on Sundays and then an easy supper at the apartment. Nicole managed to stay awake until 8:30 or 9 before she needed to sleep. She did not sleep much on the plane ride over, despite taking a gravol ( a motion sickness pill which tends to make you drowsy).
On Sunday we went for a short hike in the afternoon up Fløya, the mountain with the cable car (I think). We walked by the Arctic Cathedral, a beautiful church in Tromsø. It was nice to do a short hike and get outside on a beautiful sunny day. I even managed to find some wild blueberries for Nicole to eat.
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| Tromsø's Arctic Cathedral. Photo by Nicole |
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| Looking out over Tromsø. Photo by Nicole |
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| Wild blueberries are so good!. Photo by Nicole |
Again we had a simple supper and then did some packing for our trip to Oslo. On Monday morning we flew to Oslo, grabbed the train downtown and then a tram to our B & B. The B & B (Frogners B&B) was a little disappointing, but mostly because we did not know what to expect. B & B's in North America tend to be someone's large home where there is a very personal touch to everything and they include breakfast. Here breakfast was available for an additional cost (so not really a B & B then). Don't get me wrong, the room was nice, the house nice and had a good location, right by to Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, but it just lacked that personal touch. We did not order breakfast when we booked and then we never saw the people who lived/ran the place again until we left, so there was no chance to get some insider information on places to eat, visit, etc
Anyway, we dropped our bags off in the room around 2pm and decided to go walk around and have a look in the Sentrum. We walked past a bunch of sites, stopping for a few photos but not really going inside anything but the main church (quickly)
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| National Theater. |
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| Royal Palace and Gardens...open to the public! |
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| Parliament? |
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| Church |
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| National Opera House |
We ended our day in the sentrum at Aker Brygge, an old fish warehouse area converted to numerous restaurants, shopping and apartments. It has a nice long boardwalk that you can enjoy and plenty of patios. We ate a nice meal at Olivia's and then had an ice-cream cone and walked along the boardwalk. It was great day, and then we went to Vigeland Park, right near the B & B, and it was great. Now, neither Nicole nor I are all that into art (in general). I find sculpture a bit more interesting so this was nice. It was also just a beautiful evening and a good way to cap the day.
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| Vigeland Park Obelisk |
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Vigeland Park Obelisk
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