Nicole's Visit: Oslo Day 2 and 3

After our first day of walking around Oslo we decided the next day to take in some of the museums.  I don't have pictures from all of them but we visited the Viking Ship Museum where they have three viking ships from the 9th century AD, as well as a lot of viking relics, was really nice. The ships were found in burial mounds. There is so much detail on everything, on gold, wood, iron, just fantastic.

Detailing on the prow of the ship

Dragon carving found in the burial chamber on the ship. One of them had rope in its mouth.

One of the ships

Another one of the ships.

After this we headed over the the Fram Museum where you can see the ship Fram that Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, and Roald Amundsen used in several of their Arctic and Antarctic expeditions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Check out this Wiki page for some general information on Fram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fram).  For more information on Nansen, Sverdrup and Amundsen, check out their Wiki pages.

We definitely saw some other site that day, the Maritime Museum (was not amazing).  We saw  the Munch Exhibit at the National Gallery, but maybe that was on Day 3. But I must confess, I don't really "get" paintings/art.  I find most paintings to be just okay, very few grab my attention or invoke any real thought/feelings.  I am much more interested in history and I do find photographs great.  Photographs may be because I take photos so I can appreciate the difficulty of finding the right shot, the right light, etc. Architecture interests me but paintings, not so much. Oh well, was nice to see.

Of course we ate at some point and also took our time to just relax and enjoy things too.  We sat down with a cup of coffee on the boardwalk just looking out over the marina/harbor. This bird came at one point and got quite close so I could take some nice pictures.

In the evening of Day 2, Nicole and I went to a World Cup Qualifying match, that's soccer. We saw Norway vs Switzerland.  I was hoping that because we were in Norway there would be a large contingent of die hard Norway supporters, and while there was more than 10000 people at the stadium, the Norwegian fans were very quiet.  There was not much cheering from the Norwegian, but the Swiss, oh boy were they loud.  There was not that many of them, though they did fill one section and you saw them everything throughout the day, all wearing red and white.  They chanted just about the entire game and that was great.

Now by the final day Nicole and I were starting to feel a bit tired of museums, but we had a few more we wanted to see and really could not think of much else to do.  First we went up to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump.  This ski jump is set on a big hill in Oslo and so has a great view of the area.  It also has a ski museum.  We spent some time there looking at the evolution of cross country and downhill skis and went to the top and had a look around.

Holmenkollen Ski Museum

View down the ski run

After the ski museum we looked at the Cultural History Museum but were really not feeling it.  We also had done some walking around and had a bite to eat, but by the time we got to the Cultural History Museum we were really done with museums.

Overall, I really liked Oslo, it is a capital city but it does not feel that big, it feels accessible and cozy.  Public transit is amazing, food was okay (pricey and fairly standard) and felt safe.

Next up: the trip to Bergen on the Bergen Railway, the Flam Railway, and a Fjord cruise (with a bus ride on Norway's steepest road).

Nicole's Visit: Tromso and Oslo Day 1

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.

Tromsø's Arctic Cathedral. Photo by Nicole

Looking out over Tromsø. Photo by Nicole

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)

National Theater.

Royal Palace and Gardens...open to the public!

Parliament?

Church

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.

Vigeland Park Obelisk

Vigeland Park Obelisk