Wednesday, July 16, 2014
So, with 5 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours, I am wide awake at 2 a.m. local time in Oslo. I have to write my thoughts or I will not return to sleep.
Collin came by the house on Monday and got his last orientation
for the house, for Loki, and the garden.
By 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Barb and I were sitting on some lawn chairs at
the garage’s big door, sipping a glass of wine, as Gordon and Carol drove in to
take us to the airport.
Our flight was on time and some 10 hours later we were
sitting in the airport at Reykjavik, Iceland.
An hour later we boarded a plane for the 2 ½ hour flight to Oslo. An interesting note, throughout the entire
flights, the sun shone on our left (north) as we traveled east and north. When does the sun ever shine “from the north”? It does when you are flying near the poles,
and you are looking across the icecap down on to the eastern hemisphere (ie.
China) where it is midday.
The Oslo airport was a breeze, waiving us through customs
not even stamping our passports. For 90K
($15, and the last “cheap” buy we will make it the next 3 weeks) we boarded the slow
train, which was really quite fast, and exited the National Theater stop to
find our hotel across the street. We
checked in (flowers were on the dresser, a gift from Torgeir and Heidi,
welcoming us to Norway) and even though we were tired and beat, we began a walk
around downtown Oslo.
Excited to be back in Norway (not since 1973), and once again
in Oslo, we headed for the Akershus Fortress (c 1300) which overlooks the
harbor. The streets were filled with
tourists, most speaking Norwegian so presumably country folk coming to
experience their beautiful capital. July
and the first week or so of August is the typical vacation time for Norwegians so
many businesses are closed as people head to other countries, or to the country
or big cities. We walked by the
Parliament, hundreds of shops and eateries open for the tourists, and found
ourselves walking up the cobblestone road to the fort.
Akershus not only guarded the harbor, but also served as the Royal Castle for Christian IV and Olav I. It now serves mostly as a cultural and historic icon, with many ceremonies and a few museums inside its walls. We wanted to stop at the Resistance Museum but the balmy warm weather and beautiful scenery drove us on.
We exited the fortress and walked to the harbor, passing as well by the Nobel Peace museum. Much of the walk was cobblestone, quaint but hard on my ankles. But I didn’t let that stop me which will pretty much be my attitude the next 3 weeks. The harbor plaza, spacious, pedestrian friendly, beautiful, and very busy, was filled with a few street performers and thousands of tourists. We stopped around 6:30 p.m and ate at a waterside restaurant. Here the prices of Norway hit us, $50 entrees and a $17 draft beer. Oh, it is worth it, we decided, and we never again in the next 3 weeks let the high prices of Norway stem our enthusiasm to do what we wanted to do. Oh, we will economize, sometimes eating from a supermarket or food kiosk, and we will go the least expensive way transportation wise and we will walk, but we will never let the price discourage us from having a grand experience. We took the around 5 block walk, albeit slow, back to the hotel and collapsed about 8 p.m
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| Downtown Oslo looking toward the Royal Palace, home of King and Queen |
Akershus not only guarded the harbor, but also served as the Royal Castle for Christian IV and Olav I. It now serves mostly as a cultural and historic icon, with many ceremonies and a few museums inside its walls. We wanted to stop at the Resistance Museum but the balmy warm weather and beautiful scenery drove us on.
 |
| View of downtown harbor Oslo from Fort |
 |
| Ceremonial Guard outside Fort |
We exited the fortress and walked to the harbor, passing as well by the Nobel Peace museum. Much of the walk was cobblestone, quaint but hard on my ankles. But I didn’t let that stop me which will pretty much be my attitude the next 3 weeks. The harbor plaza, spacious, pedestrian friendly, beautiful, and very busy, was filled with a few street performers and thousands of tourists. We stopped around 6:30 p.m and ate at a waterside restaurant. Here the prices of Norway hit us, $50 entrees and a $17 draft beer. Oh, it is worth it, we decided, and we never again in the next 3 weeks let the high prices of Norway stem our enthusiasm to do what we wanted to do. Oh, we will economize, sometimes eating from a supermarket or food kiosk, and we will go the least expensive way transportation wise and we will walk, but we will never let the price discourage us from having a grand experience. We took the around 5 block walk, albeit slow, back to the hotel and collapsed about 8 p.m
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| Dinner at the Oslo harbor with fort in the background. |
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