Oslo, Norway, and the North Sea

Reviewing the photographs I took in Oslo, it isn't immediately clear to me why I skipped it in the overview post of our vacation. Perhaps it is because we spent the least amount of time there? Nevertheless, now that I have looked more closely, it turns out I have loads of photos that I like, and hope you will too.

Without further ado, let's visit Oslo, shall we?

Because we'd arrived in the dark, at the first light of day, I took a little walk around the hotel neighborhood. As in most European cities, public transport is a way of life.

Can I just give a huge shout out to the team at the Thon Hotel for their amazing, included, breakfast buffet? So many wonderful choices and the photo below only shows a fraction of them.

Breakfast over, we checked our bags into their luggage room and took to the streets, making our way down Karl Johan, Oslo's main street which leads to the Royal Palace.

Along the way I became enamored of the utility covers,

as well as the colorful buildings.

For the life of me I can't remember what this building is but notice the subtle use of decorative tile work on the plaza. Looks like a fine quilt idea to me!

We made our way up the hill, reaching the plaza in front of the Royal Palace, which, sadly, was closed.

The understated exterior is imposing nonetheless, sitting high above the surrounding city streets. Behind the palace were lovely gardens,

where I went duck hunting, finding nothing out of the ordinary. I was struck by the statue of Queen Maud, again very plain, and nothing like anything I'd seen before.

That is, until we made our way through the tree lined path,

entering a plaza area where King Haakon VII is memorialized. Same sculptor?

Because Matt and Tom have been there before they knew the lay of the land pretty well, guiding us per usual, till we came to the City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually.

That would be the brick building with the two towers. The elephants? Part of a festival! Continuing our mini tour, we made our way to the waterfront where there were food trucks, including these two cute ones. And yes, English seems to be spoken everywhere.

Indeed we were in a good mood as we wandered to the interesting art museum I thought Bruce might enjoy seeing.

Seems to me that Norwegians like orange nearly as much as I do because I saw loads of it.

Not a troll like we saw in Bergen--a dinosaur maybe?

Families taking advantage of the sunny skies.

And while we did not go into the art museum, we did use their restroom. Could this be the future of toilets?

More wandering led us to a much older part of Oslo where this display about voting rights, for both woman and native Norwegians, was very informative.

And then we came across a flower market where we saw two new butterflies.

So very exciting to see them in the city center!

The Oslo Cathedral was just across the street where we made a stop.

We ate lunch somewhere that, for the life of me, I can't recall, but I'm sure we did not go hungry. Anyway, we made our way over the the Oslo Opera House where they encourage folks to walk on their roof! A very impressive building that sadly, was closed for an event. There are any number of new, exciting structures in the area, one of which is the new library shown below, still under construction.

Bruce was all over that cantilevered roof! We'd picked up our bags from the hotel by now as the boat was to be leaving soon so after admiring this area we made our way to the ship, walking along a lovely promenade. Seems to me that Bruce was beginning to feel something was not right but he soldiered on and easy as pie, after scanning our passports, we walked onto the ship, easily finding our rooms on the 11th floor.

For years Bruce has been trying to get me to go on a cruise although neither of us expected my first "at sea" experience to originate in Norway!! The view from the top deck before we took off.

The cluster of buildings to the right of the Opera House have been nicknamed, the "bar code" district for their modern look and likeness to the same. (be sure and check out the link because it looks way cool and I'm sorry it was not available to us that day!)

The room was super comfortable,

and the ship, a former Viking Cruise ship, was wonderful with four nightclubs, seven restaurants a swimming pool---not at all what I was expecting when Matt said he'd booked a ferry between Oslo and Copenhagen. 

We shared a lovely meal with Matt and Tom with a toast to our 46th wedding anniversary. We are still in shock that Matt thought of such a lovely gift, although we shouldn't be surprised as he is very clever when it comes to gifts. Nothing like his Mother!

Nothing extraordinary about the sunset except it was the first one I'd seen while on a boat.

Following a restful sleep (that is if you don't count my trip to the top deck in the middle of the night looking for nonexistent stars), the sun rose the next morning signaling our journey across the North Sea was near its end.

Finally, we've made it to Copenhagen! Although I don't know why I'm in a hurry to finish the travel blogs because the only news from here, aside from the now super hot weather, is the terrible tragedy Dave and Michelle witnessed. I wish that were not so because they are still very shook up.

Hope you are enjoying the travelogues and if you missed any, you can find one here, here, here, and here.

your friend,

Gail