OSLO

It's a leisurely breakfast, collerct our bags from the room and get in line to disembarck.  We only had  about 15 minutes to catch the bus for our tour of Oslo and we didn't want to miss that.  We were right up in front and before too long our 8 ladies from Malaysia came a long and we got to talking again. One suggested we have our pictures taken together and we got a volunteer to do the taking.

Note all those suitcases.  Not ours!

We got off the ship and found our bus.  When we asked the bus driver where we should put our bags he pointed to the back of the bus so we found a door at the back, opened it up and sure enough it would hold luggage.  Only had a a big old chain on the step so I stepped over it and managed to get our bags in a little area so we could get them off quickly.  While we were leaving the luggage area we ran into our friends, dragging their luggage, and we told them where to put them.  I would have loved to have helped but I've come to realizie I'm not as young as I think I am and I can't take any chances getting hurt so they struggled on their own.  There are 8 of them and they're always smiling so when they returned to the bus the smile was still there.They didn't need my help.

The scheduled tour was a two hour duration and familiarized us with the city.  We were parked in front of the City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each December 10. It is the only Nobel prize given in Norway the others are presented in Stockholom.  At the time of Nobel's death and when his will was read Sweden and Norway were one country.

Oslo goes back to around 1000AD and has gone through great changes, even the name of the town has changed quit a few times before it became the city it is today.  It has been called Oslo, Kristiania or Christiania.  It's history began in the midle ages.  Around 1300 AD Oslo had about 3000  Inhabitants.  The town was the residence of King Hakon V (1299-1319) who commenced the building of the fortress known as Akershus .  From 1536 Norway was in a union with Denmark.  After a dramatic fire in 1642 the Danish King Christian IV rebuilt the town below Akersus and named the town after himself.

As a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars Denmark had to cede the territory of Norway to the Swedish King in 1814.  In the same year Norway got its own constitution and Christiania became the capital of Norway.  In 1925 the City name reverted back to Oslo.

The tour took us around the city and the  walls of Akershus are still remaining.  Inside Akershus are a number of museums and the grounds are used for numerous celebrations.

You can just see Akershus sitting on the hill behind the boats.

The tour had two stops.  The first was at Vigeland Park.  It is 80 acrea and has 212 granite and bronze sculpures done by Norwegian native sculptor Gustav Vigeland.  The Park is the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist.  "It is one man's exploration of the human form, including the bizarre and delightful."  All the sculptures in the park are nude except for one which is of the sculptor himself.  There wasn't enough time to see the park as it should be seen during our 2 hour tour and unfortunately we did not go back which we are really regretting.

Each statue is unique. Vigeland worked over a 20 year period and donated his works to the city of Oslo.  I managed to get a few pictures but the guide was really rushing from one area to another and I didn't want to get left behind.  Actually when I think about it I wish I would have.  

The "Monolith" is the focal point of the park.  It is made of one piece or Norwegian granite and has 121 intertwined human figures meant to represent the human desire to reach out to the devine.  

The sculptural groups around the monolith depict the circle of life - babies to oldsters.

                                

                           

                     

Sharon had run off and left me but some nice young man asked me if I wanted to have my picture taken.  Mmmmmmm interesting choice of sculptor he selected to have me pose in front of.  

This fountain is one of the highlights of the park and was originally designed to stand in front of the Norwegian Parliament.  The location, however proved controversial.  The sculpure consists of 60 individual bronze reliefs representing again the circle of life, with sculptures of children, teenagers, oldmen, and skeletons.  

The figures below also carry on the theme " The Circle of Life".

                                

The next sculptors are  on the bridge as you enter the park.  The theme on the bridge is the relationship between man and women and family.  This particular one symbolizes eternal love and affection.

Most famous - "Angry Boy"

There is also an angry girl but it's not so famous.  Probably because girls so seldom get angry that few people coud relate.  I'm almost sure that's the reason.

The park itself is beautiful.

                          Well we flew through the park  and as you can see there was so much to see  (Don't miss it if you ever get to Oslo). Next we boarded the bus and proceeded to Holmenkollen. It is the neighborhood where Holmenkollbakken, a large ski jumping hill is located.  The drive up to the hill had beautiful vista's and would have been wonderful places to stop and take photographs but we just proceeded up the hill.  I couldn't help but think the view from the top will be spetacular.  Nope. Not so unless you think a ski jump hill is beautiful.

Holmenkollen has hosted the Ski Festival since 1892, which since 1980 have been part of the FIS Jumping World Cup and 1983 the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup. It has also hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics and the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 1930, 1966, 1982, and 2011.  Between 2008 and 2010 the entire structure was demolished and rebuilt.  

We couldn't even get a good view of the city from here.  We were on top of the world and not a piece of it could you see from where we were.  Oh well.

The commentary on the bus was rather interesting.  In 1962 a US oil company asked permission to look for oil and gas in the area.  Nine years later oil was discovered and Norway went from being a poor country to one of the richest in the world.  Oslo is the most expensive city in the world.  ( I can vouch for that - I could hardly afford a glass of wine , $18.00  for a house wine.  There is compulsory military training for all men ages 18-44.  They are thinking of making it compulsory for all women as well.  Men and women are allowed 43 weeks of maternity/paternity leave with full benefits, 58 weeks with partial benefits.  All individuals have health care.  

We were let off at the City Hall and proceeded up the street to find a cab.  There was a taxi stand there so we got in the cab,told the driver the name of our hotel and that it was located near the central train station. We left the city hall, drove through a trunnel, and when we came out it seemed that we were far from where we had been.  We drove around and finally found the hotel.  Because  we couldn't 

find the hotel right away the driver had stopped the meter and told us that we were his first fare ever and he told us all about his relatives in the states, etc.  So friendly.  I gave him the 149 Norwegian Krone and a little tip bisides because he had turned off the meter and was loosing money on us.  Bid him good bye with a happy face.  Went into the hotel to check in and there were a few of our friends from Malaysia. We compared fares and found out they had been charged 148 Krone.  Close.  Went to the registrar and they didn't have our names.  She looked at the sheet I had from the travel agency and we were at the wrong hotel - only a few blocks away.  So with suitcases in tow we all left the hotel and proceeded to wheel our bags over the coblestoned street to the hotel with the same name, different location.  The poor Malaysia ladies had to tote their luggage too.  If you remember they had a lot more than we did.  When we got inside of our new hotel there were some of the other ladies from Malaysia sitting waiting for their friends.  They had paid 118 Norwegian Krone and gotten to the right hotel.  ( We paid $24 plus tip to be delivered to the wrong hotel and the 4 Malaysian ladies paid $19.00 to get dropped off at the right hotel.)  Oh well, it's only funny money when  you're traveling in foreign countries, isn't it?

We did get a nice upgrade and after unpacking a bit went over to the train station to exchange our voucher for train tickets.  Got that done and went to look for a place for lunch.  Found a cute little place close to the station and had a little lunch that included these :

Ordinary fries.

Extraordinary sauce to dip them in.

Mayonaise plus 

 Soooooooooo good!!!!!!!!

Just a half a day done so more to come.