We always liked to be pleasantly surprised. Coming in by air to Oslo there was snow on the ground, it was cold and raining, but Oslo really did surprise us. We have called it 'The City of Sculpture'. Sculpture is in abundance here, the buildings are exciting, it's a stunning city.
Norway is the fourth wealthiest country in the world largely due to oil and natural gas production from the 80's in the North Sea.
Due to the cold and rain, we wonder if we will be able to see anything today. Janet overcomes this by going to a nearby hairdresser, MB goes to the post office, docklands, researches yoga and plans tours.
We are picked up at 6.30 pm by Janet's friend Lars ( they met in Perugia summer language school 25 years ago).
Lars wife Yvonne is half French and cooks us a beautiful Bouillabaisse . We share dinner with their two children Camille and Karl Frederik. It is very nice to go to someones lovely home for a home cooked meal in a foreign city.
Lars offers to be our guide in Oslo the next day, and he is keen to join MB in a swim in the cold Oslo Fjord.
The next day Lars picks us up at 10 am. He is a bit wary of the idea of swimming in the near freezing water, even though he is the Viking local. Therefore, he is going to wear his wetsuit, booties and cap. He can't believe MB is only in his 'Budgie Smugglers'. The beach ' Huk', is only 15 minuets away, the water is clean and coldddddd. MB thinks its about 5 degrees and I believe Lars thinks MB a little strange doing star jumps after a dip, waiting for him to get changed.
We are close to some of the greatest museums. 'Fram',( A ship made to carry out North Pole 19th century expedition. Later Amundsen took it to the south pole). Next the funeral Viking ships excavated from mud together with many funeral items. An amazing exhibit. Then onto the Maritime museum. The boys needed hot drinks and muffins to thaw out. MB bought some new model ships to add to his collection.
Next is the Thor Hyerdhals Kon-Tiki, again a great exhibit with lots of history of this amazing adventure across the Atlantic, and Pacific, in a reed boat.
Our next tour with Lars was to the famous sculpture park, created by Gustav Vigeland, over 50 years. This highlights our opinion of Oslo as a sculpture city.
Home for a rest and we say our goodbyes to Lars, until we meet again.
Mick needs to go to Yoga, he joins a quiet difficult Ashtanga class.
We then have dinner at 'Ekeberg', on the hill overlooking Oslo, well recommended.
Day 3 Oslo, We are slow to start and it is our art day. We walk to the old section of the city near the old castle and Fortifications, to the contemporary art museum. There are some very good videos and drawings on exhibit.
Our highlight for the day is the 'Munch' museum a dedicated and modern building where there is a very comprehensive audio presentation of the work of this exceptional Norwegian artist. Amongst the large collection of his work is the iconic 'Scream', painted about 1889. We noted that a similar one is for sale at Southeby's for an estimated $80 million. We spent a couple of hours here, then headed back to the city centre for a walk through the city mall.
We wanted to see the Docklands area as the sun was coming out early evening, so we strolled along photographing many interesting aspects of this development, including parks and sculpture. We ended sitting in the sun at a comfortable and cosy waterfront bar sipping G and T.
We had a really great dinner at our 'Hotel Continental'.
We are now getting ready for our train trip tomorrow to Flam.
JB and Mick