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We
were docked nearest to the centre of town. Sundream, the Airtours
ship, was behind us, and Berlin [German? I assume:)] was around the
corner after two ferries]. We looked through the shops in the tourist
office and tax free place, picking up leaflets and then walked up to
Radhusbrygge in front of City Hall. Very pretty.
We
bought a family Oslo card which covers all public transport,
entrances to museums and various other things. 400kr, so about
£35. Got our monies worth. Took a tram from the front,
Radhusplassen, near the main Tourist Office, and went to the top end
[east] of Karl Johans Gate, which runs through the main business and
shopping district up to the Royal Palace. The route took us through
what could have been any large European city, not exactly clean
either and a bit dingy, crowded with buildings. I expected it to be
more open. Past the Fred Olsen head offices though, painted a mustard yellow! |
Looking
down Karl Johans Gate
up
to the Royal Palace |
We
walked down Karl Johans gate, where there seemed to be more trucks
and cars parked and driving through than pedestrians. Beverley asked
if there was a driving test in Norway, as no-one seemed to take any
notice of lights or what they should be doing. One van driving
through the pedestrianised area, even waited with us at a pelican
crossing for the lights to change and stop the traffic so he could go
over with us!
Thomas
sightseeing train
Further
down towards the Palace outside Paleet, the main inside Mall, was a
'Thomas' train, a train with 3 small coaches, driven along the road,
that does a sightseeing tour round the centre. So of course we had to
do that! Only half an hour. Just took us round the City Hall
{apparently the clock is the largest in Europe:)], Parliament
buildings, National Gallery, The Palace, the front, along where all
the cruise ships and ferries dock, by Akershus Castle, and then back
to the Paleet. Howard thought it was great, as everyone waved:)
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Holmenkollen
ski jump - Olympic venue in 1952 & 1994 |
After
the tram we walked across the Spikersuppe, grassy area with
fountains etc, along the road for a bit and caught another tram for a
long trip. No idea where it was going apart from the general
direction, and followed where we were on the map:) Good way to see
places:) Quite interesting, took us a long way through West Oslo,
some nice areas, some not so. Past and round The Oslo University, The
Palace, up to Vigelandsparken, the sculpture park, outside which were
numerous tour coaches! We could see a lot from the tram, and it
looked packed to the seams with tourists. The Igeland Park [part of
the older Frogner Park] contains 192 sculptures with more than 600
figures, all modelled in full size by Gustav Vigeland. I discovered
later from another passenger who had been on a tour, that their coach
driver hadn't stopped at Vigelandsparken due to there already being
too many coaches there, and took them to the ski jump instead. |
The
Main Oslo City Museum
is next after the Frogner Stadium and Recreation areas. We didn't get
off. Then down the hill back towards the centre and ended up getting
off at the stop where we got on the first tram. Couldn't have worked
out better:) Lunch time. As we were near the ship, we went on for
lunch on the Marquee Deck, outside. Weather was beautiful after the
initial mist lifted. Hot and sunny all day.
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Then
we took an hour's 'mini cruise' round the harbour:) Passed by The
Norwegian Royal yacht on it's way back from Spain. All crew on board
lined up for arrival, but King and Queen had departed. They have a
sailing yacht sitting on the stern. You can see the Olympic Ski jump
on the hill to the north of Oslo from the farside of the harbour. It
will take me ages if I go into all the detail! Howard fell asleep on
the boat, so Dave took him back to the ship. Beverley and I took
another ferry then to Bygdoynes, about a 10 minute trip, to where
Thor Heyerdahl's expeditions are on display at the Kon-Tiki museum
containing the original Kon-Tiki balsa-wood raft and the papyrus boat
RaII. Interesting to see the Tigres route through The Gulf in '77, I
remember that, and a small replica. Excellent museum. Beverley
enjoyed it, but she didn't want to go to any more museums. |
The Fram Museum |
I
went to The Fram museum next while she sat outside with an ice
cream. Very good too. Amundsen's boat. The complete Arctic
exploration ship is on display, built in 1892, complete with its
original interior and inventory. The ship was used for 3 expeditions
by Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen. You can go
inside and view the whole interior, cabins, engine room, galley, tiny.
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Then
we both went in the Norwegian Maritime Museum's boat house, mainly
old fishing boats up to 150/200 yrs old from around Norway. We didn't
have time to go in the main Maritime museum buildings. Beverley
wanted to see a real viking ship, but athough we had a brief peek
through the entrance couldn't see anything. There wasn't any time to
go to the Viking Ship Museum as well, it was a fair walk away:( We
had to go and catch a ferry back to the centre of Oslo and rejoin the
ship! Had time to collect a few little trinkets on the way at a shop,
and post a couple of postcards and that was it! |
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One thing in
Norway I didn't mention before, is the number of electric cars, and
there are special parking spots with electrical connections in the
car parks and on the street for them. AFAIKS they didn't have to pay
any extra for hooking up while parked either. Unless that is in the
form of a tax somewhere. They also travel around a lot on these
little motorised folding scooters [old fashioned one foot type] you
sometimes see in London. They are everywhere in Oslo. |
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Cruise
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