Oslo and Home

24 to 27 June

Back in Oslo and we have two days to fill in before our flights take us south and home. We all decide that the Hop on Hop Off bus will give us a good look around and deliver us to the places we want to see. We catch the train from our Airport Hotel into the city and start the tour. The first stop for us is Vigeland Park, the worlds largest sculpture park made by a single artist. It features over 200 sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland, depicting the human form in various stages of life. The centre piece is called the “Monolith”. It is carved out of one piece of stone. This park is one of Oslos top tourist attractions. I’m guessing most tourist are as dumbfounded as us when looking at these sculptures.

The next stop was the Kon Tiki Museum and the Fram Museum. The Kon Tiki Museum shows Thor Heyerdahl famous balsa wood raft from the Kon Tiki expedition and the Reed boat Ra-11. Thor Heyerdahl was an adventurer, writer and archeologist who in 1947 sailed the Kon Tiki 8000 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean in the hand built raft, from South America to Polynesia with 5 crew. Then in 1970 sailed the Ra11, a boat built from reeds, from Easter Island. Both these were fascinating stories about a man who believed anything could be done and proceeded to achieve it.

After a quick lunch we continued into the Fram museum, which was even more interesting as we had just completed our cruise in the current day Fram. This museum houses the original Fram ship which can be viewed from the outside and walked through. I’m glad we had a few more amenities and more room than this ship.

The Polar Ship Fram was the first Norwegian specially built ship for Polar Research. It was used for three expeditions. First was with Fridtjof Nansen in1893-96 on a drift over the Arctic Ocean, second with Otto Sverdrup to the arctic archipelago west of Greenland in1898-1902 and thirdly with Roald Amundsen to Antarctica for his South Pole Expedition in 1910-12.

(P:-The “Fram” was an Ice Strengthened ship, being wood it was double planked and the ribs and inner structure were made of unbelievably strong timber beams. The museum’s were very well done and it was great to see the original ships so well preserved).

Mid afternoon we completed the Hop on Hop Off tour and trained back to our hotel. Dinner with the Emmett’s and goodbyes after dinner as they fly out in the morning.

Next day we pack our bags and put into storage for the day and train back into the city. Not sure what we will do but we have all day to do it. Once we arrive at the City station we decide to walk through the city centre and then head towards a food market area Philip has found. It’s a lovely walk as we turn away from the city and into more local areas. Found some great little side streets, steep, windy streets with cute houses and community gardens. Continued on through winding streets until we find the area for the food market. Not much open yet so we continue to the local park area for a sit in the sun and some people watching. Once the market is open we find a coffee shop for some refreshments before checking out the goods on display here. Some great cheeses, aged meats, European style snacks, and some tasty looking sweet treats. We find a stall selling goulash and some pork ribs and decide to have lunch before walking back into the city. It’s delicious and a nice meal to have before heading back to the airport and airport food for the next day.

(P:- Norway has been an excellent country to visit, (mitta said that before) Oslo has been enjoyable and somewhat quirky, I really enjoyed walking into the Suburbs and along the water front. Sunlight must be in demand as every spare beach front, port area and sidewalk seemed to be in premium demand for some sun bathing).

After travelling for 33 hours we finally reach home. We have travelled around the world, had wonderful experiences, enjoyed the company of old friends and made many new memories.

But it’s nice to be home again.

So we are signing off from this trip and thankyou to all of you who read our blog. It makes it worth while when we get your comments.