Warm and Sunny Oslo
Once again we are on the train which gives me a chance to catch up on blogs, this time heading from Oslo to Bergen – supposedly one of the top things to do in Norway so I am not sure how far I will get but so far there are a few tunnels.
We leave the lovely Olso behind after three amazing warm sunny days (well warm in a Norway sense that is). The flight from Barcelona was both uneventful and eventful depending on how you look at it. We were loaded on fine but unable to take off as eight people had checked in fully with their luggage and then failed to board. There was a lot of activity in the plane’s hold checking and removing luggage. It certainly seemed an odd thing for eight people to be missing. It did make for some nervous scenarios but we couldn’t really see a Barcelona to Olso budget flight being much of a terrorist target. We did get away safe and sound but once we arrived in Oslo police were checking all our passports and our luggage was quite delayed in coming out to us in the arrivals hall – better safe than sorry I suppose. Flying in to Oslo was amazing we just flew over iced over lake after iced over lake some of them absolutely huge.
Anyhow we were very happy with our little picnic on the wharf, the sunset and just soaking it all up. Feeling like a really safe city we left Holly to head home to our hotel and Cam and I took to the supermarket again. It is just hilarious, with the euro and pound it was really easy to get an idea of how much things are but the NOK is like 1 NZ buys 5.65 NOK so 20 NOK was like NZ$3.65 and for some reason I just could not get it to stick in my head so was forever trying to convert it – the supermarket was called KIWI and everyone who worked there wore complete outfits of lime green, really really amusing.
Our first full day in Oslo dawned sunny as well so we decided to do as much outdoor stuff as possible and as usual packed in heaps. This is the only place we have brought the city card that all major cities have – it covers all your transport (trams, buses and ferries) and entry into pretty much any museum. Contrary to every other thing in Oslo it was worth forking out for. A wee tip for anyone buying the Oslo card – it’s just a piece of small cardboard like any other ticket so having something like a slip of plastic to keep it safe in is a really good idea, it would be so easy to lose or damage.
We took the ferry over to Bygdoy. First stop was the Viking Ship museum, definitely worth a visit and really interesting. It was also good to get there as it opened, when we went to leave great numbers of tour buses were arriving and totally ruined the atmosphere. Holly particularly loved it as it is full of archaeology findings, including the restored ships that had been used as burial tombs. A particular bonus given she is interested in conservational archaeology, was having someone on site doing 3D scanning of artefacts.
On to the second museum, a folk cultural one which is largely outdoors and is absolutely huge. We were there for ages but still did not manage to finish it. For those from Christchurch it’s like a massive Ferrymead, they have brought in farm cottages and barns, Stave church etc. to show how people lived in the various parts of Norway as well some more modern parts which we skipped. The main thing we loved about it was the lack of tourists.
Final museum of the day was the ski jump and ski museum at Holmenkollen. Kind of picked this one for Cam but actually we all really enjoyed it, especially Holly playing in the “Snow” Of course skiing has been part of the Norwegian culture for ever, how else would you get around!! Particularly cross country skiing. Holly and Cam also tried out a ski jump simulator for a laugh – I think they both decided the real thing might be better. We could then take an elevator to the top of the ski jump – wow these people are nuts!! Was a great view over Oslo though and out to more frozen lakes. It was really worth the trip out on the metro.
And if that was not enough I was really keen to take in the Frognerparken near our hotel before sunset, which has heaps of Vigeland sculptures. Oslo appears to have statues and sculptures everywhere and they are all naked (seems odd for such a cold country J) Frognerparken is a pretty famous park and you can see why. There are just so many sculptures of individuals, groups, a tower of intertwined bodies and the expressions on the faces are just fantastic, two of my favourites I have put a picture of are old women one quite distraught and the little girl keeping her brother (?) out of a group. Holly and Cam did a fairly good job of recreating one but that was as far as Cam got in terms of convincing us to give it a go.
Our final day also dawned sunny – YAY; where is this horrid cold Norway weather? Back on the ferry we went over to do the Fram Polar museum and the Kon Tiki one (crossing the Pacific on a raft). Both were really worthwhile and fascinating to read about what they achieved. In the Polar museum they have a complete reconstruction of the Fram ship that you can walk through. It was pretty impressive for a wooden boat that survived Antarctica. As for the Kon Tiki – man they were completely mad but they made it!
In the afternoon we tried out a self-guided walk that a couple of American girls gave us that they had done. It was really interesting taking us up through the old cemetery, some of the old housing (now fancy for professionals), a student area where old grain silos have been converted into accommodation and up in the old factory areas where there were some pretty impressive waterfalls – when the factories were in action you could tell what colour they were dying by the colour of the water. We decide to split off then, Holly back to the accommodation, Cam to a final museum and me to have a ride on the ferry around all the wee islands in the harbour.
The evening was another night of finishing up food and packing for the next leg tomorrow but Oslo was certainly a bit of a highlight for me. Bring on Bergen.
Beautiful Beautiful Bergen
Sadly I am rushing to write this before Travelpod closes its doors so I probably do not give the beautiful Bergen enough credit – rest assured we loved it and when I find time I will come back and expand on this!!
Leaving Oslo the train ride across to Bergen was a huge surprise in terms of how wintery it still was with whole lakes frozen over and snow flurries along the way. We were just exclaiming constantly about the view and half buried homes all the way.
I was quite surprised on arriving in Bergen at how huge it was, somehow I had imagined a little place but in some ways the area around old Brygg en is indeed small and peaceful, especially at this time of the year. That was my other disappointment I did not realise that there were few trips to the fiords at this time due to the frozen water but never mind we did find one and it was fantastic!!
Our accommodation was small and quaint set in the homes behind the old town and run my a lovely family. It had everything we wanted just in a small and lovely space. I loved just walking around and exploring and Cam and I took the local but up the hill to overlook the city, it was a bit misty but you could imagine how impressive it was on a sunny day. I loved all the little buildings and quaint shops and again because it was out of season every one was unrushed and relaxed. We wandered around the old castle site, found great spots to get the sunset and generally explored. We had only one meal out as food cost is horrendous but that worked fine as our accommodation catered well.
The second day Holly and I had booked a fiord cruise and Cam a ski day. Cam text to say how calm the old town harbour was so I was off with my camera while Holly slept in to get a few pictures – it was incredible and I was entertained for ages. later in the morning we caught our cruise and rugged up warm so we could stay outside. I just don’t have words to describe how amazing it was – huge towering mountains, beautiful reflections, little villages along the way, waterfalls just everything I had imagined and these are not even the main fiords you would see in full season!!
All in all Bergen was a huge highlight for me and I just loved everything about it.
