Tuesday 9.21.2010

 Oslo City Tour

We're greeted at the door of our room at 8:00 AM this morning by a young Norske lady bearing chunks of bread, a slice of processed cheese and small tubs of organ meat. Well, at least she does have some small cups of coffee.

We're doing the walking tour of the city this morning and start at the local flower and produce market. Pickin's are a little slim this time of year but the things they have look nice with some unusual blooms that we don't recognize. We backtrack to the central station to check on local transportation cards and hit the postoffice. We read about the history of the area--blah,blah,blah--before moving to the Cathedral. It was of course originally Catholic and for the last 400 years definitely Lutheran. This is where the royal weddings and funerals take place, the most recent of which was in 2001 when the crown prince married an unwed mother and commoner. Oh, the scandal. The cathedral seems plain by other major church standards (although with a nice royal box), but that must be the way they want it.

We pop back out onto Karl Johans Gate (pronounced "gotta' in the local lingo) and duck into the Grand Hotel. This is where all the big shots stay for the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize in December. All of the other Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm but old Alfred Nobel threw Oslo this prestigious bone. The hotel is indeed fit for the peaceful royalty that comes each year. We continue to the National Gallery and spend an hour looking at breathtaking Nordic landscape paintings, and the epitome of despair from Edvard Munch. It did indeed elicit a “Scream” from us.

Time for a lunch break. We passed a hot dog stand in the park a ways back and get the hot dog and Pepsi combo for the very special price of 30 NOK ($5) each. We have figured out how to survive. We’re making like locals sitting in the sun with our fist food near the fountain in the park. We are just in time for the 2:00 city hall tour that we have been informed (in writing) takes place every day. But, not on Tuesday. There is a tour on Wednesday at noon so we’ll see if that fits into our schedule.

We continue to move away from our starting point into the area of Aker Brygge, the trendy new area of shops, restaurants and bars along the waterfront near the ferry terminals. This place is hoppin’ for a Tuesday afternoon and it must be the sun and warm temps. We have been seeing plenty of young folks around for the two days we have been here, traveling in large groups, (No school? No work?) and generally doing as they please, always with a heater going and texting. We have almost been bowled over several times by people walking at high speeds while texting. Yesterday, one young fellow would have run us down if he hadn’t first run headlong into John’s raised umbrella. Oops.

Norway has gone from being among the poorest of Europe’s countries to one of it’s richest since the discovery of oil in the North Sea. It is the equivalent of Minnesota having access to all the oil in the gulf. The Norskies under 30 have never known the country that scraped by with mining, timber and fishing, but instead experience cradle to grave security from very generous government programs. We certainly don’t know enough about it to draw any sort of link between the country’s recent history and what we see on the street, but it will be interesting to see how this generation fares when compared to their very sturdy ancestors.

It is nice to find a bench and sit in the sun to watch the comings and goings of the ferries and a few pleasure boats trying to sneak in one last day of summer. There is a mile long walkway along the water that leads back to the area of the larger liners which we explore to find our ferry for tomorrow. From there it is about a twenty minute walk back to our room for a little break.

We’re going out to dinner tonight and have just taped our credit cards to our foreheads to let everybody take their best shot. We found a place called Brasserie 45 where we got a window table overlooking the National Theater and adjoining park. As good Norwegians, we had a cocktail at home, had two appetizers that we shared (fish soup and shrimp avocado dish), one entrée (Norske tapas assortment) that we shared, and a little wine so our budget did not explode. It actually worked quite well and our server seemed accustomed to the arrangement.

It’s 9:00, we’ve walked about 10 miles today and more to do tomorrow. Back to the gloomy BBC and bed.

How ‘bout those Twins!!!

Today’s weather: Clear and sunny. Low, 50 High, 65