Wednesday 9.22.2010



Whirlwind Oslo

Our nice Norske girl with the bread and cheese is at our door at 8:00 AM again this morning but without the tub of mystery meat. Instead she has a tube of some sort of vegetable concoction. We stick with the bread, cheese and coffee.

We’re packing up and checking out this morning. We have most of the day for Oslo so leave our luggage in the little reception area at the hotel. We think it will be well supervised because it is virtually under the feet of the front desk guy.

We buy a couple transportation tickets that are good on the tram, bus or subway, and the catch the #12 tram to Frogner. This is a nice close-in mixed residential/commercial area with leafy streets and big urban private homes. It’s sort of up the hill from the palace so on a snootiness scale it is all about location, location, location.


Our destination is Frogner Park which is a 75 acre blend of calmness, recreation and art. Norway’s greatest sculptor, Gustav Vigeland, got a 19 year (1924-1943) gig here to create as many statues as he could to adorn the park. By cranking out more that ten groupings per year he wound up with 600 figures displayed perfectly amid fountains, ponds, gardens and granite pathways. There is a bit of drizzle as we move among the almost-living figures, but it certainly doesn’t dampen our appreciation for this display. The Norwegians are justly proud of this place and we really could have spent all day here.

Instead we walk a few blocks past a collection of really nice clay tennis courts to catch a different tram for a change of scenery on the way back into the city. We have to hustle to catch the 12:00 City Hall tour and make it just in time. This a pretty big-time building where they actually hold the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. Our guide has a mixed Norwegian/English speaking audience so she has to describe everything twice. About 25 minutes into our one-hour tour she lets us know that she has a previously scheduled school group so we have to finish the tour on our own. We get only about 12 minutes of tour in English but it is hard to whine when it’s free. We do our due diligence and finish walking the perimeter of the building and reading all the appropriate signs, but we really didn’t have to hustle back to do that.

The water side of City Hall has active fountains and sculptures galore leading back to the dockside area of Aker Brygge. It is now cloudy and cool but we have decided that we will have an outdoor lunch on the water so, darn it, we’re going to do it. After looking at 12 different restaurant descriptions of $25 hamburgers we finally relent and go to TGI Fridays. It is on the water and we think it is Norwegian beef, and this third-pounder is only $16.50 and comes with fries.

We still have a couple hours to kill so we take a few new streets downtown and poke into some stores that look interesting. We have been told that Oslo isn’t the “real” Norway, and we prefer Stockholm but it is still interesting. We wouldn’t come to Europe just to visit Oslo, but glad we popped in while in the neighborhood.


We pick up our luggage, put our heads down and begin our mile long forced march to the afternoon ferry to Copenhagen. We arrive in plenty of time so get a chance to explore the ship and sit “up top” for a while. It starts to get windy and cool so we move into the lounge for a beer and a warm view of our departure through Oslo Fjord.

We think it is time for a little pre-dinner nap, and get back to our room to find a loud beeping noise (6-longs and a short – repeat) coming from our intercom. After pushing all the buttons four times, John goes to the service desk where they promise immediate help. A young officer with a younger officer in tow shows up to resolve the problem. He pushes all the buttons four times, rattles off a few sentences in Danish and marches out the door. Mary says, “WHAT?” After about a ten count his head appears around the door and says, “You don’t speak Danish do you?” He tells us that he has decided that he needs to call the ship’s electrician. He’s back a few minutes later with the right formula from the electrician, unsuccessfully pushes a few more buttons, and tells us that he will have to send the electrician to do it himself.

We move back to the lounge for two more hours and finally on our way to dinner we go back to the service desk and firmly suggest that the problem needs to be resolved by the time we get back.
Dinner is terrific. There are multiple restaurant options that you pre-reserve and we picked the buffet. Really, a Norwegian smorgasbord. Plenty of hot and cold fish, hot and cold meats, cheeses, vegetables and even some Mexican looking meat, followed by the typical display of a dozen desserts.

We’re full, the boat is rocking slightly, the room is quiet and we sleep like the dead.

Today’s weather: Cloudy with occasional drizzle. Low, 50, High 58