tufbuf
Disney Addict!
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2008
Last installment! Also Oslo... our last full day. We left Geiranger and made a stop in Lom. It was more of a restroom stop and a little surprise from our guides. This is probably the last chance you could get wooden pottery with a rosemaling design, which is very traditional Norse. There is a stave church right across the bus stop which we checked out. Torgeir said we were lucky since that was a Friday and funerals are usually done on a Friday and there was none that day. Otherwise the courtyard would have been closed from tourists.
I find these structures quite impressive!
Our next stop was the train station in Otta. I think this was included to add variety to the travel since our coach, which had all our luggage will make its way to Oslo as well to drop off our luggage in the hotel. The train is like a bus. It stops for a few minutes to load and unload passengers and off they go again. We were booked in comfort class which is the first class cabins. The travel time is about 3 hours. It's funny cause I think we caught up with our coach along the way!
We had lunch on the train. It's best to go the lunch area right away since the area is quite tight and fills up with people soon after. Our guides also said, sometimes they run out of the food you want.
Our group boarding the train...
We arrive in Oslo! It's funny cause we all went through a mild culture shock since suddenly there were so many people! We took a short coach ride to our hotel. The train station is actuallly walking distance from the hotel. The temperature in the city is a lot warmer and you could easily walk around in shorts.
The Grand Hotel. It's a very nice hotel with delicious breakfast too.
We had about 3 hours to spare before the farewell dinner and for some reason, our room was not ready when we got there. Everyone else's room was, so with that, we got a little fruit tower. We told Torgeir, kvikk lunsj would have sufficed!
Farewell dinner was nice. We had a choice of catfish and chicken. I will leave the details of the farewell dinner for everyone else to discover. Kira was in tears when she said this might be the last time she will be working with Torgeir for a while since she will be doing other tours this season and Alyssa will be doing most of it. Torgeir is a very nice young man, I can see why she feels sad.
We added an extra day in Oslo since I thought we should see some of the highlights of the city. Oslo was having a concert near the marina, I think in celebration of the midnight sun. One Direction was in town and other artists. They also have a Scandinavian version of Justin Bieber, I didn't catch his name (I thought it would be easy to google him) but he happened to be staying in our hotel. The morning we left for our tour, he was there taking selfies and signing autographs for the shrieking teenage girls and there was a barrier at the entrance lined with teenage girls. Oh well...
We did a city tour called All-Inclusive Oslo Tour. We went on probably the nicest two decker bus we have ever been on! Oslo is a pretty city. I think it was named the greenest city in Europe. The tour was okay if you want to see bits and pieces of the city highlights. We spent little time in each stop so if you have a day, I think the tour is just fine. Our first stop was the Holmenkollen ski jump. It has held several competitions for over a century! Since it's summer time, people were using it to zipline. We saw several people training cross country skiing (elongated roller blades, I call them) and running up the stadium stairs. Whew!
I wasn't able to take a photo in front of the ski jump since I was on the wrong side of the bus. It's an impressive structure and I can't imagine myself skiing down that slope!
Our next stop was the Viking Museum. The ship at the entrance is over a thousand years old! It's really hard to fathom how much the structure survived for such a long time. The ship was buried and two skeletons were found in it together with numerous treasures, animals and even kitchen things and carriages.
Some of the treasures found buried with the ship
Next was Vigeland Sculpture Park. Gustav Vigeland is a celebrated Norwegian sculptor and all the sculptures in the park were made by him. They are mostly of naked humans and his main theme is the circle of life. The sculptures are also very dynamic.
The fountain below also has sculptures around it which depicts the life of man from birth to death.
This is probably the most famous sculpture in the park, the boy throwing a tantrum. As you can see, people have been rubbing his hand like other bronze art in Europe, it has been polished clean!
The boy statue is one of many statues lining this bridge which leads to the opposite entrance of the park.
The Fram museum was next which showcased a wooden boat called Fram used in polar expeditions in the late 1800s. Amazing story as well!
The hull of the ship, all made of wood (oak and pine)
Last stop was the KonTiki museum, Thor Heyedahl's amazing journey on the Pacific. This was the original wooden raft he used made of balsa wood which is very light.
The Ra II which he used to cross the Atlantic from Morocco. He patterned the ship building after the ancient Egyptians' ways of building a boat.
That was the end of the tour. Our tour guide recommended looking inside city hall so we did. Here's the interior...
We also checked the National Art Museum. Edward Munch's The Scream is in there.
That's my report! I hope it will be helpful to future travelers to Norway. It is an AWESOME, FABULOUS trip!! We truly enjoyed every minute of it and staying in the fjords for a week was so refreshing even if we didn't see the night sky all that time.
Thanks everyone!!!
I find these structures quite impressive!
Our next stop was the train station in Otta. I think this was included to add variety to the travel since our coach, which had all our luggage will make its way to Oslo as well to drop off our luggage in the hotel. The train is like a bus. It stops for a few minutes to load and unload passengers and off they go again. We were booked in comfort class which is the first class cabins. The travel time is about 3 hours. It's funny cause I think we caught up with our coach along the way!
We had lunch on the train. It's best to go the lunch area right away since the area is quite tight and fills up with people soon after. Our guides also said, sometimes they run out of the food you want.
Our group boarding the train...
We arrive in Oslo! It's funny cause we all went through a mild culture shock since suddenly there were so many people! We took a short coach ride to our hotel. The train station is actuallly walking distance from the hotel. The temperature in the city is a lot warmer and you could easily walk around in shorts.
The Grand Hotel. It's a very nice hotel with delicious breakfast too.
We had about 3 hours to spare before the farewell dinner and for some reason, our room was not ready when we got there. Everyone else's room was, so with that, we got a little fruit tower. We told Torgeir, kvikk lunsj would have sufficed!
Farewell dinner was nice. We had a choice of catfish and chicken. I will leave the details of the farewell dinner for everyone else to discover. Kira was in tears when she said this might be the last time she will be working with Torgeir for a while since she will be doing other tours this season and Alyssa will be doing most of it. Torgeir is a very nice young man, I can see why she feels sad.
We added an extra day in Oslo since I thought we should see some of the highlights of the city. Oslo was having a concert near the marina, I think in celebration of the midnight sun. One Direction was in town and other artists. They also have a Scandinavian version of Justin Bieber, I didn't catch his name (I thought it would be easy to google him) but he happened to be staying in our hotel. The morning we left for our tour, he was there taking selfies and signing autographs for the shrieking teenage girls and there was a barrier at the entrance lined with teenage girls. Oh well...
We did a city tour called All-Inclusive Oslo Tour. We went on probably the nicest two decker bus we have ever been on! Oslo is a pretty city. I think it was named the greenest city in Europe. The tour was okay if you want to see bits and pieces of the city highlights. We spent little time in each stop so if you have a day, I think the tour is just fine. Our first stop was the Holmenkollen ski jump. It has held several competitions for over a century! Since it's summer time, people were using it to zipline. We saw several people training cross country skiing (elongated roller blades, I call them) and running up the stadium stairs. Whew!
I wasn't able to take a photo in front of the ski jump since I was on the wrong side of the bus. It's an impressive structure and I can't imagine myself skiing down that slope!
Our next stop was the Viking Museum. The ship at the entrance is over a thousand years old! It's really hard to fathom how much the structure survived for such a long time. The ship was buried and two skeletons were found in it together with numerous treasures, animals and even kitchen things and carriages.
Some of the treasures found buried with the ship
Next was Vigeland Sculpture Park. Gustav Vigeland is a celebrated Norwegian sculptor and all the sculptures in the park were made by him. They are mostly of naked humans and his main theme is the circle of life. The sculptures are also very dynamic.
The fountain below also has sculptures around it which depicts the life of man from birth to death.
This is probably the most famous sculpture in the park, the boy throwing a tantrum. As you can see, people have been rubbing his hand like other bronze art in Europe, it has been polished clean!
The boy statue is one of many statues lining this bridge which leads to the opposite entrance of the park.
The Fram museum was next which showcased a wooden boat called Fram used in polar expeditions in the late 1800s. Amazing story as well!
The hull of the ship, all made of wood (oak and pine)
Last stop was the KonTiki museum, Thor Heyedahl's amazing journey on the Pacific. This was the original wooden raft he used made of balsa wood which is very light.
The Ra II which he used to cross the Atlantic from Morocco. He patterned the ship building after the ancient Egyptians' ways of building a boat.
That was the end of the tour. Our tour guide recommended looking inside city hall so we did. Here's the interior...
We also checked the National Art Museum. Edward Munch's The Scream is in there.
That's my report! I hope it will be helpful to future travelers to Norway. It is an AWESOME, FABULOUS trip!! We truly enjoyed every minute of it and staying in the fjords for a week was so refreshing even if we didn't see the night sky all that time.
Thanks everyone!!!
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