Oslo Cathedral
After the breakfast buffet this morning, we walked through downtown Oslo early on a lovely Saturday morning. We stopped at Oslo Cathedral, but it was not yet open on this beautiful day. It was very quiet at 9 am, but that was soon about to change. We saw store clerks setting out tables, and blue and white balloons all along one street as we walked towards Akershus Fortress.
Akershus Fortress
Nothing was open yet at the fortress, so we were able to walk around without too many other tourists. In the harbour, tall ships were still docked, though they soon set sail, and we also saw two cruise ships coming in to dock. We decided not to go on a tour of the castle part of the fortress, but instead just walked around the large and open grounds. The walls are high abouve the water so you get excellent views out over the city.
The Oslo harbour from Akershus FOrtress
Nobel Peace Prize museum
We next walked to the Nobel Peace Prize museum. They had a display in it called “Be Democracy” about the effect of social media on democracy. It was very up to date as it included a picture and information about Kiev. They also have some displays about the winners of the peace prize, each one on an individual monitor that showed a picture of the winner and some information as you walked by. Not all of them seemed to work in the same way, as we waited before some for more information, but it never showed up.
National Theatre
We ate lunch in the park by the National Theatre and the Parliament buildings. There were many people, especially families with children in the park. One man was blowing large balloons in the wind. It reminded us of Graeme and Geoffrey who had a similar large balloon making hoop when they were young.
Blowing balloons in the park
We stopped in an outdoor sporting goods store on our way to lunch. They had displays of tents outside. We walked in, and it was very crowded as they had a sale at 30% off. Even then the prices were very high, as everything is in Norway. An Arcteryx gore-tex jacket would cost over $1000 Canadian.
As we walked back towards the hotel we saw the street where they had been setting up the stalls in the morning. It was now so crowded that it was almost impossible to walk through. Their were thousands and thousands of people all shopping for bargains. To avoid the crowds, which were almost impossible to walk through so we knew we had to avoid this street when we walked to the train station with our suitcases, we walked into some department stores and did some window shopping.
The Cathedral was to open at 2 pm, so we waited outside in the shade for about half an hour. Inside the cathedral is very beautiful, with a lot of gilt carvings, and the entire roof covered with paintings, probably a fresco.
After this we went back to the hotel to get our luggage from storage, then walked the nearly a kilometer to the train station. It is quite a way to the airport, a 20 minute ride on a fast express train. After passing through security I couldn’t find my boarding pass.. I thought I had left in the screening basked, but afterwards found that I’d put it away by accident with my passport. We had some pizza before we boarded our plane, then took the 45 minute flight to Trondheim. It is another half hour bus ride from the airport into the city.
The Comfort Inn is a small but modern room. It is the first time we’ve had a shower with a full sized stall. The others have been fold out doors into the rest of the bathroom. This one doesn’t get the floor nearly so wet.
We were both vary tired, so we were in a very deep sleep when the fire alarm went off at 2 am. We got partially dressed, Enid remembered we needed to get our passports, and I grabbed the cameras. We put on our coats (Enid also had her fleece, and pulled on her pants) and went outside with all the other guests in the hotel. After a couple of minutes the fire trucks arrived, and then we had to wait about 15 minutes before they gave the all clear and we went back in. Even at 2 am it was very light outside, as we are a long way north here. I went back to sleep right away, but Enid struggled to do so, so she didn’t have a very good night.