Oslo, Norway

August 1st and 6th, 2004

Sunday August 1st, the morning after the triathlon, we picked up our bags and headed for Oslo. When I made the travel plans to Norway I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to move that morning, but amazingly enough everything was fine!
After an uneventful flight, we took a short train ride to Oslo Central Station. There's a convenient tourist information office in the station to help book accomodation for the night. So while my sister took care of the room, I picked up our transportation tickets for the rest of our trip.

Upon my preliminary research of Norway, I realized that there was a lot of landscape to see and not much time. Luckily, I found a tour agency that would book and issue tickets for the transportation only. They had prepackaged trips that included boat, train, and bus rides to get across the country. I chose a combination of two tours which interested me. This took us by train Northwest from Oslo, through Lillihammer, to Alesund. Then we headed South by coastal steamer to Bergen. Finally, by a combination of train, boat, and bus we headed east through the Sognefjord and back to Oslo again.

Anyway, for our first evening in Oslo we headed to the waterfront to find some dinner and relax. I had scheduled a day to sightsee Oslo when we returned from the rest of tour across Norway.

We returned to Oslo again on the night of the 5th. After a big breakfast in the hotel, we set off Friday morning to see the Akershus Castle and Fortress. King Haakon V Magnusson initiated the construction of the fortress around 1300 and then in the 17th century it was transformed into a palace by Christian IV. Next door to the castle sits the Resistance Museum, which details the history of the war in Norway and Norway's resistance to Nazi occupation. I don't have any pictures of it, but was definitely worth seeing.

Next stop after the castle was to grab some lunch and eat in the park. On the way to the Slottsparken we were overtaken by the Changing of the Guard, so I stopped to take some pictures and listen to the music before digging into lunch. After experiencing the Changing of the Guard in London where everything takes place behind locked gates, it was neat to see it all take place in the midst of the crowd in Oslo. They were just in the open area in front of the building and people stood a polite distance from the performance.

After lunch we wandered on foot through the neighborhoods to Frognerparken.

Frognerparken is also known as Vigeland Park because of Gustav Vigeland's sculptures everywhere you look in the park. It's a beautiful place to spend the afternoon and they say it's one of Norway's most visited attractions with more than one million people annually.

In the evening, we walked the city center shopping area. The church (Oslo Domkirke) was closed for the day, but all the shops were open. Oh and plenty of street performers were out looking for spare change. We chose a nice little restaurant in the plaza behind the church and stopped to rest our feet over dinner.

Saturday morning we headed to the airport for our return flight home.