Oslo

Well, we were back in Oslo and happy about that. We were looking forward to our return, even tweaking the schedule to get an extra day there because we felt it held so much promise when we spent the 2 half days there. But we were a little bummed knowing that it was our last stop in Norway and we had enjoyed ourselves so much. We got our room and then took the bus to the center of the city. From there we walked to the waterfront as I wanted to visit the castle on the water. Much less a castle then a fortress, we walked around and into it after watching police horses being trained in a nearby stable. The fortress afforded great views of the waterfront, the city, and up into the hills. While we were there we watched for what was probably hours, a submarine come into harbor and then met by 2 tug boats that pulled it along side of 2 other naval vessels. We enjoyed the gardens in the fortress and a museum on the history of Oslo and Norway. We went back to the city center and caught the changing of the guard at the royal palace. We went to a very nice park, found a bench to have a snack and people watch for a while. We then took the car into the hills above Oslo to check out the huge ski jump that you could see from the waterfront fortress. It was very cool, but closed for the day! Having seen these on TV usually during the winter Olympics, I was quite impressed by how much larger and longer it is in person. We couldn't get to the top unfortunately, and I like to think that I still have that "risk taker" in me that used to jump his bike over garbage cans as a kid, but that shit looked nuts!!!!!!!!! No way I would do that!!! And that's without getting the view from the top. I would love to see this event in person one day. I think it would blow my mind. We drove back to the city and walked it's streets for a while doing a little urban sight-seeing. We found a nice place to eat where we had a nice, tender, juice, cut of "Rudolf"... or was it "Prancer"? Doesn't matter, the reindeer was delicious! That's right Muffy and Skip, no Santa this year unless he comes driving a hybrid!!!

The next morning we checked out of our B&B and visited the Viking Museum on our way out of Oslo. I was fascinated by them and their boats as a young boy, and it was cool actually seeing and touching unearthed viking craft from a millenia ago. The ships were seaworthy, but buried because they were holding the remains of someone very important to the tribe or community they came from. The boat was needed to help them get to the next destination after death, and many other trinkets, crafts, and tools were found on the boat for this purpose, as well.

We hit the road by mid afternoon, headed for Copenhagen which is 8 hours away. Leaving Norway was quite a bummer, and it too, goes on the list of places we wouldn't mind visiting again. Hopefully, some day.......