Oslo, Norway

Oslo, Norway  June 29-30

Queen's Palace

We arrived in Oslo at 9:45 am via the Pearl Seaways ferry/cruise boat and followed the walking directions to our hotel Thon Hotel Opera situated right across from the new Opera House.  Got ourselves situated, oriented and set off to explore the city of Oslo.  Initially it was a bright sunny day with blue skies and white clouds but it quickly changed.  We stumbled on a "grand bandstand" in the park, saw the National Theater and continued on to the Nobel Peace Center Building.  At this point it began to rain and I was hungry.  After walking up and down the pier we finally settled with an Italian restaurant called Olivia's where it was warm and cozy inside.

  We found the queen's palace and had read only during the summer could you tour the palace.  However the tickets were harder to obtain than we thought.... The lady said we could get the tickets at a 7-11 or from our hotel - they just needed to go onto ticketmaster.  Well after I tried over 6 7-11 type stores, the hotel, my own computer, we were unsuccessful - mom was quite disappointed :(    The most difficult decisions we have to make is where we are going for dinner. Fortunately it was sunny and dry outside, after our late afternoon, shower, cocktails and Scrabble game.  After a lot of hawing and humming, we decide to go the Opera House, in the foyer was a restaurant called S.... Brasserie.  Before dinner we did walk up on top of the Opera House - beautiful views from way up there and the reflection from the windows and the white marble stone and the water was awesome.  Dinner actually was better than I had expected whilst sitting in foyer!  Mom and I shared a typical Norwegian meal of cured lamb, prosciutto, potato salad, pickled herring, lingeberries and some cheeses.  We noticed that most of the dishes we were served and which were used at our hotel were slabs of slate.

Playing Scrabble!

Day 2 - Oslo - It  was a warmer day - I even finally wore sandals!  We thought we should do something cultural so headed to the Gallery Museum hoping to see some Picasso, Monet and Degas (as indicated in the tour book) but  most of the gallery was consumed by Edvard Munch's work (even though there is a whole museum for him in Oslo).  He is the famous artist of The Scream. - which we saw 2 of - a lithograph and the original which used tempera paint and crayons.
We persevered with getting into the Royal Palace (there was an English tour at 2pm)  We arrived at 1pm to plea our case that we had tried many different venues about obtaining the tickets with no avail.  They told us that if there were any tickets not sold, they would be available at 1:50.  So we ventured off for a snack at a bakery recommended by some ladies we sat beside at dinner the night before.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the palace grounds looked much greener and alive.  As we headed back to the palace, we stumbled upon the changing guards and then got in line (as Mom said - "I am not moving from this spot!")  And though there were 5 people ahead of us, we successfully made it in to tour the Royal Palace.

Opera House

    It really was beautiful! (Unfortunately I was unable to take  photos).  This palace had only 172 rooms and so the architecture knew it was smaller than other European palaces he designed the rooms to get larger in size until one reached the grand ballroom - which really was grand!  The information we learned about the Norwegian's kings and its history was quite educational!  What a highlight!

Back to the hotel for a shower, pack up the clothes, cocktails and Scrabble.  We decided to go to one of the restaurants that the hotel recommended on the water.  It was a beautiful evening and restaurant. The restaurant was called Solid...... Pier 34.  It had open feel - well the large pane windows, some which were open and the wonderful views directly on the waterways was  picturesque.  The fresh fish was what is was known for.  I had the 3 course meal of smoked salmon and asparagus; halibut on risotto and dessert.  While Mom had the same appetizer then  had a huge bowl of shrimp!  She hardly put a dent in the bowl of shrimp - tails, heads and eyes!!!!

Unlike Denmark, Norway didn't seem to have a distinctive look among its people.  The people in Norway (in Oslo) were much more ethnically diverse.  Norway is a nation that welcomes refugees; however, it is a very expensive city and I noticed a lot of homelessness and mentally challenged people.  I didn't really feel comfortable in this city.  Fortunately it had day light for over 17 hours of the day.