“Shall we go for a walk”- A little stroll through Oslo?”

Its 3 am. The shrill sound of alarm yelling awakens me from my one hours sleep…(.why only one hour you ask…that’s what I do when waiting for an alarm for an important deadline…I don’t sleep then I drift off not long before the alarm goes off! .)
I am Blurry eyed…. it’s  dark……it’s snowing, its cold….heading to an  international plane , enduring excruciating earache (as my left ear is still blocked) on our descent….…going south for the winter…isn’t that was birds do…to get warm? Yeah right…. arriving in Oslo Norway its actually colder….! Not sure we were going for the weather, BUT, the sky was blue, the sun was shining and that always makes you feel better immediately.
So Norway here we are!

So what do we do after we have checked into our hotel?
Go for a walk.
Really?
How unusual – You would never had guessed. Come on- who am I married to?????

Off we went, but this time we were not a rugged up as we normally were in Iceland. Why you asked? Because we both thought it would be warmer than Iceland. Hahahahaha, that’s the joke of the year! While our friends and family are sweltering high temperatures back home, we thought it was getting warmer here….me thinks not!

But our traversing in this new country took us along various paths. To the Kings palace where we learnt that the guards do not have a sense of humour, unlike British guards who at least smiled when we placed our granddaughters “precious” in the guard’s box for a photograph. We were quickly asked to leave. We felt uncomfortable as the guard appeared to be staring at us as we were there ‘admiring’ the palace. I was quite happy to move away from the formidable pose! At least the British guards in London ‘slightly’ smiled….and held their gun to attention when taking a photo!  These guards in their almost Scottish appearance uniform were not at all friendly. I guess they had their job to do and they took it very very seriously! Then king was obviously in residence and he did not wish to be disturbed!
Not even by us!

Walking through the city the architecture was different to that of Iceland. Large colourful houses but different in style and size. You could see the age difference of the two countries, and how they ‘managed ‘their capital city. What we did notice were the amounts of statuettes used in this city. They seemed to be everywhere…something that was not in Iceland.
We arrived at a park filled with ample quantities of naked people frozen in diverse statuesque pose. Some were children, some couples cuddling in various poses trying to keep warm, some ladies holding babies and children, some performing athletics, and many men on their own just caught in whatever pose caught them when the ice and frost caught up to them –and they were all naked! Simply frozen in time! I guess it must have been very cold here at one time….!

Oh wait – we were wrong – they are all made of bronze ample (coloured green by the way) and this is the famous sculpture park! Yes, sculptures everywhere and even a huge phallic symbol at the far end of the park- obviously meaning something different to the Norwegian…but they seem to be in every capital city!  However, before we ourselves became ‘frozen’ in time and could not move either, we headed back to the hotel. It was amazing how the late afternoon -night air suddenly got very, very chilly.  Yes, our walk back along the icy roads and paths was extremely brisk! The harbour was also frozen – does that give you an idea of how cold it was?

Our trails the following day consisted of visitation to various museums as we had paid for an “Oslo pass’ which gave us public bus use ( yes we took this) and museum entries and so we tried to see what we could in the time given. In quick terms, we visited the Viking Museum, The Folk Museum and the Holocaust Museum, but we were too late for the resistance museum due to summer and winter opening hours change of time.
I must add that all this time, I felt rather rude as every time Marc said something to me I answered with a HUH? Or twisting my body around so I could hear what he said out of my good ear was not always conducive! Boy, being deaf in one ear is not an option I would like to continue…but he took it beautifully and put up with my bad manners!

A late afternoon walk around the Akershus Fortress, a medieval castle in the middle of the city, which was commenced in 1299 under King Håkon V., and completed in the 1300s, that had a strategical location at the very end of the headland, and withstood several sieges throughout the ages. We even walked over a drawbridge that still worked.
By the way , King Christian IV (1588-1648) had the castle modernised and converted into a Renaissance castle and royal residence. We did see a change of guards happened- although I am not sure what they were guarding, probably the King again who decided to sleep there that night? But again they were sooooo serious .

Finishing the short stay here  with Pizza (nope no weight loss in this country either,) an outside walk to the top of the Opera house to view the city…complete with ice on the ground as you walked up and down – Marc wanted to slide down the long slanting roof but I would not let him – not out of concern for him but I would have to drive in Finland if he broke his leg!! I really did care about him hurting himself!
We made our way back to our hotel complete with HOT bath – luxury to have a proper soak! Such Luxury!
(Mind you a beautiful hotel, complete with its own grand piano on a mezzanine level above the foyer- but which nobody played…(I asked the concierge). It was just for show! Really??????

Guess what the hotel name was “Thon Opera Hotel”!