Day 15, September 15 After eating another colon clogging colossal breakfast and thanks to scouting yesterday we left at 8 am confident in reaching Arlanda Airport way ahead of time before our Stockholm Card expired. At the airport self check in we got our boarding passes for the changed flight at almost 2 pm. At the gate we saw stairs going up to the second floor where we parked all by ourselves with a great view of the take off runway and the forest beyond. A huge cloud of black smoke shot up from the forest, and we assumed the terrorist [View Full Entry]

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Day 12, Saturday, September 12 We have had many included breakfasts at hotels around the world, usually hockey puck rolls, cereal, and juice, tea, or coffee. The Royal Viking had the BEST breakfast we have ever had. With more choices than a big balled black bull in a herd of horny Hereford heifers they even had a Japanese buffet besides the 100 foot regular buffet. We treated this as breakfast, mid morning snack, brunch, lunch, and late afternoon snack piling on meat, potatoes, pancakes, eggs, fruit, yogurt, cheese, Danish, rolls, vegetables, and juice into a 3.86 pound pile of Swedish [View Full Entry]

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Day 13, September 13 Another 3.86 pound breakfast of meat, eggs, pancakes, yogurt, fruit, and juice packed a gazillion calories into the hatch for a long haul sightseeing day. On a Sunday the busses run infrequently. Waiting at first one bus stop, another and another, we just kept walking until we hit the Royal Palace which had not opened yet. Right behind the Palace is Riddarholmskyrkan/Riddarholmen Church with a number of Swedish Monarchs and nobility buried there. As you walk in a big sign has a camera with a flash and a red circle with a line through it. If that [View Full Entry]

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We don't trust any one or anything especially on trips where evil locals give false or misleading information to helpless tourists. After another huge delicious breakfast, I departed exactly at 8 am to check how long the airport trip took. The directions from the information booth yesterday seemed extremely simple. Use the Stockholm Card, take public transportation to Marsta and bus 583 to the airport. On my public transportation map it appeared I took the metro. At the metro station the attendant said, "No, you take the train." I walked a quarter mile to the train station, looked a [View Full Entry]

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Day 16, September 16 We woke up to rain. The breakfast buffet tasted good, but took second place to the Radisson in Stockholm. Umbrella in hand we marched out to the tram stop in front of the hotel and rode the circuit past residential areas, parks, the Olympic Stadium, down town buildings, and back to the train station where we departed to collect some information. The tourist information agent pointed out areas of interest on the map and when I asked about the very early plane departure indicated we had but one option, TAXI. I have never had a good taxi [View Full Entry]

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Day 7, September 7 We beat the sun up, walked to the central train station, stood in line to buy a 42 DKK/$8 supplemental ticket, and got on the train to the airport. At the x-ray security two guys got in a verbal screaming match when one attempted to butt in the line. As we sat in the parked Norwegian Air plane they announced, "As we are presently refueling the plane, please remain in your seat with the seatbelt unfastened." I suppose, when the cigarette from the pump jockey ignited the huge fireball, we could all run screaming with clothes and [View Full Entry]

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At 8:30 we walked to the tourist information center and got two 72 hour Oslo Passes for 820 NOK/$137. Bus 30 dropped us right at the door of the Vikingskipshuset/Viking Ship Museum. Three burial ships about 1100 years old thrilled us along with the associated artifacts. They had platforms to look down on the ships and with no tour busses dropping off hundreds until we had finished we walked through and enjoyed the museum almost by ourselves. Back on the bus we rode to the Kon-tiki Museum where full sized replicas of the Ra and Kon-tiki along with movies and [View Full Entry]

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Day 9, September 9 After a half banana 2 cookie breakfast we left at 8:30 and picked bus 54 north to the cemetery. Most graves had red flowers, and while neatly arranged lacked variety of tombstones. Busses 34 and 30 took us and 12 preschoolers to the Norsk Folkemuseum which had buildings from all over Norway including Gol stave Church from the 11th century, old farm buildings, animals, towns, people in traditional dress, displays, and a playground full of kids in identical school neon vests. With very few people and perfect weather we thoroughly enjoyed 2 hours of Norge/Norsk/Norway's [View Full Entry]

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Day 10, September 10 Our last sightseeing day in Oslo started with the Munch Museum via two busses. At the stop, the only sign was a road sign up the street. We started walking and brushed past a group of preschoolers dawdling on the sidewalk. A block up it became evident the preschoolers knew where they wanted to go and we did not . A university student directed us back in the direction we had come. After walking around the building, we found the entrance. A bunch of college students stood blocking the entrance doing nothing. We flashed our Oslo Cards [View Full Entry]

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The usual tea, granola bar, banana breakfast got us out the door by 8:30. Bus 5A picked us up outside the CabInn and the driver told us he would show us where to get off for Assistens Cemetery, present home of Hans Christian Andersen. Kind of a scruffy recent immigrant end of town the cemetery looked like a well kept park. Really interesting stones, usually in family groups, open spaces, trees, and many interesting plants made for a relaxing stroll in a tranquil setting. Signs pointed to HCA and other notable Danes we did not recognize. Bright red squirrels darted [View Full Entry]

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