From Hamster Jam to Oslo

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See what happens? Instead of coming back to the hotel to diligently blog about the last day in Amsterdam, I went out and entertained myself. So now I'm a day behind and jamming stuff together.

Last day in Amsterdam and aside from Anne Frank, we went running around trying to see the last of the highlights.

Had much fun at the Albert Cuypmarkt, which is this amazingly long open-air market where you can pretty much find it if you wanted it. This is the sort of thing I love about vacations ... get away from the tourists and go hang out where the locals shop and eat. If you ever want to see hundreds ... hundreds and hundreds ... of vendors selling fish and produce and cheese and fabric and art and umbrellas and wallets and flowers and god-only-knows-what ... head on down to Albert Cuypmarkt, kids. It's mind boggling.

Took off this morning from Amsterdam and headed to Oslo so we can hop the train to the coast of Norway before jumping onto the boat.

Not much to say about Oslo. It's raining. The waiters in the restaurants are tools. And it looks like someone tore it all down (Was it the Germans? I forget the WWII involvement with Norway.) and rebuilt it in 1960s block building style. Not particularly beautiful after Amsterdam.

But we did go see the Viking ship museum. Wild. It had to be an insanely difficult life. But as Rusty pointed out, better to plunder than to be plundered. I still think there are more fun days to be had than sailing the world in those crazy little dinghys.

A distant relative to what we're about to be up to, I suppose. I don't have to row the blasted thing, and there's internet service. Or so they promise. Keep them fingers crossed.

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Comments

[Cheryl]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your Amsterdam jaunt. You make me want to go back! You're bringing back some chocolate penises to replace the chocolate you and Ronda stole from my cube last week, right? Heh.

[Ronda]

Who said it was architecturally beautiful?
No, Oslo doesn't have spectacular architecture... it is that Scandanavian modernist movement... that is the city hall by the way. =0P Norway is for the spectacular NATURAL scenery, not the architectural scenery. Hope the train ride was fun... don't forget the fanicular in Bergen... at or around midnight... SPECTACULAR!