OSLO & COPENHAGEN

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The last sixty miles as the ship heads to Oslo follows the stunning Oslofjord where hills rise up on each side of the ship and houses become more prevalent as you near the city. It was Diamond Jubilee Day (or another one) on the ship and when we entered the pool area we saw it had had been transformed overnight into a Village Fete scene with games and activities lining the pool. Thankfully none included getting into the pool. There were skittles, guess the weight of the cake, count the pound coins, name the artist, any number of other “village fete” games and a large amount of Pimms flowing. With many a Britpop anthem being played many got involved in the goings-on to try and win the prizes on offer. However, they struggled to grab my attention and my contribution was to taste the Pimms as the scenery outside was more of a draw card for me. It had a real Queenstown feel to it with the pine clad hills and the brightly coloured wooden homes dotting the slopes. You can see why so many Europeans feel at home in the lower South Island.

At the head of the fjord the waters open out into Bundefjord and there before you stands Oslo. It was Harald Hardraade who founded Oslo in 1048 and when I found out that reference I could hark back to my History teaching days and remember the English connection to Denmark. It was Harald who died at Stamford Bridge in 1066 trying to overthrow Harold of England.

The ship docked at the centre of town hard up against the old castle and fortress, which guarded the old city. With the close proximity to the city we elected to walk into town and do our own sightseeing with three very different sites on our list. The walk would do us good after all the food we had consumed over the first few days and also allowed us to lose some of the “wobbly legs” you develop after being at sea for 36 hours. It was really just an Oslo taster afternoon as we only had four hours available to go ashore; a tester to also see how many, with the Captain’s instructions ringing in their ears, would be rushing to make the 5pm ‘sailaway’ party. We headed to the Royal Palace first. It sits high up on the accurately labelled Palace Hill and is a palace that you can quite simply walk right to the door of. Built in the late 1800s it does not have a palace feel to it and is actually quite modern looking – the scaffolding on the roof and walls did not help. The palace guards patrol the walls of the palace but this is well within the gates and it is nice to think that Oslo has kept some sense of normality to its daily life considering the horrific events that took place in the city last year. There is no apparent or visible obsessive security. The gardens at the palace are the open to the public and are known throughout Europe as one of the few examples of royal gardens that people can enjoy. They are park like to wander through and you could forget you were in the midst of a large city.

Using the “not to scale’ and fairly basic map on our cruise provided city brochure we then walked through some beautiful suburbs of Oslo to the Vigeland Sculpture Park. The houses were large and we guessed we were in the more upmarket areas with the cars parked outside. It was also home to many of the embassies and embassy residences; including the Greek Ambassadors home. The cynical side of me would think that in a few more months this will have a “For Sale” sign up outside or maybe even a “Mortgagee Sale” sign displayed across the upper widows. Across the road from many of the embassy houses is the 80 acre Frogner Park, which has an open-air display of Gustav Vigeland Sculptures. While we were here we met two Australian tourists off the Acardia – they were wishing they had walked after we told them that it had only taken twenty five minutes. They had spent most of their Norwegian Kroner on a tram trip – the equivalent of £10 for the single journey. I think something at the ticket office had been lost in translation. Anyway, after his wife’s really unfunny joke about NZ I lost interest in their financial concerns; do they think we have not heard them all before?

The sculptures could be described as interesting. It is labelled as a ‘wonder-land’ of human figures in stone, iron and bronze and due to the fact that Vigeland died without providing any interpretation for others it is entirely up to you how you view them. Which in a way is great – some art interpretations are forced on you. It is certainly a collection of human form in a variety of poses and postures. In my opinion many of which could leave you with a bad back or maybe even out of favour with the Destiny Church leaders. I am not sure my old mate Gustav was looking for such a simplistic interpretation. It is a stunning area and it must have certainly kept him busy – and it was a lovely walk through the trees up to the large obelisk that towered above the park. The obelisk was made entirely of individual human forms and the base surrounded by more human shapes, which were made to be climbed on and over and certainly gave chance for some interesting family photos.

Our walk back into the city centre was through a boutique shopping area with open air café and restaurants. We would have stopped at one of them but as the clouds were gathering in the distance we elected to head straight to the Akershus Castle and Fortress by the ship. It is easy to see how they picked the site to build it when the last of Harald’s descendants erected the castle in 1300 AD as it sits on a hill overlooking the new city area. To cut a long story short we did not make the fortress. As we got closer to the gates the weather started to turn and the rain arrived so as the ship sat between us and the castle we boarded and headed to our cabin for a drink. In fact I did the tour of the castle and fortress from the balcony of Ma and Pa’s cabin with a nice pint of Boddingtons. It also gave me a good opportunity to watch the stragglers heading back to the boat who were obviously worried about the boat having sailed. We had walkers, runners, taxis and buses all heading towards the gang plank. It made for good humour. The main thing was that all four of us were back on board – Ma and Pa had done a ‘hop on hop off’ bus tour of Oslo and had seen far more than us!

We left Oslo for Copenhagen with a toast to the Queen from the Captain – we think this must be the end of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for P & O. It has been quitea four days of parties and partying for the Royal Family, the people of the United Kingdom, the passengers on the Arcadia, and the Commonwealth. The way the Queen looks I can see her doing another ten years – sadly I am not sure that I can say the same thing about the Duke. He has had a tough few days or maybe he just wanted a lie down and some time out!

There is something about going to bed on a boat – not quite sure exactly what it is yet but I will keep trying to find out over the next few days – and it is even stranger when you are expecting to wake up in another country the next morning. Our next port was to be Copenhagen and when I awoke at 0715 land was on either side of the ship – in fact we were in quite a built up harbour; I mistakenly thought that was our destination. I have got into the routine (if three days counts as a routine) of walking around the deck on level 3. Three laps is a mile, so I do a few miles at my own pace and not that of John Walker or Seb Coe. It can be quite busy out there with slow walkers, strollers, runners, walking frames, and wheel chairs – best to get out there early. Apart from the lunch times in the restaurants this is the only area that appears busy during the day. It is amazing how 2000 passengers can make themselves scarce. How the largest cruise ships that now carry 4500 passengers do it is beyond me. It must take some wonderful planning.

Copenhagen is another city that you can enjoy on foot. It seems to have been able to retain its original charm even when it is Denmark’s centre of political and economic life. It takes its origin from a small Viking fishing village and as with many of the great European cities it grew after being made a fortress city in the 1100s. The city sits on the island of Zealand, which is the largest of the 474 Danish Islands. Our walk in took us past the most beloved of all Danish monuments The Little Mermaid’ – what can I say? It needs little or no explanation as the name gives everything away. She is the most photographed lady in the city and as we wandered by the queues were beginning to form as to take your turn on the steps in front of her means waiting for the last person to finish. We declined the opportunity and took a quick photo sans us. They say she is gazing wistfully out to sea for her beloved prince. This bit confuses me as from whatever angle I looked at her she appeared to have a good view of the shore – maybe she has realised he isn’t coming back and is now just happy to be in the photos.

I was surprised at our next visit. St Alban’s Church sits just on the edge of Churchill Park. It is an Anglican Church and not something I was expecting to see on our travels to Copenhagen. It looks and feels just like an English parish church and with the green trees that have grown up around it you could easily feel that you had been transported back across the sea. We had a quick look inside – they are restoring it slowly and all the stained glass windows have been sent back to England for complete restoration. They now just need the money to get them finished, back and re installed! From here we walked to Amalienborg Square, which is where the Danish Royal family live. It is an octagonal courtyard with four palaces surrounding it. As with much of the city it is a pedestrian and bike friendly area and I was suitably impressed with how the cars and bikes shared the space. However, while I was thinking this I witnessed a lady being knocked off her bike and flung through the air over the bonnet of a car so I guess it happens everywhere. The lady in the car was completely to blame – she had crossed over the bike lane and the cyclist had no chance. It was a bit Chevy Chase in European Vacation as there did not seem that much concern and the lady got up, wiped the blood from her chin and mouth and told everyone that she was fine – so everyone left! Hopefully she made it home or to the doctors.

We lunched at Nyhaven, which is a fashionable promenade full of bars and restaurants. I felt I should sample the local brew so enjoyed a pint of Tuborg. The sun was shining so the bars were full – there were also four cruise ships in town so most were fellow holiday makers. As with the local economies in NZ Copenhagen likes to grab that tourist dollar and I am sure it all helps especially with the economic troubles about the world. In front of us canal boats left their moorings with many tourists and locals aboard. It was a hive of activity and had a great vibe to it. I could easily have settled in for the afternoon.

And that was just about it for the city. We did walk the length of the famous shopping street Stroeget, which was full of the usual shops you would see in any major shopping area. Off this street is a multitude of little streets and alleys full of little boutiques, bikes and people. It really is a vibrant city and one of those cities that you could easily get lost in but I feel that would be a fun thing. The architecture of the buildings is spectacular and it is a city seemingly very comfortable in what it is – it has a small city feel but with the buzz and infrastructure of a much larger city. It has not accepted urban sprawl, is neat and tidy and contrasts well with its surrounding countryside, which we could see as we docked and embarked. We all felt and said the same things as we had our evening drinks high up in the Crow’s Nest bar. Mum and Dad had once again ticked off a few more sites than us including a canal tour that most probably left as I was supping my Tuborg – oh well. It was a great day and complemented well with the earlier visit to Oslo.

We now have two days at sea as we head to Stockholm – I think we will have to have at least one game of shuffle board on the top deck as I am yet to find the quoits!

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