Blogs from Norway, Europe - page 191

Hey all - Our flight connection brought us to a transit in Frankfurt, Germany, and since it is not a smoking-free airport, it has a non pleasant smell to it. Plus we almost missed our connection flight to Oslo due to double security systems. Anyway. Michael and Kalle are in Norway for Kalle's good friend's wedding. Ingvild's wedding was beautiful, albeit the unpleasant weather. Tons of food and drink and story telling and dancing! Norway is far beyond what I have imagined before. Although it is in the middle of summer, the temperature is rather chilly - perhaps because it is raining for the most part during our visit. We took a hike up around the lake where Ingvild's mother lives and quite enjoyed it. Subsequent bus ride to Bergen marked the beginning of our travel ... read more

On the thrid day we bought the Oslo Pass and took a bus to Bydoy where most of the Oslo museums are. (We wanted to take a ferry there but there was a speed boat race on which blocked all activity on the harbour) Hèrve took some photos for anyone else interested. ... read more

Thanks to a Norwegian friend of mum's in Australia we had some advice on where to visit in Oslo; This blog entry and the next one will show some pictures of these places. This blog: mostly Vigeland Sculpture garden, in Froger Park (bus 30 from Akker Brigge) There are 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures, all modeled in full size by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) without the assistance of pupils or other artists. Vigeland also designed the architectural setting and the layout of the grounds. Ella tells us that the park caused quite a stir when it first opened. ...not much more to add really, photos do the job PS Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it was a very nice surprise to see all the messages. PSS Thank you Ella... read more

Two days visiting Trondheim Norway is a very nice country with wonderful people and astonishing nature. I like Norway a lot but for various reasons I don't visit our western neighbours very often. But now in August I had both the time and the opportunity to visit Trondheim for a few days so I decided to give it a "go". Trondheim is a city with old traditions. For more than 1000 years there's been a sizeable settlement at the estuary of the Nidelva River in the Trondheimsfjord on the west coast of Norway. A long time ago Trondheim was the capital of Norway and the city has also been a popular pilgrimage site. In Trondheim I first visited Kristansten Fortress, sitting on a hill east of the city centre. The fortress was built in the end ... read more

Oslo had quite a large main station which seemed to be housed in a number of separate wings, one of which included a shopping mall whilst others included cafes and various eateries. There was also a direct connection to the metro which we took to the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at out in the suburbs near a forest. We bought a 24 hour public transport ticket in Oslo which entitled us to free travel on the metro, trams, ferrys and buses for a full 24 hours. It was better than Melbourne's day tickets which expire at 3am the next day. Needless to say we made use of all four public transport modes. After walking around the CBD area on the evening of our arrival we eventually chose a place to eat at which turned ... read more