March 15, 2015.
We had an early start to our Sunday.... For some jet lagged individuals. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and went to return the car. For some strange reason restaurants, businesses and even the car rental agency closes early (7-8pm) on Saturday evenings.
We bought our train tickets after playing credit card roulette at the kiosk (American Express won) and rode into the city center. The weather was similar to the day before. Sunny with blue skies and a chill in the air. We fetched a 20 dollar cab for a 2 mile ride (Norway is extremely expensive for Americans) and rode to the Viking Ship Museum. This museum opened in 1932 and houses 3 ships from approximately 800-900 A.D. The ships were discovered in burial mounds throughout Norway.
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| Oseberg Ship Viking Ship Museum Oslo, Norway |
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| Oseberg Ship Viking Ship Museum Oslo, Norway |
From there we enjoyed the beautiful weather and walked to the Fram Polar Ship Museum. This museum was physically built around the famed Fram Ship that was in use between 1892 and 1912. The museum advertised a 'spectacular' film on polar exploration that we could not pass up! An interesting take away for Mark was that the polar ships would purposely get locked in polar ice flows and float at the mercy of the ice for years at a time with hopes of crossing the polar ice cap. Jen slept through the 'spectacular' film. (Couldn't have been that good of a film).
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| Fram Polar Expedition Ship Oslo, Norway |
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| Gjøa Polar Expedition Ship Oslo, Norway |
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| A famed Polar Explorer Oslo, Norway |
After that we jumped ship on the maritime stuff and took a cab over to the Vigeland Park. You can google it if you would like to know more but suffice it to say it was interesting. Check out the pictures to form your own opinion. We saw a lot of families at the park and it was great to people watch a little.
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| Jen Vigeland Park Oslo, Norway |
We rode the street car into the city center for our next destination, the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. The first floor had a large display on the 2014 winners child's rights and education. The second floor was under construction but still had small displays on the Nobal Peace Prize winners from the past 15 years. There was an interactive computer which allowed the user to easily retrieve historical information on any Nobel related topic.
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| Nobel Peace Center Oslo, Norway |
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| Nobel Peace Center Oslo, Norway |
Dinner was at Hos Thea where Sergio and his staff welcomed us more like friends and less like patrons. We enjoyed a 5 course meal including squash soup, scallops (which Jen enjoyed!), venison, a cheese platter and a pina-colada cake concoction with white chocolate ice cream. While putting on her coat Jen struck up a conversation with the only other Americans in the restaurant who were also leaving. Instead of heading to the hotel we went out for drinks with our new acquaintances at The Scotsman Pub where they had some good beer. We had such a good time that we stayed until the last train was about to leave, and headed back to our hotel at the airport to catch an early morning flight to Russia.