Category: Uncategorized

For the trip to Norway, the plan was always to take the train from Oslo to Bergen, as I had heard how scenic it was. Bob found a way to step it up even more. His Rick Steve’s book recommended an excursion called Norway in a Nutshell, which would allow you to see (and sail on) a fjord as part of your journey to Bergen. You could do this in one long day or spend the night at one of the small towns on the fjord and complete the journey the next day. We decided on the latter and are now enjoying an afternoon and evening in the small town of Flam (rhymes with mom) on the Naeroyfjord.

We started today by catching the 8:22 am train out of Oslo Central station to Bergen, but we were to get off at Myrdal and catch a 2nd train to Flam. Our hotel gave us each a togo breakfast bag since we were missing the breakfast we had paid for. We started at 23 meters above sea level and climbed to as high as 1200 meters before beginning our descent.

The journey did not disappoint in terms of beauty. We started off seeing cute mountain towns before getting into more rock, snow, and some impressive waterfalls. My apologies for the quality of some of the photos, as they were almost all taken through the train window.

We arrived in Myrdal a little after 1:00 pm and walked across to the 2nd train platform to catch the train to Flam. We had lots of company. One of the highlights of today’s trip, besides the scenery, is that we traveled with only a backpack. Our big bags were picked up by the Fjord Tours company and have already been delivered to our hotel in Bergen.

Today’s walk around Oslo continued with another 45 minute walk to the very surprising Ekeberg Sculpture Park. On the way, we had some other fun finds.

We weren’t sure what this sculpture park would be like after the Vigeland one yesterday, but we were pleasantly surprised. We got a walk through a lovely forest setting, fun sculptures (including some big heads), and we got some awesome views of Oslo,the harbor, and the surrounding area. We didn’t stop, but the park also has a restaurant that would allow for some great views as well.

First, photos of some of the sculptures.

As fun as the sculptures were, the views were pretty great too.

We had walked on the sidewalk along the road to the park to get there but brought the path from the park down through the forest on the way out.

Finally, we walked another 35 minutes or so to peruse a souvenir store before heading to the Royal Palace for a quick photo.

Awesome day! We have been spoiled at our Oslo hotel as well, as breakfast comes with the room, and they put on quite the spread. We’ve not needed lunch on our stay here.

For our last full day in Oslo, Bob and I walked 10 miles to various sights around the city. We started at the Memorial Cemetery and then walked to the Botanical Gardens near the Museum of Natural History. We then proceeded on to the Ekeberg Sculpture Park and Royal Palace, which is covered in today’s second blog, Big Views and Big Heads.

It was a short walk to the Memorial Cemetery from our hotel, located behind St. Olav’s Church. It is the burial site for Edvard Munch and Henrik Ibsen, which was the reason for our visit. It was attractive and quiet and was a nice start to the day.

It was about a 45 minute walk from the cemetery to the Botanic Gardens, taking us through new parts of Oslo. The gardens were free to visit and provided another lovely area to walk around. Since I don’t know that much about flowers, I will just include some pics from our visit.

As you can see, we’ve had another gorgeous day in Oslo. We didn’t even need to start out with coats on this morning! See the next blog for the remainder of today’s adventures.

For our indoor activity, Bob and I walked about 45 minutes from Vigeland Park down to the harbor to catch a ferry to the highly recommended Fram Museum, a museum dedicated to Norway’s impressive history in polar exploration. The ferry would take us to the Bygdoy Peninsula, where there are a number of museums.

The ferry left from the harbor near City Hall for a 10 minute crossing to the peninsula, where it makes two stops. The first stop is for the Norse Folk Museum and then onto a second stop for 3 museums and a Holocaust Center. We got off at the 2nd stop for the Fram Museum. We paid approximately 11 US dollars per person for the round-trip ride, which leaves every 20 minutes.

Travel writer Rick Steve’s really recommended the Fram Museum and polar exploration is something that we have found interesting in other museums, most recently the Scott Polar Research Institute Polar Museum in Cambridge and a few years ago in Hobart, Tasmania. We had been looking forward to the introductory film, but sadly that wasn’t available today. However, it still did a great job of explaining Norway’s impressive role in polar exploration and demonstrating the resilience in the individuals involved.

There are a number of Norwegians that played vital roles in the exploration of both the north and south poles. Two of the most important were Fridtjof Nansen, who proved the theory of the east-west current in the Arctic and helped fill in the gaps of understanding of the land areas in the Arctic, and Roald Amundsen, who was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage, the first to reach the South Pole (nosing out the doomed Brit Robert Scott, and the first to fly over the Northwest Passage Pole and across the Arctic Ocean.

The museum provided an interesting timeline to compare Amundsen’s trip to the South Pole versus Scott’s, but the highlight of the museum was the ability to see and explore two well-preserved ships important to polar exploration— the Gjoa and the Fram.

After the museum, we walked through the small nearby park before catching the ferry back to the inner harbor.

Another 2-blog day, which either means a good sight-seeing day or I’m a poor photo editor or maybe both. This is the 1st blog, and if you’re so inclined, today’s second blog is Fram Here to the Poles.

Bob and I had planned an indoor/outdoor day on what turned out to be a gorgeous 62 degree F day. We started with the outdoor activity and headed for Vigeland Park, about 1.5 mile walk from our hotel through some lovely commercial and residential areas. I took a few photos of buildings or sculptures that caught my eye on our walk to the park.

Vigeland Park is a sculpture park that contains Gustav Vigeland’s life work, comprising 200 sculptures in granite, bronze, and wrought iron. The pieces, all human forms in various formations, represent 40+ years of work and were installed in the park during the 1940s. The park is a gorgeous large and well-landscaped green space that make an amazing setting for his fountain, bridge sculptures, monolith, and the wheel of life.

From the rear of City Hall, we crossed the street to peruse the harbor via Rick Steve’s book, which we could tell others were using as well or at least being sent to the same locations. The harbor front has apparently undergone a transformation and is a lovely entrance to the Oslo Fjord, with its 40 city-owned islands.

The next few photos are residences, restaurants , and museums of the Aker Brugge and Tjuvholmen development, which kicked off the transformation of the harbor front.

Today we officially began our visit to Oslo, the capital of Norway and its busiest seaport. The city of Oslo has a population of approximately 710,000, with the greater urban area at just over 1 million people.

Bob had purchased a very informative Rick Steve’s travel book on Norway, and we used that today to follow his suggested walking route (covered here) as well as his harbor walk (covered in the next blog). It gave us a great introduction to at least part of Oslo and got our legs moving again with an 8-mile walk after all of our sitting during the last couple of days.

The tour began back at the central train station that we arrived at yesterday and worked its way to the harbor via Karl Johans Gate, which runs from the old train station to the Royal Palace (currently closed). It is named for the Swedish king who ruled during the period when Sweden took Norway away from Denmark.

Bob and I have landed in the land of my mother’s father’s relatives, who came over to the US as Christiansen but ended up as Runaas when there were too many Christiansens in their small community in Wisconsin so they chose a name of a fjord near where they had lived in Norway. Or so the story goes. My best associations with Norway are the holiday foods I had growing up — lefse (like a potato tortilla or pita) and lots of butter-based Christmas cookies.

To get to Oslo, we flew Delta/Air France from Jacksonville, Florida, to New York JFK to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and then into Oslo. Each flight was late, except for Paris, but we still ended up arriving on time or a little early.

The biggest excitement (except for my actually sleeping on the flight to Paris) was seeing a 20ish year old man standing in front of us to board the Paris bound flight get handcuffed and taken away. Still don’t know what that was about.

Bob got us Premium Economy seats for the long flight from New York to Paris, which allowed for more seat room and a foot rest. Very helpful and was also very impressed with their customer service and meals.

After arriving in Oslo, we caught the convenient Flytoget train into Oslo Central (about a 25 minute ride) and then walked another 10 minutes to our hotel.

A (very) few pics from the trip.

Bob and I flew into Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday afternoon for a weekend with family in St. Augustine, Florida, culminating with our nephew’s wedding on Sunday night. We stayed at an Airbnb close to the historic district, which allowed us to walk to sites and nearby restaurants and also relax at the house.

It was a great weekend! Some photos below of the weekend.

Bob and I have been having a great visit with my mom in my home town of Janesville, Wisconsin. As we have in the past, we are staying at the TownPlace Suites Hotel by Marriott. For unknown reasons, we’re in a handicapped suite with a kitchen/living area separate from the large bathroom and bedroom. The hotel has some state and local information posted in the lobby.

We took my mom out for dinner last night as a combination late Easter/early Mother’s Day dinner, and today we drove to the small town of Brodhead for some amazing grilled cheese sandwiches at an award winning dairy. The weather was nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the rural views.

From the dairy we drove about 15 minutes to my uncle’s house in Albany, another small town, and had a good visit with my aunt, who has just moved back to Wisconsin from California, her daughter, and my aunt and uncle who live in Albany.

Tomorrow we’ll park our car at the regional bus station and take the bus to Chicago, where we’ll stay at another Marriott hotel before flying to Florida on Friday for Bob’s nephew’s wedding on Sunday.