Oslo, Norway

Saturday, December 29, Day 4

The ferry arrived in Oslo, Norway promptly at 9:45am-with a fresh blanket of snow on the ground--the snow I'd seen falling the previous evening; it was also foggy and misting out.  But it was warm (35ish, I'd say).

There was a ~20 minute walk to our hotel, and the entire way, the kids were infatuated with the snow.  Really!  We're from WI!  Have you never seen the stuff before??  Put it down and pull that suitcase!  And stop throwing snowballs!  (These are happy times!)

Kids climbing snow hill and carrying snow boulders.  "Shouldn't you be carrying a suitcase, young man?" 

"Put that snow down and help your father!  Yes, YOU!!"

  The streets were deserted--I don't know if they don't know what to do with snow, or where everyone was.  We pulled the luggage in the street-that's how deserted it was.  Kids were soaked by the time we got to the hotel, go figure.

Dumped our bags at the hotel, but still too early to check in, so we walked (now significantly easier to walk--without dragging bags!!) to the place where we were to pick up the Oslo card.  (Kids still playing in the snow.  How come they don't play with any of their toys that long?  Or read that long?  Or practice piano that long??)

While we were getting the Oslo card, kids found a snow hill to play on.  I think they have snow radar.

  And it was closed.  They have more than one "outlet" to pick them up at, and this particular branch was closed.  We were right next to the Radhus (City Hall), so we went in.

Oslo's City Hall/Radhus

The city halls in Scandinivia are not just utilitarian municipal buildings.  This particular City Hall is where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year.  The King of Norway attends the ceremony.  (The prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine and literature are awarded in Stockholm on each December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.  Alfred Nobel lived most of his life in Sweden, and when he died, Sweden and Norway were under the same government, although separate entities.  In his will, Nobel indicated the Peace Prize was to be given by Norway, and the other prizes to be given by Sweden, although no one knows why.)

Inside City Hall-stairs on the right is where recipients walk down to receive their prize.

J walking down the stairs to receive his peace prize for keeping peace with his brothers.



This is a picture of a picture of President Obama receiving the prize.  Note the stairs on the right-looks different from my photos, as the hall is filled with a stage and lots of people.

  We walked in and checked it out (free).  We then walked a short distance to Nobels Fredssenter, aka Nobel Peace Center, a museum devoted to the Peace Prize.

The Nobel Peace Center Museum. (Kids put the snow down to take picture. Thanks, boys.)

  This was very awe-inspiring and humbling.  J enjoyed it, and attacked this museum with his usual gusto.  I'd like to find a museum he doesn't enjoy.  They had a children's activity to do, and W and N did this.  J started to do it, but the activity took away too much from him reading every word in every exhibit, so he abandoned it.

Each one of these screens told about Peace recipients.

  (Just a side note--W and N's school is focusing this semester on the 60s. Last semester it was robots and automation.  Every night they come home and tell me all about the Beatles, titles of songs, names of the members, 60s dances--the twist--why Penny Lane is titled Penny Lane, where Lennon was shot.... on and on and on.  The school brought 3 presenters in for an assembly on recent history.  They held up a pic of Mother Theresa, and asked if anyone knew who she was.  Only W raised his hand and could tell them who it was.  He said he knew who it was only because of the Nobel Museum.  Guess he was paying attention.  He also knew who Bill Gates was, and only 4 people raised their hand for that one.  School goes through 5th grade, btw.)

From there we went to Akershus Slott and Festning (Akershus Castle and Fortress).  It was not open, despite what it said on the website.  We did manage to walk around the fortress for awhile, and the kids were able to play in the snow while they tagged along.  About this time, I got tired of constantly telling them to get out of the snow and stay dry (we are going to an Ice Bar later--do you want your wet pants to stick to you???), and caved and let them build a snow man.  They named him, "Ozzy," for Oslo.

"Ozzy"

We returned to the hotel, checked in, got some dry clothes.

Hotel Briston, Oslo, Norway

Kids' room.  Ours adjoined.

 We had 4:00 reservations at the Ice Bar, just down the block from our hotel.  There are Ice Bars in most of the large cities, a novelty.  This one had timed entries, for a slot of 45 minutes.  We checked in, and got our capes and gloves, more to keep our warmth in and the ice cold, than to warm us, then they let us into the bar.  This year it is a Nautilus theme.  They completely re-do the bar every year.  With your admission, you get your own ice glass(!), and one drink.  We all thought it was neat.



Notice the words "in" the ice above my head.  Walls were flat, but there were all kinds of things within the ice.

A seating area--the banquette and cocktail table made of ice



N sitting on a funky ice chair





One of the Ice Bar's walls.  The circles are filled in, and the entire wall was smooth.

The bar--of ice, of course.  The bottles are in ice "holders".

W with his ice glass.  "Cheers!"

Bottom's up, boy!

We then went to dinner at the Mona Lisa.  We'd just ordered our food, and there were not a lot of people in the dining room, as it was probably only 6pm (Europeans eat later, so 6 pm is like eating at 4).  Waiters were lighting candlabras, etc.  J quietly says, "There's a fire starting over there."  G and I just think it's the candles lighting up, but alas, there really was a fire starting.  One of the candleabras had lit a silk flower arrangement on fire, which spread to some napkins.  There really was a fire starting!!  Always listen to your children.  N and J had pizza, W had spaghetti bolognaise, G had farafelle pasta with lobster sauce, and I had reindeer with lingonberries and venison sauce.  Good stuff.

Pasta dish

Reindeer with lingonberries and venison sauce

Sunday, December 30, Day 5
The breakfast at this hotel was perhaps the best.  Complete with a variety of smoothies to choose from, yogurt parfaits, smoked salmon, regular salmon, and all the fruit and veggies, meats and cheeses, pastries and breads from the other breakfasts.  They also had Norwegian brown cheese at this breakfast-only place I saw it.  It was very good, had sweet undertones in it.  Tasty.

After breakfast, we went to Oslo Central Station to get our Oslo Card.



We walked through a market-y area to get to Central Station.  N  liked this Viking troll.

 Then we hopped on the tram to Frognerstaten, which was the end of the line for one tram line.

End of the line

 We got out, and walked to Korketrekkeren, where we rented sledges (old fashioned sleds on runners).  I wasn't sure if W and N should go sledding at this particular place- I'd heard that you could really pick up some speed due to the steepness, but I'm glad we did it.  And so are they!!



Korketrekkeren this way--->

They call 'sleds',  sledges.  Both in Norway, as well as in the UK.

Where we rented our sledges from.  It's a little foggy out.

  Korketrekkeren means "corkscrew", and there were ~13 turns going down the hill.  We only made it down the hill three times, that's how long the way down was--nearly a mile!  It drops some 400 ft, so its pretty steep. When we got to the bottom, you picked up your sled, walked to the tram, and got on to ride to the top again.  There were seven tram stops between the bottom of the hill, and the top of the hill.  One of these seven stops is Holmenkollen, which is a famous ski run; a lot of tourist souvenirs have Holmenkollen on it, as skiing is more popular than sledding.  Korketrekkeren is higher than the ski hill.  The sledding hill was used in the 1952 Olympics for the luge and bob-sledding track, but was started in the 1800s--they'd sled after 7pm by moonlight.  You can read more about Korketrekkeren by clicking here.  It's pretty interesting.  There were quite a few times you were actually airborne--W and N were counting.  I was trying to steer, as we were going fast, and there are a lot of turns, as well as people wiping out in front of you.  The sides were built up around most of the track, but there were a few areas where there were some steep drop-offs-you wouldn't want to coming flying around a curve and go off the edge!!  On the third run down, I took W, and G had N.  At the bottom of the hill, there was an area of slush, maybe 18 inches deep.  Quite a large area.  I'd been able to avoid it the other times, but this time we were going too fast, and hit the bump just before it wrong--made us airborne, and landed right in the slush!!  We were soaked and cold, but the trams on the way home were warm, thankfully.  W did not complain of being cold even once.



We're gonna go sledding!!!



While we were changing out who was in the pictures, the kids took the opportunity to quickly play in the snow.  Are you seeing a theme here??

"Put down that snow and smile"

We returned to the hotel, and showered up.  The radiant floor heating felt wonderful on our cold feet!!!  We ate dinner at our hotel.  Kids had some FABULOUS burgers, and were excited to get French fries, which they haven't had in awhile.  UK always has what they call chips, but what are like big steak fries.  These were like "regular" French fries.  G had the lutefisk, and I had reindeer again.



More reindeer



Lutefisk-traditional Norwegian dish, served with its traditional sides.  Clockwise from top:  Potatoes, white sauce, bacon, and peas.

Lutefisk is a white fish prepared in lye.  Doesn't sound good, but it actually was.  You can read more about Lutefisk here.

Monday, December 31, Day 6
We took a taxi to Central Station to catch our 0732 train from Oslo to Stockholm, Sweden, and had a bag breakfast from the hotel on the train.

Please stop by again and read my next entry, which will continue on our adventures in Stockholm, Sweden.