Oslo Day Three

Or the jump!

The first stop for today was the ski jump at Holmenkollen. This was a lovely 20 minute train ride from the centre of the city and from here you had a fantastic view of the city and the Oslo Fjords.

The ski jump itself was pretty scary looking. It is very high and steep and from the top it is very very very windy. The record for the longest jump was set by an Austrian in 2002 and stands at 143m. When I went down I could only manage 140m, so I think I need some practice!

After catching the train back down we headed to the Akerhus, a Norwegian fort built over seven hundred years ago. We got a tour from a very lively Norwegian uni student around the place and then headed for a walk through the surrounding grounds. The fort was situated in a military base, so there were soldiers walking around everywhere, but they were outnumbered by tourists so I reckon we could have taken them! :-)

We headed back into the main city for a drink and spent some time writing postcards. After posting them we jumped on the train to the airport for our 8:30 flight! It was time to go home.



Ski jump landing area - they give the competitors a snorkel for the bottom.



The jump itself.



Views from the bottom of the jump.



Views from the top.



Competitors Eye View....



More views from the top.



Oslo city centre.



The Akerhus.



The main entrance.



The fort square.



Inside.



Vases - I think we have some like this at home?



The surrounding grounds.



Defence?



More fort.



Protecting the flowers?

Oslo Day Two

Or the peninsula...

The plan for today was to head over to the Bygdøy peninsula where a lot of the city's tourist attractions were located.

After breakfast in the hotel (man there was some strange food on offer - caviar in a tube, some meat, pea, potato and jelly concoction and a weird looking luminescent cheese) we headed down to the harbour to get the ferry.

Our first stop was the Viking Ship museum. Inside here were three recovered Viking ships from about the 10th century. Apart from being absolutely jam packed full of tourists, it was pretty cool. Two of the ships were in excellent condition, but the third looked like it had seen better days.

From here we walked up to the Norwegian Folk Museum. In here they had moved traditional buildings from all over Norway into one spot (making it very convenient for me!!). We got to see a 12th century funky stave church and some camouflaged farm buildings. They also had an interesting exhibit where they relocated a building from central Oslo and showed the history of the residences over a couple of hundred years!

After a tea break we headed to the Kon-Tiki museum. This museum contained the ships that Thor Heyerhahls built in the 1960's to prove that ancient South Americans had the technology to built boats to sail to Polynesia. I can honestly say that you would not get me on one of those boats!

From here we went to the Fram museum. The Fram was a boat that successfully sailed the Northwest Passage and got close to both the North and South Poles.

After getting the ferry back to the city centre we headed to a bar, Eet Glass, close to our hotel. The plan was to have a couple of drinks and then head out for dinner. That pretty much failed and we spent the rest of the night drinking and eating and enjoying fantastic service from the bar staff!!



A Viking Boat



Where the Oars Go!



A bit of a fixer-upper



A square in the folk museum



Houses in the museum ground



The Stave Church



More houses in the museum ground



More houses in the museum ground



More houses in the museum ground



Cool fence



Beats wallpaper?



The Fram



Wonder what the turning circle is like?



Ferries and Ships



The beach - does not look that comfortable



Oslo at 10pm!

Oslo Day One

Or do I look Norwegian?

Well it was another bank holiday here in the UK, making it a great time to head off to explore more of the continent. This time is was Norway, or more specifically, Oslo.

We stayed at Heathrow the night before and headed to the airport about 6am for our 7:20 flight. After a fairly uneventful flight (although you had to pay for food!!) we landed in Oslo, collected our bags and caught the train into the centre of the city. We dumped the bags at the hotel and headed out to grab some lunch. It was pretty strange walking through the city. On previous trips to the continent, locals could tell I was a tourist, this time though they immediately assumed I looked like a local and started talking in Norwegian to me!

We then went for a bit of a walk through the city and along the way we saw a Karaoke Taxi which was pretty cool!

Following this we joined a line to go for a tour through their parliament house - or the Stortinget. It was a good decision because as we were in line it started absolutely pissing down, so a trip inside was good.

After going through security the tour began. It turned out there were about 25 tourists and 5 Norwegians, which meant the Norwegians joined our group and got a tour of their own parliament house in English (luckily they all speak English very well).

We learnt a bit about their history (the Norway link above will tell you more) and got to see the two chambers. While we were in the main chamber, the changing of the guard was occurring at the Royal Palace. This involved about fifty soldiers marching through the centre of the city up to the palace. It looked pretty cool.

After parliament we headed over to the art gallery to check out some of the art they had on offer. The most famous of which was The Scream, by Edvard Munch. He had some other interesting (and disturbing) paintings in there as well.

By now the rain had stopped, so we headed up to the palace to check it out. You could get pretty close to it (unlike Buckingham) and walk pretty much all the way around it. At the back they had a lovely park which was full of people running, feeding ducks and the like. It would make a nice backyard if you were the King!

We then headed down to the docks where they had some pretty funky outdoor sculptures. They also had a peace flame there (Oslo being the place were they award the Nobel Peace Prize). After walking along the waters edge, it was time to have a beer!

We headed to a bar in the main part of the city. Beers came in 400mL or 600mL sizes. 400mL cost 55Kr which converted to $12.50 or about 5 quid! Getting drunk here would be an expensive exercise!

We then headed out for dinner to Pepe's Pizza, a Norwegian Pizza chain. The pizzas were bloody huge, but absolutely delicious (with strange toppings like Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato!!). After rolling out of here we went for a bit o a walk (it was 10pm and still very light).

We were stopped by a couple who were celebrating the fact that they were getting married in a few weeks. Apparently it is tradition to celebrate together and they have to dress up and go around and sell things. We bought a painting off them for 50Kr and had to sign their shirts!




Karaoke Taxi!



The Main Parliamentary Chamber



The back of Parliament - looks like a big ugly Sydney suburban house!!



The Palace



The Main Drag



Not sure why the guard cant be in the little box....



Behind the Palace



More behind the Palace



I wonder how long it will take to get to the other side?



The Water Front



It is a little chilly for that I think!

Barcelona Day Three

Or Gaudi...

After a sluggish wake up we headed out to buy some food. Andrea was not feeling that great so Scooter stayed with her while Jules, Peter, Suzie and I headed up to Parc Guell, a park designed by Gaudi, a Barcelonan architect.

The park was pretty impressive (as you will see from the photos), it was full of people out enjoying the lovely Spanish weather.

We headed back to pick up Andrea and Scooter before heading up to La Sagrada Familia. Another of Gaudi's works, the place was overwhelming. Building had been going on for 120 years and it was still not finished. We climbed the tower (along with everyone else in Barcelona I think), before looking around the half completed inside.

Suzie was not all that impressed so she, Andrea and Scooter headed over to the markets, while Jules, Peter and I went to see some more of Gaudi's buildings. On the walk back we saw the Casa Mila and the Casa Batllo. Both were very impressive, but unfortunately we did not really have time to go inside.

We headed back to the hostel before going out for dinner. Afterwards we headed to an Absynthe Bar which was pretty cool. It was down the dodgy looking side street (in Peter's words the street was worse then it looked). The bar looked like it was from the 1930's (and not cleaned since). The drink was absolutely disgusting, but very strong. So we all walked back to the hostel rather merry!

An early start tomorrow for our 7:30 flight back to Heathrow!



The entrance to Parc Guell


Pineapples in the Park?


More Park


The view from the park


More view


More Park


Me!


Funky Seats


More me. is that a pineapple growing out of my head?


More Park


The front of La Segrada Familia


The view from the top of the tower.


Jules walking the stairs.


One of the Towers


The back door.


The crucifixion


Casa Mila


The square from the hostel.