Day 2 in Oslo

Preface: I returned to a week of 100 degree + weather in Antioch. I’m not used to it now having been in the Baltic circle. Last weekend, I stayed with friends in SF and showed off my loot. It was a welcome respite from the heat, but no internet there, and although I’ve written up a lot of the copy for these travelogues, I’m still working on how to share the photos with you. I do think I have the problem solved; we’ll see. I hope to post at least one of these before I take up a friend’s offer to spend the holiday weekend in Humboldt. I’ve never been to the Emerald Triangle. I’ll be gone Thursday - Monday, and we plan to visit Hobbitown on our return. High temp should be no more than 80 while the East Bay is expecting another weekend of 100 + temps. It’s 92 while I’m typing this at 3 pm in Antioch. Leaving for SF Wed. 8/30 around 5 pm.

Monday, August 7th

Our first day to explore, so Daniel signed us all up for a 3-day Oslo pass. For $73 and 72 hours, I could ride any local bus, tram, train, subway, or ferry, and have FREE admissions to most museums. We got our money’s worth!

First, we took the tram to the Ferry where we hopped aboard to visit the Oseberg ship!

Oseberg ship

Max & Dylan at the original Stave Church

Max with the ship

The original - there is now a copy of it at the original site.

The sight of this ship is engraved on most Heathens’ minds. Indeed, we make a model of it every year for our Ostara ship offering. It was truly awesome to see it and a lot of its artifacts up close and personal. I learned that it was a burial vessel for two women, aged 50 and 80. Astounding!

Next, we caught a bus to the Open-air Folk Museum. This place was packed with historical buildings from all over Norway. Most had been collected by the King in the 19th century and moved to this site. There were farmhouses, smithies, stables, and more. Once again, we were rewarded with another Norsk icon, the original stave church. We could  actually go in and out of it, touch the wood, and really enjoy the experience.

It was late afternoon by now, so we headed back on the Ferry. Once on the docks, we tried to go to Modern art museum, but it was closed on Mondays.

Instead, Dylan was hungry, so we went to his choice of restaurants on the pier. It was a campy, seafood house.

I’m allergic to shellfish, so I thought I might just have some soup, but the Monday special was a Smoked Cod lunch and was totally delicious. There were two large, unbreaded pieces with a mushroom sauce on the side, and I couldn’t finish it. Kim ordered a ‘bucket of shrimp’ and it actually came in a bucket at least 6” high and at least 6” in diameter. It was a lot of shrimp. Norway is far from cheap, but this place was a real find. My lunch was only about $20; the shrimp about $30. The boys enjoyed their cheeseburgers!

After that, we waddled up the pier towards the tram stop, but detoured at the Nobel peace center. As we left it was drizzling, so we headed home. The family got off at the stop 400 meters below our apartment to go grocery shopping, but even in the light rain, I continued to the stop about 800 meters above our place to walk down.

As I left the tram, I could see that this elevated view was fantastic and when I looked behind me I could see a beautiful park with beckoning statuary, but figured I’d be back Tuesday or Wednesday.

The view of Oslo bay and downtown on the way was spectacular. I was looking forward to seeing it again under better conditions. We ate at home that night and caught up on our devices. Went to bed early for me - around the 10 pm sunset- to rest up for another full day of touristing on Tuesday.