September 14, 2009
Around Oslo
We spend our last day in Oslo just walking the streets, shopping, and visiting the Akershus Fortress.
Oslo is a very clean city…no smog to speak of, no trash on the ground. It was also relatively quiet. We almost never heard anyone honk their horn and the people were quite soft spoken.
Here is a view down the main walking street, Karl Johans Gate. The large yellow structure at the end of the road is the castle of the Norwegian Royal Family.
We saw a viking! He took frequent smoke breaks.
This “statue” was quite popular. He was very still and convincing, but he did surprise a little girl when he bent down to shake her hand. The man in the black jacket stared him down for quite some time and seemed genuinely stumped as to whether this was metal or man.
The Grand Hotel was a good looking place.
There were some protestors in the city center wearing traditional Norwegian clothing. The yellow sign reads: “Stopp Monsterliner.” We have no idea what that means.
There were a lot of these little guys around.
There were all kinds of shops on the streets and every bar and restaurant had outside seating.
A lot of the shops had amazing seal skin clothing, like these boots. Seal can be hunted in the Svalbard, a Norwegian controlled archipelago north of the mainland.
We went down to the harbor and looked at the boats and statues.
Akershus Fortress overlooks the Oslo Fjord. It was built in the 13th century to protect Oslo. It has also been used as a prison. It is now home to a resistance museum which documents Norway’s WWII history.
Of all the photos we took on our vacation, this one is our favorite!
To wrap up our trip, we had a fantastic dinner at Cafe Cathedral. It was a great way to end our travel.
We had an excellent trip and look forward to returning to Norway in the near future!
I am norwegian and leave in Oslo. Nice pictures! Monsterliner are big masts that carry power over long distances. Background: we need to provide more electrical power to a beautiful city further west called Bergen, due to big mountains big masts are planned to be built and set up in our national park called Hardangervidda. Many people want to avoid this and find alternative solutions…