One of the many measures of a favourite port, is the ease of access to either the town or the transport to it. Oslo rocketed straight to one of our all-time favourites. After a light breakfast we simply walked off the ship and onto the Ho-Ho bus, right alongside the ship. Exceptionally well organised with several people with hand held credit card machines rather than the queue at an office or on the bus itself. A 500kr cost (about £50 or 100NZD for the two of us) made it one of the more expensive Ho-Ho buses, but still somewhat cheaper than any other organised tour.
It was a bit chilly initially, especially with no windows on the upper deck, but this time, we were well prepared. We enjoyed the run out and hopped off just after the furthest point at the Vigelandsparken. Translated as the ‘Vigeland Sculpture Park’.
This is a must see in Oslo judging by the number of visitors and did not disappoint. There are about 200 statues, either bronze or stone, just about all of them of men, women and children, all in the one totally international dress - birthday suits. We had already commented on how clean it was in Oslo, but it was a surprise to see two ladies cleaning the statues. One with a light water blaster and the other with bucket, sponge and small brush. So many bottoms to wash…
We returned just before the next bus came through (30 minutes) and managed to board, but this one had windows rather than being open to the elements.
We stayed on until we returned to the city centre, past the Folk Museum (which looked like a settler’s village from outside) and the Fram and Kon Tiki Museums. Museums and places of interest on the route were either free or discounted with the bus ticket.
The Oslo city centre is relatively traffic free and we could probably have spent more time here. We used the facilities in McDonalds but managed the day without any extra food or drink. Currently, there are extensive road works around the station and access to the modern opera house was tricky – probably because we totally missed the Dayglo yellow signs and had to retrace our steps. We had had enough walking, so we didn’t walk around the modern opera house which, in the bright sunlight, looked like a series of ski slopes. (See pic.)
An easy walk back to the ship, which was moored just across the road from Akershus Fortress and Castle (see pic) where someone was exercising a dressage horse first thing in the morning.
We missed the 1:30pm changing of the guard in the city and a walk up to the palace, but we’d certainly like to return one day. Almost no graffiti, light traffic (and a real push towards small electric ‘Buddy’ cars, usually parked at right angles to the kerb – see pic). Sure, prices may be higher than many countries, but neither of us are shopaholics and we managed to escape with a very small bill.
Incidentally, apart from the universal acceptance of credit cards, most souvenir places seemed to accept Euros and I suspect, US dollars. Not too sure about the major or minor stores, but we rarely purchase foreign exchange unless we really have to.
Back on board, we returned to the buffet, where once again, the curry was too good to ignore. Afterwards, down to deck 5 for a coffee – and I thought I should also try the coffee pannacotta. Well, how can you guide other cruisers if you aren’t diligent with assessing the food? Delicious. The international café has about 4 chefs so you can get a nice salad (is there such a thing?), filled rolls, quiche, soup, meat pie and a very nice range of desserts.
We had to cope with trivia on our own. We didn’t win.
A slightly lighter evening meal – just one main. The home style braised pork.
The Princess theatre 10:30pm show (sounds very late…) was a British comedian Gary T Thompson. He wasn’t getting the sort of support from the audience he’d had from the earlier two shows, but like Berni, maybe a little too British and he probably spoke a little quickly for some. There again, I often struggle with fast talking Americans! I’ll give him an 8/10 so far. He went on a little longer than the standard 45 minutes and as we walked past the Explorer’s, the violinist was part way through his second show, so we watched that almost to the end. On the Dawn Princess at that time of night, you’d almost have the place to yourself!
Bed 12:20. Copenhagen tomorrow and once again, no tour booked. That also means no alarm clock. We may miss out on the sail ins, but it certainly enables us to cope so much better than a succession of early wake ups and rushes to get fed and organised.
So far, so good. The weather overall hasn’t been too bad and already, I am having to look at the photographs to remind me of what we saw. Many more pics than those posted on here of course, so sorry if the selection is a little sparse, but upload speed is just so slow, even though they have been shrunk to ‘web page’ size. None uploaded to Facebook either.
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