Day 7 - Oslo, Norway

Colleen at top of Vigeland Park
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Of course we woke up this morning in Sweden to a beautiful day! The sun was shining and we were disappointed, of course , that is was so nice when we were leaving.. We had a noon flight to Oslo, which was only an hour flight... flying SAS again, and now we will mention their crazy boarding system. As soon as they announce boarding everyone sitting at the gate forms a line! So no matter what row you are in, you get up! For these European countries that run everything else so efficiently, this is chaos.. and quite a mess. It kind of feels like when we travel to the Caribbean.. only they don't let you board in the US.. EVERYTHING else has been going so well that this is hardly something to stress about..

Vigeland Park
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We arrive in OSLO and have booked the FLYTOGET online and now comes the test to swipe our cards which we prebooked 2 months ago.. Voila, they work , we are in with no problems and we are on the express train to Oslo city.

Oslo in a Day!!

As we exit the train station in Oslo, it is very different than that of the first 2 cities, Copenhagen and Stockholm. I see some strange characters lurking and it looks a little seedy and feels a little unsafe.. I walk behind Alberto to watch his wallet because he refuses to wear a money belt. And I have my pocketbook strapped around me , which you probably have seen in every photo so far. We walk to our hotel and it is really nice and very modern.. We were pleasantly surprised.. We were given a room on the 20th Floor with a view of the harbor. Alberto is very excited as this room as a steam press in the wall for ironing :) I am excited because the bathroom has heated towel racks and a heated floor. This must be nice and cozy in the winter! Fortunately, we are enjoying some fine summer weather in Oslo. Everyone we meet says this is unusual, so we feel VERY lucky.

City Hall at Bryggens Marina
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We drop our bags and head out in search of the quickest tour of Oslo we can find.. The concierge recommends we take the tram to Vigeland Park and skip the Viking Museum.. and then walk our way back from there. So off we go , Vigeland was not on our agenda but we figure we will try it.. We board the tram for the last stop and when we get off we are in AWE, this park was spectacular. We spent a few hours touring the park and looking at the 600 sculptures that Gustav Vigeland designed himself for this park. It was really an amazing sight. While at the park , we learn Bruce Springsteen was there the day before and also gave a concert in Oslo. So now we are celebrity stalking in Norway.. (we were saving that for France in the hopes of seeing Brad and Angelina with those twins )

We had back on the tram to Bryggens Marina.. We passed this on the way up and it looked like a good stopping point. Here we find City Hall and the Noble Peace Prize Center. We also boarded an OsloFjord Cruise in the harbor for about an hour. During the cruise we decide we will go for some drinks and an early dinner up at Karl Johan's Gate. This is the street for eating and shopping.. Also, we have to get up at 5am for our Fjords train tomorrow. We enjoy a few beers and some dinner before retiring back to the hotel. We make one final visit to the 34th floor Panorama Bar at the hotel, hoping to catch a sunset.. we did get a beautiful view but the sun is not setting here until 11:45pm.. so we have to skip it..

We hit the pillows hard and scheduled our wake up call for 5am..

Tomorrow we conquer the Fjords!!!