Oslo Outings

These are the most recent purchases for those who haven't seen them on Facebook - full rain bib and rain boots. He's ready for the Seattle winter.

In the past week we've had a couple of excursions beyond the center of Oslo. The first was to the island of Bygdoy, which is a quick 15 minute ferry ride from the waterfront. The ferries are adorable passenger only boats that, in nice weather (which we haven't seen since our first two days in town) could be open boats. We experienced them with the tops up, however...and with rain streaming down the windows. Still lovely on the inside. A very pleasant ride.

The purpose of the trip to Bygdoy was to visit the Polarship Fram Museum, which is a relatively small museum built around this relatively large ship - the polarship Fram, which was designed and built in the late 19th century to withstand the crushing ice of polar waters. Thus, it is very, very, very sturdy. It remains the boat to make it closest to both the North and South Poles.

The two men most associated with this boat, Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, were interesting and very different characters. Both gained recognition as great explorers...but Nansen recognized that there was a different way he could serve the world and stopped his explorations at an earlier age to devote himself to the League of Nations and his work on post WWI refugees. Amundsen was an explorer through and through it seems, and in the end the work got him. He disappeared on a flight near the North Pole as he was trying to rescue a friend who had also gone missing in a North Pole expedition.

So, the Fram Museum houses the ship but also - in the style of old fashioned museums the world over - a bunch of other (sort of) relevant "stuff" that needed a home. For instance, this stuffed musk ox and those old polar bears. (Sidebar: speaking of musk oxes...apparently Haakon, Jack's arctic host, is the first person to successfully inseminate one using the techniques he mastered back in his sheep farming days.)

As it is so expensive here in Norway, we've taken to enjoying afternoon coffee and cake out, as opposed to dinner and beers. Here we are after our trip to Bygdoy at the Grand Cafe on Karl Johans Gate, the main thoroughfare in central Oslo. Behind Jack, faded in the background, is the Stortinget, which is Norway's parliament building. In front of Jack are our Napoleon and Marzipan cakes. Yum.

Yesterday (Friday), we took advantage of the fact that the city of Oslo is not only a dense population center but also a swath of forest and trails, and we took a bus out of the city center in to the woods. At the end of the line (typically a tram line, but the rails are currently under construction for the 2011 Downhill Skiing World Cup), you can get off the bus and literally start hiking. Which is just what we did.

Two kilometers later we found ourselves in the heart of the Tryvann Vinterpark, which makes for lovely, quiet hiking mid-summer. The snow machines are resting, which gave Jack and Samuel a chance to look at them up close and personal.

These were our views. We are looking north and a bit west from the center of Oslo.

Our picnic spot was lovely. The piece of plastic in Samuel's hand is the wrapping for our reindeer sausage. Super tasty!

Best of all was another afternoon stop for coffee and cake at the Frognersetern Restaurant, back at the end of the bus line. We enjoyed their famous eplekake (apple cake) - although I was full for the rest of the day. The pieces were huge...as you can see.

The restaurant, which has clearly been around for quite some time, was built in the style of an old Viking barn as part of the (to quote Jack) "Viking revival craze of the late 19th century." I thought it made for a nice afternoon stop.

And the view was stunning. This panorama shot doesn't quite do it justice. It was cloudy and rainy, so the weather doesn't help either...but we're looking south at the city center and out over Oslo Fjord. Really stunning.


As the bus pulled up to take us back to our apartment in the city, we snapped this family shot - our only one on this trip thus far I think. It isn't the best. Samuel is trying to get down to a nap. Jack's trying to manage the camera. And I'm worried about what the bus driver will think.