Since I hadn’t done an actual tour of Oslo, I chose a walking tour with a lovely Romanian woman and saw many things I hadn’t seen before, including City Hall where they have the Nobel Prize ceremonies. The tiger is the symbol of Oslo (due to a famous poem), and the swan is the symbol of Norway.

Later I explored the bohemian neighborhood called Grunerlokka, which was cool especially since everyone is outside, enjoying the sun and they have funny murals and graffiti everywhere.

Leaving very early in the money and later I’ll supplement this blog with more information!😻

And why not? Seeing the sights is not only fun but educational so I’ll just go with it! Started by waking the roof of the Opera House then trying to figure out the metro system. Luckily I was successful in making my way up to the huge ski jump Oslo built for the Olympics and even went on the zip line! After having a fish & chips by the water, I finally found the public ferry to Bygdøy where I went through a cool open folk museum showing life in the 16th century. Made a quick stop at the Viking Museum before heading back on the ferry for a beer by the water then a mussels dinner. Oh, and I found a beautiful Norwegian sweater on 1/2 price sale!

Ok not exactly Lars but close because most people here are pretty much like you expect Norwegians to be – closed off and aloof. However, when I decided to island hop, I merely asked a young woman with a dog which island was the best, she described them and even offered for me to come and have a coffee with her and her friend at her parents’ vacation cottage. They were so sweet and showed me around – it made it clear that Norwegians can be very warm and friendly.

I also went to the Vigeland Park where there are sculptures everywhere as well as fountains and playgrounds and lots of space to walk and relax. Dinner was at a fun food truck place where talking to people was easy and the weather has been sunny!!

And the water as well, although it’s also slightly green because it’s glacial in the fjords!

What a gorgeous fjord trip, aptly called Norway in a Nutshell, which has you take train-bus-boat-Flam train and then rail, which makes for a very long (and touristy) day. In addition to the amazing water/sharp mountains, there were long waterfalls and even ice. These shots are from all of the vehicles that I took on this journey!

Pictures will be best here …

I would recommend this to anyone and suggest only that perhaps you go when it’s not high tourist season!

Bergen, Norway is much larger than I expected, for I thought it was a sleepy little village whose claim to fame is as the gateway to the fjords. When I arrived last night, it was 50 degrees and thankfully I have lots of layers. Early this morning, I ran down to buy 2 separate fjord tickets, 1 for today along the osterfjiorden and 1 for tomorrow along a narrow one accessible by the Norway in a Nutshell train/bus/boat all-day adventure.

The fjord was beautiful, majestic and sharp mountains on either side of this glacial water – we saw a seal but no eagles. I got a couple of nice pictures, some with great reflections of the trees.

After the 3 hour tour (now that song will be stuck), a Russian woman – Ilsa- and I decided to go up along where the tram runs 3 kilometers up and back … I didn’t know she meant to hike the whole thing through the woods but I couldn’t let a Russian show me up. My sore feet and I did it and it really was a lovely walk – park like and lush all the way.

Stopped for a vodka on the way down (my reward), did a little shopping, had dinner in a funky cafe and planned for tomorrow’s adventure. Hard to believe Oslo will be my next and last city on this fabulous journey!

Trying yet again… this site tells me each of the posts is “published” but clearly they aren’t!

Doing another abbreviated one in case this does not go through. Had two fabulous but extremely busy walking everywhere days in Copenhagen, taking a boat tour, visiting the castle and the royal museum, walking into hippie Christianiana, taking a very long visit at the gorgeous Botanical Gardens with its butterfly garden, and even getting to hear great jazz all over the city because it just happens to be their annual Jazz Festival!

Will try to post some pictures …

So, I’m posting because apparently it’s working again as I heard from Elinor Ross that she could read it – success!

Having an open faced sandwich, which my son gives me s&$@ about serving, and I must say it’s delicious and it’s cool!

Toured the Rosenborg Castle, which was mildly interesting as it was just the ‘pleasure castle’ of King Christian IV and had collections of porcelain, tapestries, paintings and some beautiful inlaid wooden desks.

Surrounded by languages all over town and it’s exhilarating! Off to see the Little Mermaid and have a small boat tour!

That song has been in my head since my mom sang it and told me about the Danny Kaye movie … not that it’s a great song, mind you!

I have written several other posts but they aren’t appearing so I’ll just do this as a test before writing more!

… or whatever you’d like but these posts aren’t going up and I’d like to blame someone, something – maybe the WiFi – but I’m taking good notes and have some photos that I’ll be able to post when I have a better signal.

If this is posted, I’d like to say that I had another very nice day in Stockholm, including meeting with an ombudsperson from the medical university here and made great connections – her campus has unusually beautiful buildings, like the one shown here.

One highlight of the day was visiting the Vasa Museum which houses an infamous early 1600’s Swedish warship that sunk a mere 40 minutes after she was launched and it was salvaged in 1990 ! It’s such an interesting place, full of self deprecating humor, and the money they make from the visitors is allowing much research to be done. It took a year for the ship to be built, which has intricate and beautiful carvings, but the top heavy cannons caused it to sink.

I visited other interesting places on the island of Djurgarden, including the ABBA museum and had amazing fish & chips out of a bag in the park. Dinner was near Parliament at a popular restaurant, Bakfickan, where I had real Swedish meatballs!

Being here, I missed our traditional U.S. Fourth of July festivities with the sweet neighborhood get-togethers, local fireworks and focus on peace and not ridiculous tanks. Well, actually maybe it’s good that I’m here and not there right now 🙂

Trying again – this time with photos …