Day 840 - Oslo

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Oslo, Norway, Day 2 at Sea

Breakfast

Endless food...endless happiness!

We woke up bright and early at 5 a.m. for breakfast at the Horizon Bistro.  My favorite time on board a cruise liner is the morning when everyone is still fast asleep.  I like the feeling of owning the public space and dealing with only a small percentage of the population.  I think that's why I enjoy being a morning person so much. 

There's always an empty seat at 5 a.m.!

Deck 16 in the morning.

Our ship arrived in Oslo at 10.

City Hall in the distance

We arrived close to the center of the city at docked alongside the Akershus Fortress from the 1300s.

Akershus Fortress

 

We had a short ten-minute walk to City Hall.  Before reaching Karl Johans Gate, Alice found a large group of flowers and went wild with pictures.

We lucked out...the day was beautiful!

Since Oslo is a city for strolling, we walked along Karl Johans Gate to the Royal Palace.

I remember walking this street 30 years ago!

Alice found a friendly bicycle comrade along the way.

After a thoroughly enjoyable 45-minute walk, we made it to the Royal Palace.

We cut through the Slotteparken on our way to the National Gallery.  There was quite a line to get in, mainly because it was Sunday and free.  One of my highlights was to revisit "The Scream!"

This may well be the single greatest late-19th/early-20th Century painting that captures all the horrors of the modern world.  We also saw several other great works.

Auguste Renior, After the Bath

Erich Heckel, Violinist

Max Pechstein, Still Life

Edvard Munch, Seated Nude

After about 90 minutes or so in the museum, we sat down at a cafe across the street, then headed back to City Hall.

Because City Hall was closed for an event, we made our way into an art gallery at the rear entrance, where several works of art were on display by prominent contemporary Norwegian artists.  Our favorite pieces were by Marianne Sandsto.  As luck would have it, she walked in just as we were about to leave.  We told how how amazing she was.  She's incredibly gifted.  Her pieces were incredible.

Our final attraction of the day was the Nobel Peace Center across the street from City Hall.

We walked through the permanent and temporary exhibits featuring Malala Yousafzais, who was shot in the head by a Taliban terrorist back in 2011 and somehow survived.  Seeing the clothes she wore on that horrible day was very moving.

We spent an hour in the museum, but were starting to get tired.

We walked along a pier toward the Opera House, but choose to make the ship for high tea instead of continuing our walk.  We were getting tired.

Toward the Opera House, but we were too tired to continue

We headed back to the ship in time for high tea at 4.

Easy on the cream, bro!

We took a nap after tea, then woke up and had dinner at Concerto Dining at 5:30.  We met our dining guests at Table 256, Michael and Diana, a couple from Australia, and Katherine and Marg, two sisters also from Australia.  We were lucky.  It was a delightful table.

After dinner, we crashed, going right to bed while the ship headed to Aarhus, Denmark the next day.  It was another wonderful, perfect day in Europe!