Walking

Greetings from Oslo! Ivan and I walked all over this city today, starting after breakfast. We walked to the train station, which is so close we regretted the $30 cab fare we paid when we arrived. Neither of us fully appreciated how close to the station our hotel was. The walk was easy and our train tickets for the trip tomorrow to Bergen were handed to us by the ticket person about 30 seconds after we asked for them! We then meandered to the Botanical Gardens where Ivan spotted our first new bird - a Blue Tit. Yes, that's its name and yes, I've probably heard any joke you might toss my way about them! It's a pretty little bird that's related to chickadees and titmice. We visited the Geological Museum in the Garden area and were fascinated, but frustrated because everything was in Norwegian. I guess we are, after all, in NORWAY - what language should the display tags be in?! We did enjoy it nonetheless. After a very expensive lunch of grilled chicken burgers and 2 small beers (about $80!), we walked to the ferry terminus for a ferry to the Bygdøy peninsula where the Viking Ship Museum and the Fram Museum are located. One can either take a long bus ride to the museums or can take a 15-minute ferry ride to get there. We opted for the ferry and saw 5 Common Eiders (a northern species of duck) on the trip! Both museums were fascinating. The Viking Ship one has 3 real ships which were unearthed in the late 1800's. They were 'unearthed' because they were used as burial containers for the wealthy people who owned them. The even more interesting thing is that these ships were buried in the late 800's - 880 to be specific for one of them! No, I did not leave the number 1 off the beginning of the number - the year was before the year 1000! And these were the ACTUAL boats! Each had intricate carving on the bow, an elongated, curved frontspiece for the boat. A fascinating museum. The second museum in Bygdøy was the Fram Museum which has the very boat used by Roald Amundsen when he was searching for the elusive Northwest Passage through Arctic ice in the early 1900's. Another amazing showcase for this explorer and his craft. Now, at 9PM, I'm exhausted, but want to post a couple of photos I took today. There may be 2 or 3 more posts, each with a photo or two. Stay tuned . . . !