Day 57 Oslo, Norway

 After our late night we were pleased that we were doing a tour called Panoramic Oslo that was a sightseeing tour with very little walking.  Our first stop on this tour was the east side of Oslo where we drove up to a high point for some magnificent views over Oslo with a population of 700,000. 

Oslo is an interesting city with very modern architecture sitting comfortably beside early century architecture.  We drove by the Royal Palace surrounded by magnificent gardens that are open every day to the public, past Parliament House,  the old wall to protect the city, and finally the Nobel Institute where the committee meets to decide the winner of the Nobel Prize.

Our bus driver then turned the bus towards the western side of Oslo towards Holmenkollen.  This is where Oslo's ski jump, the most visited place in Oslo, is situated.  It's a little hard to imagine the ski jump covered in ice but it is where the annual Holmenkollen Ski Festival is held annually and it was also host to the World Championships in 2011.  It has been re-built many times over the years. As we drove up the mountain we passed by one of many cross country skiers on wheeled ski's.  It certainly would be challenging on the uphill.

This tour was only three hours so we were back at the ship by midday.  We were on this tour with our friends so we decided to head into the Opera House for lunch rather than fight the crowd onboard.  This is changeover day onboard where a new leg of our cruise begins with a whole bunch of new people. 

 It is a relatively short walk to the Opera House where we are told there is a restaurant selling decent food. As it turned out it was probably the most expensive restaurant in Oslo!!

The Maitré D was very friendly and explained the menu items to us in great detail.  Philip and I settled on Buratta Bruschetta to share for entreé and steaks for mains.  We all ordered the local beer to wash our meal down.  The Bruschetta was divine but my steak, supposedly medium rare, was still moo-ing!  

After lunch Philip and I decided to walk to the top of the marble clad Opera House. We were told that the marble was imported from Italy….. around 20,000 tonnes.  Thank you very much said the Italians!  Although it doesn't look very steep, it is!  There were stairs beside the sloping roof and I used them as I felt I would fall backwards on the slope.  The views from here are spectacular.

Opera House from our suite balcony.  People walking around look like little ants!

We took the long scenic walk back to our ship.  The afternoon had warmed considerably and there were many people taking advantage of the saunas and diving platform.

The apartment building in the next photo has just won an award for architecture brilliance (or whatever it's called) and at first sight I wondered why, but our walk past the building showed beautiful apartments with large amounts of glass doors and windows that would be perfect in the cold dark winter months and in summer those doors could be opened to bring in the outside. These apartment blocks form part of the modern Oslo.

Before I sign off I want to share with you what we found on our bed when we arrived home from the Fram Museum last night.  It was a beautifully wrapped compass, set in its own wooden box.  There was also a touching note left with it.