Mini cruise to Oslo, Norway

Raegan and Ron had last Friday off of school and work (gotta love Europe!) so we decided to take a long weekend trip to Oslo, Norway. There are large ferry/cruise boats that leave daily from Copenhagen in the late afternoon, you cruise overnight and wake up pulling up to port in Oslo. There are restaurants, bars, kids areas, etc on board for entertainment.

 

Here's the boat

 

The kids were very excited about our tiny room on board. Raegan insisted on sleeping on the top bunk....this turned out fine but I did not sleep well since I was across from her on the other top bunk worried she would roll off. Wyatt did well in a big boy bed too.

 

 

Pulling away from the Denmark coast. The kids were clearly excited to be on a big boat.

Fun on the boat

 

Waking up to our arrival in Norway.

 The kids watched us pull in

 

 

This is how the kids travelled around the city

 

Oslo is a really pretty city with the beautiful harbor and the mountains in the background. After we checked into our hotel and dropped off our suitcase we walked to the Opera House and walked on its roof

 

Then we walked over to Akerhus Castle and Fortress...only to find it is only open on the weekends (it was Friday)...so we didn't get to go inside. This was the point at which we also realized we needed public transportation in order to get around to see everything we wanted to quickly so we bought the 24 hr Oslo Pass which gave us access to museums and public transportation.

 

We took the bus out to Vigeland Park, the largest sculpture park done by one person. First we stopped by a large playground in the same park area so the kids could play.

 

 

And then we head on to Vigeland Park. It was interesting but a bit creepy....here are some of the good ones! The kids were oblivious obviously but it was all really weird. We definitely did not get it.

 

We ended the day taking the train back and getting out at the Royal Palace

Then we walked down Karl Johan's Gate, which is the main road with shopping, bars, restaurants, etc. We took in the culture and stopped by a pub on the way home.

We started off Day 2 taking the train to the end of the line out of Oslo and up the mountain. This is a ski area during the winter months...and we did still see some snow up there even though it was nice out. There were amazing views of the city and ocean from up there. We walked down to the Holmenkollen Ski Museum & Tower - this was an impressive sight - home to ski competitions and the Olympic ski jump event one year.

 

As I am going through more pictures to post, I can't believe I haven't mentioned yet one of the strangest of all things we've witnessed in the culture here. Upon checking into our hotel the first day there was a large group of high school aged kids dressed the same (Bright red pants) and I assumed they were here for some sporting event - maybe a tournament. As we continued to walk around we saw groups of them everywhere. I still amazingly thought that it might be a really huge sporting event. Ron asked someone and it is an event called Russefeiring -  they are high school seniors and they party for a month+ straight - they wear matching clothes, drive the same colored cars, etc to celebrate their upcoming graduation. Check out more info on it...really interesting.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russefeiring We found these kids everywhere - in the most random places with their loud 'umph umph' rave type music, usually drinking and hanging out at the all the outdoor spaces we visited.   We couldn't help but take pictures of what we witnessed. they put a lot of effort into this. They have matching jackets where the smaller groups have the same logos on their backs.

 

 

Anyways....to finish our trip we stood in line forever (it was a nice day so everyone was out) to take the ferry over to the ship museums. We went into the Polar Fram museum and the Kon Tiki museum. They had actual whole giant ships under the small museum roofs.

 

Waiting for the ferry at the marina and the ride over... 

 The kids had a good seat.

 

 At the museums

Heading back and getting ready to get back on the cruise/ferry to Copenhagen. the kids are clearly tired.

 Wow, only 150 kroner for a TGI Fridays burger and a Coke (~$30) on Mondays! I'm in!

(for some reason this photo didn't rotate upon upload...that's Wyatt in the double stroller with his sun shade all the way closed looking (very tired) out the top)



 

Heading back...pulling out of Oslo.

 

I decided to do a Raegan pose with her

 

 Oh yeah, these women from Thailand loved our children (especially Wyatt)...a lot. It was really uncomfortable with all the pictures and the cheek pinching, etc.  The encounter was claustrophobic really, we were just trying not to be rude. But we were so unnerved by it we would not look away from our kids for one second while they were around and vowed when we got home to check all the child trafficking websites out of Thailand when we got home for their photos. :-) (that smiley was really just a half one because it was disturbing...)

Poor tired kiddos at dinner on the boat in their jammies, did I mention that it's already light out here until 9:30pm and it's only May 1 (light at 5:30am)?

In the morning, almost home...