Norway’s Capital

We actually wanted to have breakfast buffet at a hotel but we arrived a little late and there were too many hotel guests whom the tables needed to be reserved for. In the end, we (or rather a hotel employee) at least parked at the hotel as the city parking house was double the prize. But we also paid around 50€ for 5 hours. Instead of buffet breakfast, we got a salmon and a shrimp sandwich.

On Oslo’s main street ‚Karl Johans (gate)‘, we first visited the assembly hall of the University of Oslo with Edward Munk paintings. We found the sofas with golden lions and the old-style restrooms more interesting ;oD

The Royal Palace, built in the first half of the 19th century as the Norwegian residence, looked almost a little plain from outside. The lamps and the garden were more creative. The guards’ marching and presentation of rifles felt a little out of time. For once, we also saw female guards.

The city hall had some interesting architecture. There were even two bridal pairs  just coming out. One was singing along with their guitar player. We walked along with them to the harbour.

Just like in Trondheim, the fish market was closed for some reason =o/ Instead, there was an Indian festival going on.

Akershus Fortress is a medieval castle that was built around the late 1290s to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. The castle has also been used as a military base, a prison and is currently the temporary office of the prime minister of Norway.

Our girls had been collecting grass on the walk over the castle hill because we had seen horses in the distance when we entered. We were all very disappointed when an electric fence and prohibiting signs kept us from petting or feeding the horses.

Luckily, there were many different swings to console us.

As many other tourists, we walked on the roof of the opera. The girls played climbing a glacier =oD

In front of Oslo‘s cathedral, we enjoyed our last Norwegian ice-cream (pistachio).

We were the last car arriving at the ferry from Larvik to Hirtshals (Denmark). We had missed that we should be ready for boarding 60 min in advance but luckily, things also worked out well with only 15 min ;oP

Spontaneously, we decided to join the buffet on the ferry – if not for breakfast, then for dinner =oD We enjoyed lots of different cold and warm fish and meat dishes, cakes, and the highlight Scandinavian soft ice-cream and rhubarb juice.

It seemed as if there were only Germans on the ferry. That was no surprise after the large amount of German cars and RVs we had seen on our trip through Norway.