Author: Ella

Post by Ella. Last night we ate at Bryggen Tracteursted, a little place tucked away from the busy dock area. They serve “traditional” Norwegian food.  Aquavit of the day. It’s growing on me. But pricey. You can see what we each chose. Mine was a disappointment. Stock fish prepared Italian style? What was I thinking?…

Post by Ella. In case we left you behind, we are in Bergen. Walked to the funicular and did a ride to views and hiking Rode the funicular back down Wandered the dock area Another gorgeous weather day in a town where it rains all the time

Post by Ella. Todays ride from Oslo to Bergen was awfully stunning. But is there really a best? Name your top couple of favorite train rides. Be fun to see where they are. We started and ended at sea level but went as high as 4,000 ft., up through lush meadows, craggy mountains, frozen lakes, snow…

Beautiful 6-1/2 train ride from Oslo to Bergen

Looking out from our 7th floor apartment last night in Oslo. What’s happened here?

Post by Ella A few photos from our wandering this morning.

Post by Ella. All thumbs up on this one. Warning. More food photos. Contains crawfish. Don’t look if squeamish. We tried the skagentost (called Skgenrore here) again despite the horrible experience at Louise a few nights ago. This was outstanding. Yes, that’s a crawfish on top. The shrimp tasted like shrimp and not macaroni. There…

Post by Ella. Late in the afternoon, we strolled to the Tjuvholmen Sculpture Park. Call it a minimalist sculpture park. Or is it a post-apocalyptic Disneyland?

Grass Roots Square (the little bronze people) The Devil of Oslo at Oslo Cathedral National Museum Tjuvholmen Sculpture Park Rorbua restaurant

Post by Ella We’d been wondering about the islands in the Oslo Fjord (which is 100 km long and runs into the North Sea), so today was the day to explore. There are ferries, run by Ruter, which is the same company that runs the busses and trams and for which we had a 7…

Post by Ella. Before leaving for this trip, I found a short kindle book, “How to have an Adventure in Scandinavia”, by a 30 year old guy named Rafael Coronelli. It is not a guide, exactly, but seemed to be a compendium of his journals or blog posts. I wondered how useful it would be…

Post by Ella Island hopping in the Oslofjord. Ferry, Ferry and more Ferries.

Post by Ella Grünerløkka, one of the areas we wandered yesterday, is known for its tons of design boutiques, small art galleries and vintage shops. Of course, everything was closed because it was Constitution Day, except for the sidewalk pubs. They were crowded with young people, all in bundag (traditional dress), drinking beer. Many didn’t…

Post by Ella. By a parade of epic proportions. In celebration of Constitution Day. Sort of like July 4 for us Americans but the history is a little more muddled. The Constitution signed in 1814 establish Norway as an independent kingdom but shared a monarch with Sweden. It wasn’t until 1905 that Norway became completely…

Today is Constitution Day and the place was mobbed.  We headed up the street and ran straight into the parade, which went on forever. Then we hoofed it up to the Telthusbakken and Damstredet historical areas, stopping in at Ibsen’s and Munch’s graves.