Month: May 2023

Post by Ella Sunday, 5/14 Foot, bus, ferry Home on foot to Froganer Park (3.8 km) Froganer Park to Fram museum by bus (4.7 km of which 1.4 km was a walk to the other side of the park to the bus stop). Maybe because it was Sunday and everyone was headed to Bygdøskogen Nasjonale…

Post by Ella. Ruter is the name of the company operating the majority of the  public transportation system for Oslo and it’s immediate surroundings. A senior, 7 day pass for unlimited rides on busses, trams, subway and some ferries was $16.00. Ruters has an app, naturally. We bought our passes on the app. Now we have…

Post by Grubb.  Ella wasn’t as excited to see the Munch Museum as I was, but she knew if I spent another day in Norway without cruising this large, exhaustive collection of his artwork, I might end up on one the many Oslo bridges howling with anguish.  The architecture of the museum thrusts itself above the…

Post by Grubb. Before coming to Norway I read my Knut (Kah-noot) Hamsun and my Karl Ové Knausgård.  Hamsun in “Hunger” was struggling with just that.  Karl Ové, Norway’s most acclaimed living author, has written six lengthy volumes about his life.  The title of his opus is called “Min Kamp”.  Yes, that’s right, “My Struggle”.  Same as Adolf’s autobiographical screed.  Karl…

Post by Ella Grubb will say his piece about the Munch museum. How could I not give it a mention? The architecture was fascinating. I would have loved to sit in on those design meetings. My favorite place was the room where one could play artist. Engraved into a large table were a dozen of…

Post by Ella But first, let me set the scene.  Dinner at Louise. Despite good reviews and being way overpriced (okay, yes, we knew that from the menu pricing), dinner was a major disappointment. To start with, we chose Toast Skagen (a Swedish dish) which tasted like macaroni salad with too much mayo except it…

Post by Grubb. This example of the sculpted art is in front of a building down the block from where we’re staying.   At first I thought it was a tribute to the weary traveler.  Oh those Norwegians, heading out in Viking longboats, sailing to the poles to have their ships frozen in an ice floe, they…

Post by Ella. Great views. Great location, mostly. Self check in. No keys required. The front door of the apartment building is opened with an app called UnLoc. Our host, Paul, sent us the digital key. When you are at the door, open the app, it finds the right digital key and then you tap…

Post by Grubb. After dislodging ourselves from a packed bus (Sunday in Oslo with gorgeous weather, if you’re not out and about, you’re dead), Ella and I paid a visit to the Fram Museum on the Bygdøy Peninsula.  The Fram is the strongest wooden boat ever built.  It hauled Raold Amundsen and his crew when they were…

All the apps agreed: the weather in Oslo was going to be resplendent today.  So we walked to Frogner Park, the biggest tourist draw in all of Norway due to the 212 Gustav Vigeland sculptures that stand as towering monuments throughout the 110 acres of lake, lawn, and oak-lined pathways.  Working with granite and bronze, Vigeland liked…

Post by Grubb. We arrived late in the afternoon by train.  The weather was sunny, in the high sixties, but so it was in Gothenburg when we left.  We had to do the dock walk to give a sense of where we were.  The first clue was the opera house. Then there was the outdoor dining catty corner…

Post by Ella. Yesterday was a travel day. One of those days where much of the day is spent waiting. Our train wasn’t until 2:15. We had a late breakfast and hung-out in our room until nearly checkout time (noon). We slow rolled the 10 minute walk to the Gothenburg train station. We walked up…

Post by Ella We are still in Gothenburg (Goteborg to the Swedes) at the Scandic Hotel. Leaving this afternoon for Oslo by train.  We were asked to reserve a time slot for breakfast since the hotel is so full. We arrived to find a sea of people. Food stations spread far and wide. Separate dining areas…

Post by Ella We are generally pretty casual about when and where we eat our main meal of the day.  Often we just stop at the first place where the menu looks good to us both. Sometimes, someone we’ve chatted with will recommend a place. Yesterday though, Grubb was hankering specifically for seafood so he did…

Well, maybe more than a few. https://photos.app.goo.gl/strMoDJUZ1x7fX6DA