OSLO

We arrived in Oslo with no preconceived ideas of what this city was like.....

in fact no idea what this city was like !!

and almost immediately fell in love with it!

Lots of interesting, modern buildings clustered around its own fjord.

This beautiful new Opera House is their jewel in the crown and they are very proud of its futuristic design

    

where concerts can he held in the open air with the audience sitting on the roof !

Unlike Copenhagen the streets were decorated with flowers in large planters

or planted out in colourful garden beds

and blossom trees were heavy with flowers.

Large trees sported their bright green new foliage and lined the streets

and lovely parks.

The Royal Palace is lovely …..

and the public seem to have free access to  wander the pretty gardens

where the friendly guards are happy to interact  and pose for photos .

Dork on Holiday photo number one !!

But that's not all. 

There is this interesting sculpture park where every sculpture is of the human form.

Not too far out of town is the wonderful Viking Museum

where ancient Viking ships have been recovered from their burial sites 

and carefully and lovingly brought back to life

so we can wonder at the size and construction of these ancient ships.

Can you imagine crossing oceans in one of these ??

Almost next door is a fantastic Folk Museum where ancient buildings have been gathered together and rebuilt in a village setting.

I imagine they are built on these platforms for drainage and to allow for heavy snowfalls.

You can imagine how dangerous it would be heating these wooden buildings with a fireplace inside during the freezing Winter when everything inside is so flammable.

To cap it all off there is a huge Stave Church.

If you are lucky ( and we were ) you can still spot a few of these scattered through the countryside though they are few in number.

They are  stained black, have few windows and are quite bare and very dark inside.

So there you have it.

Just a small snapshot of Oslo, a really wonderful place to visit.

Number two on my list of Favourite Cities of the World second only to Paris !!

Cheers.

BEAUTIFUL BERGEN

Beautiful Bergen greeted us with flowers.

Everywhere we looked. The trees were full of blossom,  

street plantings were bright and pretty,

parks sported swathes of tulips.

Lovely wooden houses lined the cobbled streets

and that famous sea front sparkled in the sunshine !

Friendly locals were happy to chat when they served you in the cafes on the foreshore and filled us in about the events of their National Day which we were lucky enough to share.

It started early with cannons going off at 7 o'clock as many hurried along the chilly streets decked out in their National costume.

then came the parade with anyone who wished joining in - only the first parade of the day !

It seems that the great majority own a National dress costume and wear it proudly on these occasions

It was a time for proud family photos.

The costumes vary with regions and this one is particularly lovely.

proudly worn by young and old .

The one below comes from a different region.

The march finished in this pretty square by the lake with speeches from the Prime Minister and the Mayor. 

Most people were clutching a bag with drinks and women were carrying platesful of goodies . Everyone seemed to be heading somewhere to a party with friends and the streets were alive with happy voices.

Lovely memories of  a delightful place.

Cheers.

ON THE WAY TO BERGEN

The trip from Oslo to Bergen by train has to be one of the world's great train journeys.

For a couple of Aussies it was a Winter Wonderland out there !

Frozen lakes / ponds were exciting

All viewed from the warm comfort of the train.

All too soon we started leaving the snow behind

and after six lovely hours we arrived in Beautiful Bergen to blue skies and lovely friendly people.

Cheers.

A TASTE OF NORWAY

It's very hard to put in words how wonderful this country is.

 Spectacular scenery at every turn.

We recently spent a little over four weeks exploring the southern part of Norway, zigzagging our way backwards and forwards through some of the most spectacular scenery you could hope to see.

There's something about mountains and water that just sings to me and Norway has them both by the bucket-load !

We hired a car and drove ourselves along windy roads, through countless tunnels with hardly another car on the road for company 

and around every corner we were looking for a pull-off area so we could stop and take it all in.

The May weather was cool ( we LOVE that !) and changeable , giving us a taste for blue skies as well as dull, moody days

where low clouds only added to the beauty around us.

 We never travelled at more than 70kph and what drivers we encountered were courteous and patient and the roads were all good.

 

Hiring a car was expensive and so was petrol but distances travelled were generally not far although it often took us four hours to travel not much more than 100k because of photo stops !

The road sides reminded me of England lined with huge swathes of cow parsley and dandylions but these lupins were a real treat as the weather warmed up. They were everywhere !

Well, that's just a sample.

There's more to come !!

Cheers.