Paul and Jean visit Norway: Day 2

Getting to know more of Oslo.

As forecast there was heavy snow overnight. After breakfast we headed to the station to get our day tickets for the public transport. The snow had eased by then and we then walked up Karl Johan’s Street to see it in daylight and then on to the Royal Palace – residence of the King of Norway. Tourists are allowed to walk right up to the palace door and around the palace gardens.

We then caught a train to Sognvann – a lake to the north of Oslo which is popular in winter with cross country skiing. The train constantly travelled uphill and then we walked down a short hill to the lakeside. It didnt look like a lake as it was frozen and covered with snow and blended in with the side of the lake. We did see a naked man, with a towel over his shoulders putting underpants on. It looks like he had been swimming in an unfrozen part of the lake where it flows into a stream. Within a few minutes he was fully dressed and on his way. Paul decided to use the public toilets and I walked a bit further along the path but managed to step into a deep puddle at the side of the path to avoid a lady coming towards me with a ferocious looking dog straining on his lead. Both my walking shoes and socks were soaked but for some reason my feet didnt get too cold considering the amount of snow and wind chill. Paul was in the toilet ages and eventually emerged in a terrible state. He had fallen over and banged his head before going into the toilet (which I didnt see) and while in there had a really bad nose bleed which went on for ages and he couldnt get out to let me know. It eventually stopped and we walked a bit further but it was very cold so we took a few photos and made our way back to the train and to the hotel to clean up and have some lunch.

In the afternoon we took the tram to the Vigeland Sculpture park. It contains many stone, iron and bronze statues created by Gustav Vigeland, inspired by Rodin, who started working on the park in 1924 and continued to do so until his death in 1943. The city of Oslo built him a house to live in on condition the house all his works passed back to public ownership on his death.

We then made our way to the Gamle Aker Church which is the oldest stone church in Scandinavia followed by a walk to Damstredet, which is a narrow, steep cobbled street with old clapboard houses and looks as Oslo did many years ago.

We came back to the hotel and packed our cases ready for an early start tomorrow and went to the Grunerlokka district where there are a lot of eating places that are considerably cheaper than those in the City Centre.