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The temperature was nudging -10 at 6am as we got our cab out to Tromso airport for our flight to Oslo. Unsurprisingly the aircraft needed to be de-iced after sitting at the airport overnight. An experience we don't usually see, certainly a first for the boys.
Cruising at 35,000 feet we finally saw the sun after about 8 days of either total cloud or being too far north. It wasn't warm but it was good to see. Landing in Oslo we parked near a Thai and an Ethiopian airways aircraft…..they looked more out of place in the snow than us.
How to sum up Oslo? Unfortunately a lot of Oslo, and indeed Norway, seems closed at this time of year, mainly for Christmas and New year, but also a number of attractions close for the winter, some close as early as September, so we had no chance of them
There is plenty to do in Oslo, specifically a number of museums for Oslo's former achievements and occupants. There is the Nobel Peace museum as the Nobel Peace prize is presented in the town hall every Dec 10th (Nobels Birthday). Very interactive and a lot of history of all of the recipients over the last 100 odd years.
Amundsen and his South pole journey comes up everywhere and there is a museum dedicated to the boats he used to get there. The fact he beat the Poms by 4 weeks is mentioned just as often, so a bit like us and the Ashes…Yes I am still following it. There is even one of his dogs, stuffed, at the Ski museum….Why?
Right next door is the Kon-Tiki museum explaining why a palefaced Norwegian would get on a raft in Peru and spend 100 days drifting through the heat of the south pacific hoping to hit an island….he did eventually. And apparently that is how 18-35's bus tours started. With Norwegian alcohol process he wouldn't have been able to stock up like most Contiki tours
Speaking of which, next time you think the NSW govt is 'Nanny State', check the Norwegians (and the Swedish) and their alcohol sales. Only beer under 3.5% is allowed in supermarkets, and only for limited hours/days. Everything else is sold through a government run chain of stores, 'Vinmonopolet', literally Wine monopoly, which is open the same restricted hours. 10-6 on weekdays, a bonus hour on Friday night…til 7pm and until 3pm on Saturday. No Sunday. With New years falling on a Sunday this year the shops had shut nearly 36 hours before new years. You have to be organised here, we weren't.
Instead we spend new years eve walking around Oslo, getting covered in 3-4cms of snow as we walked up and around the opera house and the harbour, then retreated inside for some warmth and to watch the snow fall outside. Not a big night but certainly unusual. Ev You-tubed the Sydney fireworks.
On our last day we headed up to the Helmenkollen ski area on a combination of busses, trains and trams. The public transport is excellent. A lift takes you to the top of the ski jump for stunning view back to the city and surrounding countryside……at least that's what it says in the brochure. We were in a cloud so we will take their word for it. What we could see was the ski ramp itself which is even steeper than it looks on TV.
The world cup parallel slalom event was on at Helmenkollen. We thought of watching but the thought of 4-5 hours in the cold, with rain forecast, was not a great idea so we went home and watched it on TV.
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