Fjords, Viking Ships and Glassworks

June 22 - Oslo

Room service breakfast and Granddaughter selfie in the morning

We got into Oslo about a hour late, so there was another ship at our place on the pier which was where the shops were. We were out in the boondocks. Our tour was to be the Viking Ship Museum & Hadeland Glassworks. (The Glassworks was first) The bus was a MAN brand.

MAN - the bus manufacturer's name

We didn't leave until 0945. James and his grandmother were on the tour, but his grandfather was too sick to go. B and I sat in the back.

From the back of the bus

B and Me on the bus

First we had a tour of the city of course.

Buildings in Oslo

Oslo pedestrian

Metal sculpture

We saw the new city hall

Astronomical Clock On Wall City Hall

which was built in a district which was originally not-so-nice. We saw the prostitute of the City Hall which was a bas relief of a lady and gentleman who looked very proper when viewed from the front, but if you went reound the corner, you could see she was handing the money to a pimp around the corner.

Lady and her gentleman friend and around the corner - Pimp taking his cut

The windows of the bus had some kind of dots in the panes which sometimes gave our photos a polka dot effect.

Peter Jansen Wessel Tordenskiold (1690 – 1720), a Norwegian/Danish naval hero

My granddaughter took a photo of

The giant sculpture of a pointing finger

which was in Christiania torv - a square in Oslo’s old city center. This was where Oslo’s first town hall from 1641 was located. The statue of the pointing finger is said to represent the spot at which the Danish-Norwegian King Christian IV pointed to and exclaimed that the new town would be rebuilt at this location after a fire in 1624 burnt down the original town.

Armadillo sculpture

Hard Rock Cafe

Nobel Institute with bust of Nobel

Thommessen

Then we drove out into the county through forests

Landscape and clouds from the bus

and around the lochs.

Reflections from the bus

Marina

When we got to the glassworks,

Toalett

we were to have a tour of the factory, but I bought a few little things first but I did it with dollars and while the girl was figuring it out, she accidentally gave what I bought to another woman. We came to the end of the transaction and I said "but where is it?", and she had to run after it.

Sales room

Glassware for sale

Granddaughter looking at glass for sale

We watched the glass manufacturing process

Glass factory

Into the Furnace

Hot glowing orb of glass

Forming the glass

Shaping a bowl

Finishing

Red hot blob of glass

Glass factory

Glass blower

Blowing hot glass into a mold

and then B bought some glass lockets and I got some post cards. We had coffee and pasteries in the souvenir area.

Grandaughter waiting for me

Less expensiveGlass for sale

On the drive back,

Granddaughter

Korni flatbread package - baked from a traditional Norwegian recipe

Back of package and Inside the package

Farm

A Norwegian farm

Red barn

we stopped at an overlook for pictures and my granddaughter picked a daisy for her hair.

Granddaughter at Photo-Op Stop

Shoreline

Blue to the horizon

Photo op stop

Fjord stop

Local plants on the rocky slope

Looking down

Farm on the shore

When I booked the tour for Oslo, I had thought that we might get to the Kon Tiki museum. But instead, we stopped at the Museum of Viking History.

Monument to explorers Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine, in front of the Viking Ship museum

Museum entrance

Exhibit in the museum

Here we saw three huge old ships, the Gokstad Ship, the Oseberg Ship and the Tune Ship. These 3 ships were found in separate Royal burial mounds by the Oslo Fjord. The ships were buried with their royal owners along with a lot of other artifacts, some of which are on display at the museum.
Oseberg ship was built around the year 800 AD, In 834 it was used as a burial ship for two special women.

The Oseberg Ship Prow

Gokstad ship was built in the late 800s AD. It was a sea-going ship and was found in 1879.
Tune ship was built around the year 900 AD. It was probably an ocean-going ships, with a large square sail

Side of the ship

Ship from the floor

B climbed up to take pictures of the inside from the balcony.

Ship from the balcony

From the balcony

We didn't buy any souvenirs here - not because we didn't want to, but because the people working there weren't that interested doing the work required to get up and come to the window to take our money. This was too bad because my daughter-in-law had asked me to get her a gnome and this was the only place I saw one. So we went and sat out in front of the museum and waited for the rest of the group

Norwegian seagull

Reserved for turistbuss

We got back to the ship about three.

Seal sculpture outside our room

Granddaughter wearing her new necklace

We ate dinner

Flowers on the table

as the ship sailed out of the harbor. As appetizers, my granddaughter had

Fruit de Mer on Vegetable Confit

and I had

Tomato and goat cheese tartlettes

Then I had Creamy Carrot Soup and the

Spinach and Goat Cheese stuffed Chicken Breast

We had ice cream sundaes for dessert.

Sundae suspended

As we left the harbor,

Stena Line ship

MSC Orchestra, and a ferry

Town hall from the ship

Aide to Navigation

I took photos of lighhouses.

Kavringen Light

This lighthouse was built in 1892 after the steamship Norway wrecked on the Kavringen reef in 1890. It is a 43 ft octagonal wood tower with an unusual wood lantern topped by a spire. The tower is painted white with one narrow red horizontal band; lantern is brown. Located in the inner harbor of Oslo, between Hovedøya and the Filipstad container terminal

Kavringen Lighthouse

Dyna Light

Surrounded by a stone seawall, this remarkable little lighthouse looks like a ship sailing down the Oslofjord. The keeper was also responsible for nearby lighthouses, including Koppernaglen and Kavringen. In 1992 the light station was renovated as a private banqueting facility, available for parties of 20-40 persons. This 1875 Active lighthouse consist of a wood keeper's house with a lantern in one corner and a fog bell in a steeple overhead. Lighthouse painted white, lantern roof red. It is located on a rock about 200 m (220 yd) off the coast of Bygdøy about 3 km (2 mi) west of downtown Oslo. Accessible only by boat. Site open to guests with banquet reservations.

Dyna Light

Steilene Light

Steilene consists of five islands located on the east side the inner Oslofjord, just west of Alværn in Nesodden, Akershus County. Steilene Lighthouse stands on the outermost of these five small islands with fine beaches and a guest harbor

Steilene Light

The former lighthouse keeper’s cottage has been refurbished for overnight stays and has 8 bunk beds divided among three bedrooms, plus an unfurnished boathouse with six foldaway beds. The two rowboats used to get to the island are stationed at Alværn pier. Cabins here are self-service and must be booked and paid for in advance.

Steilene Light

June 23 was a sea day and mostly connected with packing everything up. I had to leave all the travel literature, soap and mouthwash behind as I had too much stuff to get into my suitcase otherwise, and it was still extremely heavy when packed. B insisted on leaving her knapsack with the luggage to be carried off the ship in spite of my objections, and I would have objected even more strenuously had I known what she had packed in it.

The only photos I took were of food.

Lunch

Fish cakes appetizer

Chilled blueberry soup

Dessert

Ice sculpture

Dinner

Bread

Grolsh Premium Lager bottle

Fruit cocktail

Duck Breast L'Orange

Sauted Shrimp Provincale

Dessert

Parade of the chefs

I tried very hard to use up my internet minutes, but the internet was down all night on the 22nd, and was extremely slow on the 23rd so I was left with many minutes unused at the end and also was unable to get emails.

I also asked B to write down all her purchases for customs and she said it was none of their business what she had bought and objected strenuously to doing this.