Oslo, Norway

 We sailed up Oslofjorden this morning past the Oscarsburg Fortress while the ship’s resident historian told us the story behind it.

The fortress hadn’t been used as such, but was used mainly for training. So when the German heavy warship Blücher sailed up Oslofjorden to capture the Norwegian royal family and take the capital, they didn’t expect any resistance from the fortress.

However, the fortress had a couple of commanders (one 66yrs old and the other 77) and a few munitions: two artillery shells and two torpedoes, all of them more than 40 yrs old and all of them, ironically, German-made. Nobody was even sure if they were still live.

They fired on the Blücher and took her down, thus saving the royal family from capture.

The rest of the fjord was a bit less dramatic, historically, but still beautiful.

We also passed the oil company HQ building that looks like a pile of Jenga blocks.

That’s a crappy picture, since Rob and I were on Deck 2 on the walking track when we had the good views and I didn’t have my camera with me.

Here’s a better shot from an article on the building from an architectural site:

Pulling into the harbour, I also got a quick look at the opera house, also quite striking architecture:

Also not a great pic, but I’m hoping to see it tomorrow up close.

Our ‘parking spot’ in Oslo is next to the Akerhus Fortress and Castle, circa 1290.

After docking, we had a bit of lunch on the ship (Rob indulged in a shrimp smørrebrød (Danish open-faced sandwich) and I had some spicy asian noodle salad. Then it was off to go exploring.

We hit the shopping district, even though we weren’t looking to buy anything. First stop was Steen and Strøm, a seven-storey Scandinavian retail institution that has been around since 1797. The store is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

Bring lots of money if you want to buy anything, however, because it’s Norway. I found a dress shirt that I liked.
LIKED, mind you, not LOVED. It was $200.

A laptop carrying bag I also liked was $435. We left the store empty handed.

Gorgeous old buildings were everywhere you look

We found the high-end shopping street, but didn’t even bother to window shop there, as we likely couldn’t afford the windows, either!

There’s Jimmy Choo, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, and others all in one block.

We hadn’t really planned on finding any sites of interest today, since we have a tour tomorrow, but we were just walking around and admiring the beauty of the city.

On my first visit to Copenhagen a few years ago, I was struck by the way the city integrated new buildings into old ones, keeping the history but moving the city forward.

I noticed the same thing today in Oslo.

The flowers were in bloom as well, and Oslo does a good job of decorating the streets with planters.

Even though we weren’t searching for landmarks, we still happened upon a few without even trying.

Here’s the national theatre…

And city hall… (It might be the largest brick building I’ve ever seen). This thing is massive!

…and the Nobel Prize building

We even got treated to a parade by the military band

We followed them down the street to the Royal Palace

It was a good walk and a gorgeous sunny day. I hope the weather holds out for the tour tomorrow. The forecast says rain, but only in the afternoon. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a shot from our balcony this evening.

On to the next day!

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