After our few days in Tromso, my mom and I (leaving our cousins for another day in Tromso) set out on a morning flight to Oslo, where we would be spending the rest of our trip. We arrived midday and checked into the Grand Oslo Hotel, which is an extremely nice hotel. The concierge took our bags to the elevator for us, and there is complimentary tea, coffee, and snacks in the lounge at all times. Best of all, we found this waiting for us in our room:
That afternoon, we walked around the town, ending at the harbor. It was between 4 and 5pm, the sun was just setting over the water, and it was beautiful. In front of us stretched the water, flecked with ice (I'd never seen ice on the ocean before, and it's kind of amazing actually), and to our left was the Akershus Fortress, which we later explored. It's a very cool fortress, almost the opposite of the French castles exploding with grandeur and pomp; Akershus, in keeping with the general Scandinavian design, is simple and functional (at least I'm assuming it was back in the day) but beautiful.
Standing by the harbor with Akershus in the distance to the left (see the rock wall?).
The sun is setting and the moon is in the sky, see it near the mast?
from on top of the fortress
After walking around, we had a nice dinner at the Theatercafeen (and both felt SO stuffed with food afterwards) and went to bed to prepare for our adventure the next day: korketrekkeren, or a 2km sled run.
To get to the sledding place, we took a train from the city center about 40 minutes out to the mountains, where there are also practice Olympic ski jumps and other skiing activities. As we discovered the hard way, the day we went was also the ONE day of the WHOLE YEAR that school kids have off to do whatever they want outside, which, for about 40 middle schoolers, appeared to be to take the same train we were taking to do the korketrekkeren on the same track as we were. Bummer, but oh well. We rented sleds and took off!
The ski jump, as seen from the sledding track.
Outside the sled rental shack.
The rail road tracks
Half way down the track
Following our sledding, we walked back to Oslo center, picked up our bags from the Grand Hotel, walked past the cathedral (which has the most beautiful mural painting on the ceiling) and then caught our flight back to Edinburgh.
The cathedral