A Day in Oslo

8 o’clock. The ship docked at the cruise pier in Oslo. We had an early tiny breakfast, as we were attending a bus tour. While we could walk quite well others in our group cannot. This makes a bus trip a brilliant and clever idea. We disembarked the ship and went on to the reserved buses.

The first part of the tour was through some nice parts of the city, including the newly developed harbor area with the opera house (which was finished before schedule and below budget. Hei Germany do you listen.), and then up to the ski jumping contraption of Oslo. We had a great view from the top of the jump. They have a diagonal lift which is more or less a funicular railway. It can transport up to 13 jumpers with skis or 10 tourists. We queued before the lift entrance, and the clever Norwegian had painted a line in black and white on the floor where people should have waited in order to let other people enter and exit the lift easily decreasing the round trip time. However, in an effort to be the first in the funicular, people flocked before the door, which made it quite impossible for people which were coming down, to exit the vehicle. To cite the movie Men in Black “A single human is intelligent, but in masses they are stupid.” This statement was further supported by the inability to count to ten  which seams quite common among German tourists. Another great anthropologist’s field day. I had the impression that thinking ahead, just about 10 minutes, is not part of the general make up of people. We are some great crown of creation. Looks like the designer was a moron, sadist or it was just evolution.

We took some great pictures from the top of the jump and admired the view for a minute or two before we had to go down again. The not block the door concept worked much better upstairs. Maybe there is still hope for our species.

Back in the bus, we went to Vigelandpark where hundreds of statues made by — you guessed it — Vigeland. The statues were interesting and different ensembles of figures depicted the cycle of life, the war (WW II), and other things I do not want to spoiler now. We entered the park at one end and went to the other end by foot where the bus picked us up.

Only through interventions, it was possible to get everyone to the other end of the park, as some people did not get the message (after 5 repeats) that we will assemble at the other end of the park. Maybe it was the heat. Most definitely. It must be the heat, as these people have well paying jobs and take responsibility in life and business. Maybe there is no hope for us after all.

But I am diverting from my report. After the visit to the park, we went back to the ship and had three free hours to discover Oslo. Unfortunately, it was still 30°C in the shade and we were, surprisingly, hungry. This culminated in our visit in Rent Mel, a very simple, but lovely place with friendly staff and good food. Oh and free cold water. Something which is missing in Germany.

On the Ocean

This day was entitled to relaxation on the sea, and that was exactly what we did. We had a small breakfast, as we were still stuffed from the evening dinner. Then B and I had the great idea t visit the fitness area and get introductions for the various devices. After the introduction, we tested first the jumping jack apparatus where I burned 300 calories according to the machine. Very good, as lunch was looming. Also I have to mention that you could — it is definitely not recommended by your doctor — have an early bird breakfast, a normal breakfast, a lite riser breakfast, a morning pint, lunch, cake and tea, dinner, and a late night snack. In total 8 potential eating times. If you engulf in that activity, you will soon look like some of the passengers, well fed.
Therefore, eating will appear throughout the travel notes and can be seen as story telling dividers.