Friday, June 19, 2015
We were both up and down all night. I don’t know whether it
is the constant light coming through the cracks in the curtains or what but we
kept going to bed early because we’re so tired and then we are both up and down
all night and up too early. So, we were up very early for no good reason.
Breakfast was not available before 7am and we didn’t have to be anywhere until
10:15am. There was a large group checking out this morning and they must have
had a limited breakfast for them as they were all coming up and leaving with
sack lunches as we were heading down. The breakfast room is in the basement.
Anyway, we mostly had the room to ourselves and they were continuing to set up
as we ate. It was good. We got filled up and on our way.
We spent some time in the room after breakfast restudying
maps and when things open. We didn’t find anything that opened early enough to
go before our 10:30am shared guided tour. We strolled down and arrived by City
Hall early. We thought it might be open and walked on over but the guard told
us they were closed today and to come back on Saturday. Lucky we saw inside
last time we were here. We went back over to the meeting place. The tour
operator was HMK and they had signs along the side street beside City Hall. We
cannot recommend them. The price listed for our Oslo All Inclusive Tour was $50
and there were 79 people on the double decker bus. We would never had paid that
much for such a herding experience. It was 5 hours. It was in at least 3
languages. We had very little time anywhere as you might imagine loading and unloading
that many people and in multiple languages. We were disappointed. We started by driving around downtown Oslo as
she told about something on every block, before continuing to Holmenkollen Ski
Jump for a toilet and photo stop. Next stop was in Vigeland Sculpture Park. You
then visit the Viking Ship Museum and the Fram Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum.
So we saw everything we would have wanted to see plus some, but not very
pleasantly. After the tour ended at 3:15pm, we walked up to the National
Gallery and toured it. It was 80NOK for the 2 of us. We enjoyed it and got to
see the second The Scream here in Oslo as well as the second Madonna. Both by
native son, Munch. (Pronounced monk.) Then we walked back downhill to Amundson
Bryggeri. (That is Norwegian for brewery.) We had dinner there. I had bangers and
mash with cabbage. The sausages were very spicy. Clay had mussels and fries.
They were some huge meaty mussels. Bigger than any others he’s had this trip or
maybe ever.
We walked up the never
ending hill back to the Saga Oslo. We stopped at a bakery and Clay bought a
lemon & coconut pastry called a skoleboller that he had looked down from
the bus this morning at a stoplight and watching a woman eating. He liked it
but said he wouldn’t eat another because it was so messy. I got a caramel
cookie. He Skyped Amras Cruises to try to find out what is going on with them.
Their US operator that we made our deposit payment to for the Complete Europe
set of 4 river cruises in October evidently absconded with a whole lot of
passenger fares for air and cruises and vanished and a lot of people in May
were left without trips or refunds. We have been having problems making
payments as well but they had assured us before we left town last month that
everything was worked out. Maybe, maybe not. We are a little nervous about this
now but have already booked our own air and a side land trip to Albania! So, I guess
no matter what we are spending October in Europe. We need to get through
tomorrow first!
Tomorrow we have an early
start. We depart Saga Oslo at 7:15am. Breakfast isn’t served here on Saturday
until 8am so I asked if we could get something early. They said we could pick
up something to take with us at the front desk when we check out. I guess it
will be a surprise! We will take a train to Myrdal, then the Flam railroad.
This is supposed to be one of the most scenic rail journeys in the world. We
really need to get a good night’s sleep tonight! We spend the night in Flam and
have an included dinner there.
More tomorrow…
