This morning we had pre booked breakfast which made it 20% cheaper. I still insisted that we should stuff ourselves to make the most of the food and cups of tea rather than pay again elsewhere. We found that we should have paid for the crisps and water that we had taken with us yesterday thinking they were free so didn’t accidentally pilfer them again today. Two boiled eggs still somehow found their way into my pocket for later.
Today it was still bright, but much crisper and I wished I had taken out a thicker jacket with me, but I hoped that it would get warner as the day progressed. Everywhere was noticeably quieter than yesterday but we put that down to it being a Sunday.
We made our way to the nearest Metro Station at the National Theatre to catch a train to Holmenkollen the location of the Ski Museum and Jump Tower. Getting tickets for the metro was trickier than it should have been and after a couple of false starts we ended up instead downloading the app and buying the tickets on that. Not that it seemed we needed to as they were not checked on the way there or back, but at least we were covered in case of a random inspection.
The ride up to Holmenkollen was through the suburbs, offered some lovely views down to the harbour as well as closely through some of the pretty wooden houses.
It was then a steep 800m walk up to the Ski Jump which is the only steel Ski Jump in the world. We looked down upon the landing zone which looked dangerously narrow. I would question the sanity of anyone jumping it even though it does meet my test of being a proper sport in that you can measure the result rather than relying on artistic impression.
We wandered around the museum which had some interesting exhibits although Eddie the Eagle mentions were conspicuous by their absence. The Olympic games were held here in 1952 and some of the fold film clips made for fascinating viewing.
Then we made our way in the lift to the very top of the ski jump. Well, it was called a lift but was rather more of a funicular railway. It was very windy at the top but had a great vista all over Oslo and beyond. For anyone who watched the recent series of Martin Compston touring Norway this is where he did the zip line down alongside the ski jump itself. Neil and I both agreed we would have liked to have done it, but not at the price they were asking. Perhaps one day, although we did say we fancied the much longer one over the quarry pit in Snowdonia. It didn’t make me want to jump off the slope wearing a pair of skis though.
We were all glad we had made the effort to get to the top but were glad to get out of the wind and make our way back down again.
There was a nice-looking café at the entrance and Karen managed to persuade them to find some proper tea for me not made from fruit. We sat there for a while enjoying our drinks.
Then we walked down the steep hill to the Metro station and took the train back to central Oslo. We walked the short distance from the station to the ferry harbour and caught the waiting museum island ferry. It was a rather pleasant ride across the Fjord to the Fram museum. This proudly holds the position of being the number one attraction on Trip Advisor. None of us though were quite sure what to expect and I was probably the most sceptical.
It was in fact very good and was devoted to the Polar expeditions. It had artifacts and details in particular of Amundsen trips to both the North & South Poles and his race with Scott. It was presented in a well laid out thought provoking through way. The highlight was the ‘Fram’ ship on which he made the trip to the South Pole. We were all fascinated by it all and came out enlightened and enthusiastic which for me after a museum visit is saying something.
During the ferry ride back, we decided to find somewhere to eat whilst we were out rather than going back to the hotel first, especially as we knew we would have a very early start to our journey home in the morning. A quick message exchange with Barry found us heading to an Irish Bar called The Dubliner upon his recommendation. It was a real spit and sawdust place, but Barry’s and the food reviews were good. After meals of Fish & Chip/Burgers were eaten we can confirm the food was not bad even though it was expensive. We all had a couple of drinks which added even more to the bill. The place seemed to be a place to go for visiting Irish bands going by the number of signed pictures on the wall, although the only one we recognised was Geldof.
After this we walked back to the hotel where we all had an early night.
Today had been another good day. I have liked Oslo and would highly recommend it for a 2-day visit. It is a fine city. We feel we have done it now though and would need to either want to move on or in our case go home now. Norway seems a nice enough country albeit a bit limited in some ways. For instance, all weekend we had been trying to name 10 famous Norwegians who were not footballers. There is no way I would choose to live here with winter lasting about 8 months with all the long bitter dark days. I’m not even sure I would like the far too long daylight hours in summer either. But most of all I would just hate all the snow and ice.
