Baltic, Iceland, Norway and the U.K.on a cruise

[scubacruiserx2]

10 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Great photos, you did well to see those seals.

 

Thanks . Pat works well as a spotter and the telephoto pulls them in .

[scubacruiserx2]

We got off the ship in Oslo early on a Saturday morning hoping to beat the crowds and got a great seat on the Hop on hop off bus that was waiting for us. Our plan was to go to Vigeland Park first because it was the first thing open. They seemed to be waiting for the bus to fill so we inquired about taxi prices to the park. In an Amazing Race moment we jumped the cab and figured that we would have a hour before the bus arrived.

 

 

It worked ! The park was empty and the light was nice.

 

 

Many of the statues were very touching

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The fountain was off 

 

 

It was fun to imagine what some of the statues were doing.

 

Touchdown !

 

 

Angry baby

 

 

Piggie back rides and doggie piles

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Catching butterflies

 

 

The monolith

 

 

At the monolith you are naturally drawn to look up

 

 

Or take a close up photo

 

[MicCanberra]

8 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

Thanks . Pat works well as a spotter and the telephoto pulls them in .

Great teamwork.

[scubacruiserx2]

9 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Great teamwork.

 

It works especially well when diving for lobsters .

 

[MicCanberra]

15 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

It works especially well when diving for lobsters .

 

Nice work indeed.

[scubacruiserx2]

35 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Nice work indeed.

 

Thanks , will dive for food .

[scubacruiserx2]

The bridge is lined with sculptures

 

 

Like this

 

 

The museum in the park did not open until noon and the first Ho ho bus had stopped, so we boarded the empty bus to our next stop , The Norwegian Museum that will open at 10 AM.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We got to the museum by riding the bus and arrived when it opened at 10 AM. The first stop inside was a house that needed it's roof mowed

 

 

 

A little walk brought us to the stave church rear

 

 

This church was built in the 13th century at Gol Hallingdal. It was moved to it's present site in 1881 by King Oscar II in 1881.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The interior features a painting of the last supper of Jesus

 

 

 

The keeper of the keys appeared in native clothing.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Seeing some of the farms reminded me of my grand parents farm in the 1950's in Texas

 

 

 

Small wooden houses - with a double outhouse

 

 

 

The same style of interior

 

 

But the town didn't look this nice

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

A his and hers outhouse perhaps.

As they say, the couple that sits together can S#!% together.😁

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

A his and hers outhouse perhaps.

As they say, the couple that sits together can S#!% together.😁

 

Spits ?

[MicCanberra]

Socialise

[scubacruiserx2]

As we were leaving the museum we saw some friends from the ship with a local friend. He informed us that there would be a seafood festival at the down town area. We jumped off of the bus at the modern Aker Brygge shopping area.

 

 

Some tents were set up where local chef's were preparing snacks and lunch

 

 

Seafood display

 

 

After nosing around for a bit were drawn to some spicy scampi and a pizza - like bread . It was great !

 

 

 

Walking around the mall we returned to the waterfront with this view of the Legend tied up in front of Akershus Castle.

 

 

 

Walking along the waterfront with Aker Brygge on the left , you can see that is was a nice , warm day.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Our next stop was Akershus Castle

 

 

This is the chapel inside of the castle

 

 

Nice tapestry

 

 

We noticed that one of these cannon was trained on our balcony

 

 

Leaving Oslo

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The first time we went to Alesund we did this . We met Diane and Larry on our Roll call on Cruise Critic. They wanted someone to share the cost of a car rental to Trollstigen. It was about 1/2 the price of the ship's excursion. We were some of the first off the ship and had a nice walk to the car rental.

 

 

We drove East on 136 out of town. The sky looked like it may cloud over so we stopped at the view point at Aksla before the tour buses. The view was amazing !

 

 

It was so nice for Diane to drive and being an avid photographer, we could stop when the view moved us.

 

 

We were moved a lot to stop and breathe the clean air and the views.

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Further along highway 63 we stopped at a waterfall with a viewing platform

 

 

Here is an article about our destination

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trollstigen

 

As we drew closer to our goal the road became more crowded

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Just beautiful scenery.

[scubacruiserx2]

5 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Just beautiful scenery.

 

Thanks Mic . We're hoping that you didn't have to evacuate and we heard that the airport was closed .

[scubacruiserx2]

Another small waterfall that we couldn't resist

 

We could sense an increase in elevation and a decrease in traffic

 

 

Alnesreset is the highest elevation in our journey

 

 

Magical Mistical Tour

 

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by scubacruiserx2

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

Thanks Mic . We're hoping that you didn't have to evacuate and we heard that the airport was closed .

Yeah, smoke and fire fighting aircraft closed the airport, the fire closed the railway but thankfully all away from we are (about 15kms). Caused some concerns for some colleagues who live near where the fire was heading.

[scubacruiserx2]

17 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Yeah, smoke and fire fighting aircraft closed the airport, the fire closed the railway but thankfully all away from we are (about 15kms). Caused some concerns for some colleagues who live near where the fire was heading.

 

Out of control fires can be a very destructive and scary thing . They took the lives of 3 of my co workers including one of my lieutenants from fire college .

[MicCanberra]

3 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

Out of control fires can be a very destructive and scary thing . They took the lives of 3 of my co workers including one of my lieutenants from fire college .

We lost quite a few volunteers and some professionals as well. A US water bomber went down a few days ago in a fire down by the coast and all three crew also passed. Very tragic for them and their families.