VIKING SHIPS, VIGELAND PARK, BICYCLES AND BLONDES

Today was another good day. Our tour was at 1:00 so we didn't have to rush. As we sailed through the fjords,



we saw all sorts of interesting lighthouses, houses and boats,


but the most glorious sight of all was the fog.


It was absolutely mystical and as the sun started to peek through the fog, you felt as though you were in a dream.


I had a leisurely breakfast and then have to admit that I fell asleep on the veranda while I was looking at the wonderful scenery. I found out later that Frank had been asleep in the Explorers Lounge! I hope that he had a book in his lap so people would think that he was reading, not napping. Hopefully he didn't snore or drool (I sometimes do both when I sleep)! I must say though, there are people sleeping all over the ship all the time, so it's really no big deal.

After sailing through the fjords,

we finally arrived at our destination and docked in Oslo, Norway beside a castle which was fortified.

When we left the ship, we visited 2 museums that held a lot of Viking History. One was the Viking Ship Museum and the other was the Kon Tiki Museum.

The Kon-Tiki Museum is a private foundation, which houses a range of boats and artifacts from Thor Heyerdahl´s expeditions.

Here you can see the original Kon-Tiki.

The Kon-Tiki is the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands.

It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. There is a 30 foot whale shark underneath...statues and a secret family cave from Easter Island...the papyrus boat Ra II...and an exciting collection of archaeological finds from Easter Island, East Polynesia, Galapagos and Peru.
Kon-Tiki is also the name of the popular book that Heyerdahl wrote about his adventures. It's hard to imagine going this far on this raft. Those were some brave people.

Frank was pretty brave as well when I saw him taking a photograph of something that was not in my line of sight. When I checked my camera later, it appeared that the most interesting thing outside of the museum was this Nordic blonde.

Who could blame him ... she was gorgeous. In fact, she reminded me of myself in my younger days, so I'm sure that's why he took the photograph ;-)
The Viking Ship Museum, or The Viking Ship House, is located at Bygdøy in Oslo, Norway.

It is part of the Museum of Cultural History of the University of Oslo, and houses these Viking ships. The Viking Ship Museum displays the large Viking ships Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, as well as founds from the chief grave at Borre in the Vestfold district.

The three ships are the best preserved Viking ships known, found in royal burial mounds in the Oslo fjord.

As burial ships, carrying the dead over to “the Other World”, the ships were equipped with unique treasures such as wagons, horses and especially textiles which are seldom preserved from the Viking age, now on exhibit at the museum.

Our knowledge of daily life in the Viking Age comes mainly from archaeological finds.

The graves contained not only jewelry, weapons and vehicle tools, but also other tools and household goods. These finds are exhibited in the museum. These ships were amazing and were in A+ condition.

As I have said before, I am a movie buff, and there was a movie I saw years ago with Burt Lancaster called "Rocket Gibraltar".

A man's family comes for his 77th birthday and while he loves all of his children and their children, he and his children don't exactly connect. However, he connects with his grandchildren. And he tells them what he wants for his birthday and they do what they can to give it to him. Since he was dying, he wanted them to build a ship (like a Viking ship) and give him a burial at sea Viking style. I'll say no more in case you might want to see this movie. It's very good!
When we left the last Museum, we went to visit Vigeland Sculpture Park is a part of Frogner Park.

The park covers 80 acres and features 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland.

Vigeland personally sculpted every figure out of clay and individual craftsmen were contracted to fabricate the pieces into what they are today.

These works of art reside along an 850 meter-long axis divided into six sections: The Main Gate, The Bridge, The Children’s Playground, The Fountain, The Monolith Plateau and the Wheel of Life.

Most of the statues depict people engaging in various typically human pursuits, such as running, wrestling, dancing, hugging, holding hands and so on.

However, Vigeland occasionally included some statues that are more abstract, such as the "Man attacked by Babies" statue, which shows an adult male, fighting off a horde of tiny babies. It was very interesting and some of the statues were amazing due to the detail to which the artist paid close attention.

As we drove around the city, we kept seeing these racks of bicycles.

It seems that if you wanted to ride rather than walk, you could deposit a coin in the slot, take a bike, and then when you were through with your ride or had arrived at your destination, you could put the bicycle back in another rack and you would get your "deposit" back. Great plan and if you're physically fit, you could save a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on public transportation!
We were back on board by 5:00 and decided to open the bottle of wine that our travel agent, Ruth Turpin, had sent to our stateroom when we arrived. Cheers to Ruth and Cruises, Etc. She's without a doubt, the best travel agent that a person could have!

Since we were saving this bottle of wine for a special occasion, we couldn't think of a better one than our last port of the trip as we set sail tomorrow for Harwich, England. We have another sea day tomorrow which will give us time to get packed, but it will also be a bittersweet day since our cruise is coming to an end. As we sailed away, I spotted this little pink what looked to be a tug boat. Wonder if Frank would like to have that to go with the pink car that he spotted in the village at the beginning of this trip?

We waved goodbye to Oslo and the wonderful sights in Norway with mixed emotions. It's always a bittersweet time when a trip is coming to an end.

As we leave each port, there are always seagulls following us hoping that we might throw them a morsel of our food.

Food I'll part with, but not the good wine that Ruth gave us.
Tonight is the last formal evening and we will be having lobster

and escargot

and the grand finale which is always Baked Alaska. I passed on the Baked Alaska and had Sacher Torte instead. I had had it before and it was a good this time as it was the first time.

This meal was topped off by some delicious chocolates and cookies (which were better than the Baked Alaska in my opinion).
I discovered chips and queso with jalapeno slices on the Lido deck and plan to make a meal of those at lunch tomorrow.

It's a good thing I didn't know about them until now or I wouldn't fit into my formal wear!!!

Tonight was their chocolate buffet at midnight, so we managed to stay up and have a look at it.

It was lovely but we were still so full from dinner that we didn't imbibe this time.
When we got back to our stateroom, we were greeted by this wonderful little creature. He was hanging from our ceiling, so Frank decided to join the party and he hung himself alongside the monkey. Is this what is meant by the word Monkeyshines?

Tomorrow is a sea day, so we have time to pack, take care of last minute affairs and enjoy the ship before we get to England.
There will only be one more post on this trip, so be sure and stay tuned for the last hurrah!

XOXO, Pcasso