Rainy Day in Oslo

So, we all had a good sleep last night and lo and behold Matt slept in until 9am - this is the latest he's managed since he started his long holiday (we will conveniently forget that we are in a different time zone!)  We got up more or less straight away as we are only here for 1 and a half days, so shouldn't really be lying in.

The Fram - polar exploration ship

We went downstairs for breakfast - wow!  It was amazing - I think the best breakfast spread I have ever seen (and that takes into account the Rasa Ria!).  So there was:

+ About 5 different kinds of bread - all from local bakeries - certainly no mass produced plastic bread.  And then there were boxes of different crisp breads.
+ Make your own waffles (Matt did this and said it was wonderful - the marmalade was amazing too!)
+ A yogurt bar - with every type of topping you can imagine: granola, muesli, cereal, raisins, coconut and lots of things I wasn't sure about
+ A fish station: smoked salmon, roast salmon, potato salad, coleslaw, loads of different flavoured mayonnaises
+ A salad bar
+ A fruit salad bar
+ A ham bar
+ A cheese bar - Jarlsberg was there so Matt was very happy!
+ 2 types of boiled egg - hard and soft

Fish wife

+ Hot food: sausages (Tom had 6 of these), turkey bacon, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, potatoes, baked beans, pancakes.
+ Pastries
+ Juices, smoothie, tea and coffee

And lots of other stuff which we didn't understand.

We dug in, I did my best by going up 3 times, as did Matt and Tom, but it was impossible to do justice to it all.  We left knowing we wouldn't need lunch!

The weather today was poor - thick grey cloud and rain.  However, it wasn't cold - bonus.  We started the day off by heading to Kiwi (our local supermarket) and buying some beer to put in the fridge ready for when we got back after a day out.  (Apparently they stop selling alcohol at 6pm on a Saturday in Norway - think they really don't like you to drink much here!)

We then got ready and walked down to a flag shop we found yesterday - Tom wanted to buy a flag.  He bought one - it was too big to fit in any of our bags (it was on a wooden stick) so Matt put it in his and looked like a tour guide for the rest of the day!  We then got a bus which took us to the museum area of Oslo.  Went past the folk museum which looked really good - a village full of old buildings - would be good to do on a nice day, we got off at the Fram Museum. From reading the guide book - this looked to be the best museum in the city.

Herburt - our latest "pet"

We weren't disappointed - it was a big museum dedicated to polar exploration and included 2 famous Norweigan boats: The Gyøa and The Fram both of which have been restored and on which you can clamber - always a good thing.  There were loads and loads of display boards with info about polar exploration - all of which were in English (some had Norweigan as well, but most were just in English?!) - it was a case of information overload - so much to read and with Tom in tow we didn't get to read that much.  Most of the museum was dedicated to Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen - both of whom were portrayed as pretty brave and decent people.  I think you would have to be pretty brave and decent to achieve what they achieved.  There was mention of Captain Scott.  I would be interested to see what his preparation was.  Amundsen spent a winter with an Inuit tribe in Greenland, made friends with them and learnt loads about how to survive the winter: what to wear, how to hunt, how to move, how to make sledges, etc etc.  This is where the dog hauling came into play, and we know that that was what made the difference between him and Scott.  I wonder if Scott prepared in a similar way or did the usual 'British' thing of 'we know better than the natives etc'? 

Nansen and Matt

Anyway the best thing at the museum was The Fram which was way bigger than I was expecting - the first boat designed to 'float' above the ice pack rather than get squeezed by it.  Sounds like the cook, Adolf (funny how no-one is called that now!) was regarded as the best guy in the expeditions - apparently his food was the best going and he was very jolly.  There were cabins for all - either single ones or 4 birth ones, plenty of provisions (they showed us how all space was used.  For example, Pelican came in round tins, so there was a lot of space not doing anything.  The man in charge of the sewing machine made special sausage shaped bags which were filled with milk powder and filled the spaces in-between the cans.)  All the men sat down at the same time to eat together - they played lots of cards and all smoked a pipe (people don't smoke pipes anymore do they?!)

The room the boat was in kept changing from day to night and the sides of the museum (another sami hut type construction) projected floating ice bergs, and stormy seas etc.  It was very effective - so much so that it almost felt like the boat was moving!

Tom in an igloo

There was another interesting exhibit where you walked into a room and found yourself on a boat which was lifting in a storm and monsters in the sea all around.  There were some ship mates in their cabins who weren't looking too good and then you had to walk through an ice passage where there was a skelton, an eye ball and the last thing you saw was a polar bear with teeth bared and blood around its jaws!  It was fun, and mostly it was freezing cold in it which was good as the museum was really hot - especially inside the boats.

We also got to experience being in an igloo, and to Man Haul - Matt did a good job but he needed to work hard.

We spent a good 2.5 hours in the museum and as I said we didn't read quite as much as we would have liked.  Certainly good though, the Norwegians have produced a stack of prominent polar explorers.

Tom went shopping in the museum shop...guess what he bought...yep, another hat!  This time Herburt the Heskie.  It is super cute, and I am assuming it will be attached to his head for the rest of the holiday!

When we got out of the museum it was windy and very rainy.  We walked round to the ferry port at the end of the jetty and got what we thought was the ferry back to the City Centre.  Turns out it was a sight seeing cruise back to the City Centre and we should have paid extra for it (we got ourselves a 24 all transport pass for the day - children free at weekends - bonus!).  Oh hum.

Matt man hauling!

On arrival someone said to go into the City Hall to see the murals - so we did.  The murals were good, but better was the spectacle of watching a dressed up Chinese lady have her photo taken a thousand of times in different poses in front of the many murals.  I don't think she even saw the murals - she was more interested in different hand positions and 'looking the part' - was entertaining for us!!!!!

We then got a tram (as demanded by Tom) to Sentral Station.  There he and Matt went spotting for half an hour whilst I did a little bit of shopping.  We then met up, had coffee and a cake and got a bus back to the hotel for some down time - we were quite tired.

Beers on offer (from an episode of Father Ted?!)

For tea we went to Oslo Street Food - I saw it on the bus on the way home and thought it looked interesting.  We looked it up on google and it had lots of recommendations - not exactly Norwegian food, food from all over the world (looking around at the faces in Oslo - there has been significant immigration here) and a huge choice from Peru, Greece, Hungary, Ghana, Vietnam, as well as Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Middle Eastern etc.  Matt couldn't get past the pulled duck stand and had some with chips, Tom went for a Hungarian Lango which was deep fried batter / bread stuff with grated cheese and ham on (it looked like a pizza but it wasn't) - he loved it though and munched it down in no time.  I had Goulash.  Matt bit the bullet and bought ½ a litre of beer (only £8!).  It was a really funky place - full of 20 and 30 somethings, but we weren't out of place.  Just wish the beer was cheaper as we could have had a couple.

As the rain had stopped when we left we walked home through some quiet streets - saw a massive procession of christians leave a church all wearing robes - no idea what it was about - but people were stopping to take photos etc.

Got back to the hotel at 8pm, did an attempt at a repack ready for tomorrow.  Can't wait for breakfast...