I should mention that the weather has been very good. Close to 70º in London. A bit cooler in Oslo, but mostly sunny. We haven’t seen the dreaded rain yet. eventually we will.
Friday started out with the fantastic breakfast buffet at the Thon Hotel Opera. It had everything you could want, and it was all delicious. I’ll have to try and remember to snap some photos of the buffet tomorrow or the next day.
After breakfast we headed to the Oslo Tourist Information Office in the Railroad Station (which is right next to our hotel. There we bought two senior Oslo Passes good for three days. Free admission to most museums and free use of all Oslo’s busses, trams, and metro systems. Outside the train station there is a statue of a tiger. Oslo is known the Tiger City. Why? It’s all explained here.
So, there is an exhibit in Oslo right now of Banksy’s art work. We took the T-Bann (Metro) to see it. It was high on Elaine’s “want-to-do” list, and she loved it. He is, of course, the world’s best known and most successful graffiti artist or tagger. If you haven’t heard of him, read here. This exhibit is not included in the Oslo Pass, but I had pre-purchased tickets months ago on-line. Seems like pre-purchase wasn’t really necessary as we had the huge exhibit almost to ourselves. Photographs were encouraged (“Copyright is for losers”). Anyway, Banksy could be described as pro-Palestinian, pro-depressed people, anti-police, anti-establishment, and anti-capitalist. “You can win the rat race, but you’ll still be a rat.” So if you’re interested in seeing Banksy’s art, all of it quite interesting, here is a whole bunch:
We took the T-Bann (Metro) back to the center of town. Then we switched over to the tram system (light rail) for a ride around Oslo. We decided to get off at Vigeland Sculpture Park which Elaine adored the last time we were here. We had a light lunch (sandwiches and coke/water) and walked the park. Clearly this park has the most exposed penis statues in the world. All the sculptures depict naked people. It was crowded, but not overwhelming so.
Then we trammed back to the center of town, bought some wine (available only at a state run monopoly) and some cheese and crackers for dinner. We enjoyed wine on the balcony and then the cheese and crackers indoors as it cooled off.
Long day. Tired. Back to the tourist grind in the morning. See you tomorrow.
Hi Cindy. Great to see you again too. Hi to Bill. And I agree with you about the map of Joe and Elaine’s itinerary, a great way to keep track of their trip.
I love the bronze tiger, especially with the pic of Elaine to realize how big it is. The penis park, not so much!! It looks like Oslo has a great transportation system making it easy to see everything. Enjoy.
Sounds like you worked through any jet lag, a really full day, and back on normal retiree hours (can never forget that happy hour).
CHEERS!
Wow, you certainly made the most of your day and got around to see so much. I agree with you Sue and the penis park. Elaine, I see where you tried to call me. Sorry I missed your call, haha. Stay well…
Love the art work! Amazing and insightful stuff!