Back to Oslo: Days 6 & 7

August 18: Today we flew from the Tromsø airport, with its very Scandinavian feature, a Tom Brady poster, back to Oslo.

The Thon hotel chain in Norway offers the most amazing breakfast buffets, and the one in Tromsø did not disappoint! What a great way to start the day.

The hotel we had stayed in for our first night in Oslo didn't have a room for the next two nights, so we had to stay at a hotel near the airport. However, we were able to keep our bikes and bigger luggage at the downtown location during our Tromsø excursion. So, when we got back to Oslo, we took the train downtown, picked up the bikes, and spent some time exploring. We visited Akershus Fortress, a huge complex that includes a fort and a castle.

Again, I didn't take enough photos. 

I had read about Oslo's old city, so we rode along the waterfront to where it was supposed to be. There wasn't much there, but across the tracks was a most interesting neighbourhood with this wonderful Turkish restaurant. As we feasted, we could witness the diversity of the population. It does strike me as a bit funny to come to Scandinavia and eat at Turkish restaurants, but somehow the appeal is irresistible.

I was impressed with these planters. located throughout the city.

August 19: We still had one more day in Oslo. 

After doing justice to the amazing Thon Hotel breakfast, we had to figure out how to get from the hotel to the city. One option was to take a shuttle bus (~$10 pp) to the airport and then take the train into the city, but I noticed that not far from the hotel there is a town called Jessheim, which has a train station with trains into the city.

Why not ride our bikes to Jessheim and take the train from there, saving the $20 for the shuttle bus? I talked with the desk clerk at the hotel, and he confirmed that this was a good plan, so we set out. There is a bike path for the entire 4 km distance, so it was an easy and pleasant ride. 

However, when we got to the train station, there was a notice that all trains to Oslo were cancelled because of a technology problem. Oh well, we had noticed that there was a nice park with a lake nearby, so we thought we'd take a bike ride and then come back to the train station after an hour or so.

The ride around the lake was as pleasant as it looks on the map. Again, I could have taken more photos, but we were too busy enjoying the ride.

Sadly, however, when we got back to the train station, the situation was as before: no trains to Oslo. 

Reluctantly, we decided to go back to the hotel, as there seemed to be one train running from the airport to the city. We decided it would be better to spend the $20 on the shuttle instead of just spending the entire day in Jessheim, which although it is a nice enough town, doesn't have quite the variety of attractions as Oslo!

We arrived in Oslo sometime in the early afternoon and went to City Hall, something Rick Steves talks about in his travel video. This was every bit as interesting as he proclaims, so we spent quite a bit of time there.

On our way there, we passed the National Theatre and the Karl Johans Gate.

Oslo National Theatre

Karl Johans Gate

Outside City Hall, there was a pro-Ukraine demonstration:

We had to wait in line for a while before getting into City Hall, and we observed several wedding parties taking photos.

Inside, there are some incredible murals showing the history of Oslo and Norway. Again, no photos.

We had a funny surprise when it was time to go back to the hotel. There were no trains running directly to the airport, but you could get to the airport by taking a train to Jessheim! Not a problem for us, as we knew how to get back to the hotel from Jessheim!