The Scandinavian tour rolls to a close...

Hi again everyone!

Back to 'normal' Scandinavian internet again....free, fast and wireless. [dreamy look] Lovely to hear from you Allison, and it must have taken more than a couple of glasses of beer to wade through all of the Scandinavian posts! [grin]

Our tour is almost at an end and tomorrow we fly back to Germany for a couple of days in Frankfurt before the long-haul flight home. We arrive back in Adelaide on Thursday, 3rd July....and will then probably SLEEP for the next 48 hours or more. :-D But to fill you in on what we've been doing since leaving the Hurtigruten Cruise.....

Thursday 26/6 - Back to dry land at Trondheim
Had to set the alarm again....not an easy thing to cope with after 4 days of being on 'boat time'. But we still had places to go so had an early breakfast (Norbert managed a cracker and some diluted apple juice) and then left the ship for the last time to be reunited with our bus...and Arne, our bus driver who had valiantly driven the bus all the way down to meet us.

Not sure what to write for the rest of the day as it was very much a 'bus day', as we had to get to Lillehammer before evening. It's ridiculous how one can get completely blase about amazing scenery if you see it day after day, but we all agreed that we were already saying "Ho hum...high mountains topped with glistening snow. (yawn) Cascading waterfalls of melting snow, rushing down high cliffs encrusted with dark fir trees. Hmmm...yet another green valley dotted with colourful little wooden houses." [laugh] I'm kidding of course, however ...[frowns]... do you know what I mean? Your brain just 'gets tired' of processing all the beauty and wonder around, and as each corner brings yet another beautiful view, each one dulls just a little more. A pity really, but I guess the only way around it would be to holiday for a couple of days, then take a break and go back to work for a week. [grin] Not really practical from far away Australia.

Norbert was picking up slowly during the day and by lunchtime was starting to eat more and laugh with the others. What do you think of his 'new girlfriend'? A little more 'well-endowed' than me, although I think the beer in each hand is the main attraction. [guffaw]

A couple we are getting on well with told this hilarious story I must share because I relate to it so much! [chuckles] HE was a snorer and suffered apnoeia and used to stop breathing in the night. SHE was always worried and used to nudge him to get him breathing again. Until one night when she was so tired that when she woke up and he was lying silently next to her, she said, "Oh well...dead is dead....nothing I can do until tomorrow anyway." And she turned over and went back to sleep! [laughs loudly] Of course he has never let her forget this! ROFL

When we arrived in Lillehammer (the place of the '94 winter olympics) we had a photo stop of the ski jumps. (Seen a lot of ski jumps on this tour!) But the best excursion was to the Maihaugen Museum....another one of those open air museums similar to the one we visited in the Black Forest, but this time showing Norwegian houses over the centuries. I took a photo of inside one of the farm-houses....can you see Norbert sitting in the back row? Really interesting museum but we could have spent the whole day there...and of course this is not possible on a guided tour so we unfortunately had to leave before we wanted to. We had arrived late anyway and the museum was closing. Oh well...put it on the list of 'things to see next time we're here'. [philosophical look]

Tea was a Norwegian buffet, and we got to try all sorts of interesting food. Admittedly a lot of it was fish which one would expect, but the desserts were all spectacular too! Reeeeeally need to get onto that diet as soon as we get home!

Friday 27/6 - From sunshine to rain.....and on to Oslo, our final destination
The day started out with blue sky and sunshine, and many of our group fronted up to the bus wearing shorts, thongs and T'shirts. Unfortunately this didn't last and a hundred kilometres down the road, one of the group asked (jokingly....I think) if the driver could pull over and wait for him to put his long pants on. [giggles] By the time we got to Oslo it was raining....and this didn't let up for the rest of the day. [sigh] Oh well...welcome to a Scandinavian summer!

Oslo is the last place we stop, and is a fairly large city. The tour guide confided that although he loves the place, the people are a little 'strange'...for example, they have a (very serious) morning paper that all the business people get. Except that it is called the 'Evening Post'. [laugh] They called an electric tram 'Trikk'...short for electric, of course! And a car is called a 'Bil'....short for automobile, naturally. [grin]

The afternoon was spent doing a city tour with another vivacious tour guide called Ann-Marie, who shared lots of interesting information including the fact that Oslo is currently hosting a homosexual convention. (We have spent the last day or so playing 'spot the gay' ...all in the best of taste and good fun, of course). Anyway...back to the tour.....she took us to the City Hall first which might sound a bit boring but was actually quite impressive as it is filled with the most e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s wall murals. Apparently the people of Oslo have taken a while to get used to them because they are quite modern, but as Ann-Marie said, it is important to not only preserve history, but to create NEW history. And I agree. I thought it looked great!

Then we went to a park called Frogner Park which is filled with the most amazing sculptures, all done by one man! Took him a lifetime and broke up his own relationship, but I guess the people of Oslo have the final benefit as it is really beautiful. Would have been more beautiful with blue skies and sunshine but by now the rain was coming down steadily so we saw it in the rain. One of the cutest statues was a little boy chucking a tantrum and Ann-Marie said that it is a favourite for all parents. What do you think? LOL

Dinner was an optional excursion, but the majority of us sauntered out to the bus at 6:30pm, dressed in all our finery. Mind you, a fair bit of the finery was a little creased from being crushed in the bottom of suitcases for so long, but we all had the same problem so nobody cared. I had my 'wedding outfit from the Berlin wedding still with me, so I wore this (see photo below). The restaurant was up in the mountains overlooking the city, so first our driver took us for a little tour of the 'Gin & Jag' suburbs, so we could see how the rich people lived. One thing I found interesting.....sod (grass) roofs were all the poor people could afford, but now it is something the rich people want! So you get these million dollar homes sitting high on the hill surrounded by generous gardens and with amazing views....and on the roof is grass and weeds!!! Give me a nice iron roof anyday, so I can hear the rain! [smile]

The dinner was a bit of a disappointment and in fact I thought the dinners on the cruise and at the hotels were generally better. But I did get to try Elk. (You know, that animal which is bigger than a deer.) Hmmm...nothing to write home about but it was OK. Which reminds me...there has been an ongoing 'debate' happening during this tour, originating from a Canadian on board who insists that it is called Moose. Back and forth the debate has been going until Norbert finally settled it by going onto the internet one night, and finding out that in fact they are the same animal, just called different names in different countries! So there....one learns something new every day!

Saturday 28/6 - Just looking around Oslo
Started the day with an optional tour....a trip to 3 different museums to see relics of Norway's glorious seafaring past including genuine Viking ships. Actually it was all quite interesting, but my favourite place was where they have the original, 100 year old ship which they sailed into the ice of the Arctic, and just allowed it to 'grab them' and move with the ice for years.....to prove that there is an ice-flow over the North Pole. You could even go on board the ship and down into the galleys and kitchen etc. Trust me Skye...even you would have found it fascinating. [grin]

Had the afternoon free to do what we wanted, so first we wandered over to the railway station to research how we were going to get to the airport tomorrow (its 35km away!) After deciding that the Express Train was the way to go, we checked out the new Opera House which has only been open a couple of months. Amazing structure! All white...like a snow-covered mountain....and all slopes and levels so you can actually walk right up to the roof for a lovely view out over the city. Not sure if I would say it is nicer than the Sydney Opera House, but it is very modern and different. Next on the agenda was the National Gallery, where I discovered another painter who I really admire...Johann Christian Dahl....as I just loved his paintings of Norwegian landscapes. Wish I could have one...but the travel budget is getting a bit low now. :-)

We thought we might blow the last of the Norwegian kroner with a bottle of wine, but were amazed to see that the ONE place you can buy alcohol here, closes at 3pm on a Saturday! And doesn't open at all on a Sunday! Its government run and you can't buy a bottle of wine absolutely anywhere else. [sigh] Boy...I miss the cheap Schnapps in Germany, available from every corner store. Don't get me wrong,...I'm no alcoholic but to be in a country where the government has complete control of the alcohol and decides on the pricing (its reeeeeally expensive) is not something I'm used to.

While some of us will see each other at breakfast tomorrow, the tour officially ended tonight with a farewell dinner at the hotel. There was lots of card-swapping, speeches and talks of 'who is doing what' tomorrow. And that's it!

Tomorrow we amuse ourselves in the morning and then get ourselves to the airport for our 4:30pm flight back to Germany. Not sure when the next blog posting will be as Norbert keeps referring to Germany as the 'black hole of the internet' so it will definitely be the end of the free and easy internet access. We might be able to buy some though.

Bye all!

PS: Heather, you asked about whether I've seen a polar bear....will this photo do? :-)