Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Norway in a Nutshell: Gudvangen-Voss-Oslo

We woke up for our last full day in Norway and headed for the bus stop. We had to take a 45 minute bus ride to the town of Voss to meet our train back to Oslo. It was sad to leave those beautiful waterfalls.
We had 2 hours in Voss before our 6 hour train ride back to Oslo so we went for a walk by this lovely lake, explored the downtown, and bought some provisions for the ride.

Cute little church.  
I didn't take any pictures on the train ride back to Oslo because we had already passed through 90% of this exact route, and because we were not seated in a family car, so we had to more closely manage our children.  This included taking turns walking them to the family car at the other end of the train so that they could play for a half hour now and then with these two adorable, but loud, little British boys.

We got back to Oslo around 7 pm and I felt that we hadn't really SEEN Oslo yet, so I insisted we try to do that before heading back to our apartment for the night.  (With suitcases in hand. Thankfully we packed super light- just 2 carry-ons for all 6 of us, for 4 nights.) Rob wasn't sure this was a great plan, and it didn't make it any better that we were turned around and initially set off in the exact wrong direction, but we managed to do a whirlwind tour anyway.  Here is the Domkirke, which dates from the 1690s.

And here is the view down Karl Johans Gate to the Royal Palace.  The flag was flying (though it isn't visible in this photo,) which means the King was in the country.

Parliament.

Kiddos still hanging in there!

City Hall.

Along the courtyard pictured above are these carvings of stories from Norse mythology that I really wanted to see and thought the kids would enjoy.  Each had an explanation in Norwegian and English.  This was Jake's favorite- Thor on his chariot with his hammer in hand. 

Near City Hall Rob found an Indian restaurant which cheered him up considerably.  He ordered takeaway for all of us while I slowly headed toward the tram stop with the kiddos.  We met up there and headed to the apartment for another 10 pm dinner followed immediately by bed.

The next morning we took our time getting up and heading to the airport.  We crammed a whole lot of Norway into a few short days and we came home exhausted... but we are super happy we made the trip.  And I feel like we should get a sticker or badge or something for managing all of those transit connections with kids and luggage in hand in a country we had never been to before.  But I guess that is just how we roll!  

1 comment:

it's just lisa said...

You guys are so adventurous!!! I love it! Looks like you had a full day everyday. I bet you came home completely spent.