Thursday, July 5, 2018- Oslo, Norway

Thursday, July 5, 2018- Oslo, Norway

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The ship pulled up right alongside the Akershus Fortress, an impressive stone fortress dating back to 1299.  This was one of the nicest views we’ve ever had from our stateroom balcony during a port call.  We had a spectacular day with scattered clouds and temperatures in the upper 70’s.  There was a light breeze off the water that made it very comfortable. 

We had breakfast in the dining room and then disembarked the ship to meet up with our SPB.com tour group.  We got off early, so we had some time to walk around the Akershus Fortress and see the exhibits in the Visitor center.  They had a whole gallery dedicated to two notorious criminals that had been housed in the Fortress Prison.  One was like Houdini, in that he always managed to escape somehow.  

We had no trouble meeting up with the SPB.com tour guide and were soon whisked off in a full sized luxury bus for our 4 hour Oslo Highlights tour.  We started off slowly as we got stuck in a traffic jam for 15 minutes before we eventually drove through downtown Oslo and ended up at the Vigeland Sculpture park.  We walked about a mile and a half across the magnificent park decorated with bronze and granite sculptures by Vigeland.  Most evolved around a theme of the circle of life, from birth to death, with lot’s of happy playful scenes of children and adults, and a few darker pieces depicting devolution through aging and death.  The centerpiece of the park is a monolith looking like it was injection molded with human forms into a giant popsicle.  Our guide provided interesting commentary on the life Vigeland and how certain events, such as his wife leaving him with his child, might have influenced his work.

We then drove to the Viking Ship Museum, where two Viking burial ships and their associated artifacts were on display.  Back in the Viking days (circa 850AD), Viking kings and celebrities were buried in their ships with all the supplies and equipment necessary to live in the afterlife, not unlike the Egyptian Pharoahs and Chinese emperors.  The ships that were used to bury Vikings in may not have been actual sea worthy vessels, but constructed specifically for burial purposes.  We learned that Vikings may have explored North America hundreds of years before Columbus.  The artifacts were quite interesting and included very ornate sleds and wagons with intricate wood carvings decorated with silver and amber.  

Next we were dropped off downtown at Karl Johan’s Gate, which stretches from the Parliament building to the Norwegian Royal Palace.  There was a very large and loud protest group waving sky blue banners with the Islamic crescent and star logo.  They were protesting Chinese abuse of Uyghur minorities in western China.  They are an Islamic group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in China, but it is hard to know what came first- Uyghur terrorism or Chinese abuse of Uyghur minorities.  It is harder to understand how a street protest in Oslo, Norway, could possibly help their cause in China, but I guess it does raise awareness.  It is interesting that Janet and I recently watched a Netflix series called “The Secret City”, whose plot evolved around Chinese agents torturing and disappearing activists for a free Tibet in Australia.  

Our last stop was the Oslo City Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is performed.  The City hall has a very impressive central hall covered with massive murals and Scandinavian design motifs.  The outside of the building looks like a old Soviet government structure due to the architectural style of the day.  

We were returned to the Regal Princess just in time for Afternoon Tea, which was greatly appreciated after a full morning of touring Oslo.  After resting and reviving a bit, we ventured out again, completing our tour of the Akershus Fortress.  

We had noticed a high density of electric vehicles both in Denmark and Norway, with Teslas being more common than any other luxury American cars.

We returned to the ship and had an early dinner.  We attended a local folkloric show featuring musicians from a local Oslo Music school.  They included two violinists, a pianist, soprano and violist.  The violist was remarkably talented and played two duets with one of the violinists where the viola part was equal to the violin parts and he also did a jazz improv of The Girl from Ipanema with the pianist that was quite remarkable.  The soprano was also superb.  

We made it to the evening trivia game of TV Themes, and managed a clean win teaming up with Sarah- a single teacher from Connecticut who had picked us out from our Cruise Critic roll call avatar, and a gentleman our age named Patrick who was also by himself.  We scored 20 out of 21.  We missed the theme to True Crime, a cable show none of us had seen.  Sarah was able to pick out the theme for Dawson’s Creek and The Nanny, which none of the rest of us had heard, and Patrick picked out the theme songs for The Three Stooges, and a British show called the In Betweeners that the rest of us hadn’t heard before.  We won a bottle of champagne, but since Sarah and Patrick weren’t with us, we were able to get Fab, the host, to give them each a Princess water bottle in addition to the champagne that we got since Sarah doesn’t drink and Patrick said he already had a bottle of champagne in his fridge.

We wrapped up the night with the Pub Night presentation by the cruise director’s staff and Princess production singers and dancers.  We’ve seen this on other cruises, but it was fun to watch and participate in the sing along.  Sarah joined us again for this.  

The ship pulled out of Oslo at 10:30PM, and there was still plenty of twilight illuminating our passage out of Oslo Fjord with beautifully pastel skies.  We must be a fair ways north for the days to be so long.

Tomorrow is one of our at Sea days as we make our way to Warnemude and Berlin