By ship from the City Hall to the new Opera House, then to Bygdøy Island with Maritime and Viking museum gives an adventures cruise on the Oslo Fjord. A hop on – hop off tour with a double masts motor vessel “Jumfruen” (Eng. Virgin) (build 1917) leaves the harbour at the City Hall every 90 min. from 9:45AM to 15:45PM. That means you can cruise a whole day and at the same time enjoy cultural buildings, museums, beaches on the islands on the fjord with breath taken scenery – all in one day. That’s what my wife DianeCA (click to read her report!) and I did some weekends ago and of course we gladly take you along:
DianeCA and RennyBA at “Jomfruen” on the Oslo Fjord.
Let the cruise begin from Oslo harbour:
Left: The boat gangplank – Right: 90 years old boat “Jumfruen” Oslo City Hall Left: Passing Akershus Fortress – Right: The view of the city from the fjord.
The New Oslo Opera House:
First stop is the largest single cultural-political initiative in contemporary Norway. It’s an extraordinary building that rises directly from beneath the fjord – like an iceberg. The white marble clad roofs cape forms a large public space in the landscape of the city and the fjord. I’ve made lots of posts from this building: the only Opera House where you can walk on the roof. Here is a couple for you to click and enjoy: ‘Oslo Opera House recreational Culture for the People’ and ‘New Oslo Opera House in Norway’.
The islands on the Oslo Fjord:
10 minutes from pulsating urban city life; the boat takes you to the nicest island countryside. Bring your bathing suit in the summer time to enjoy a nice swim in the fjord to experience the recreational contrast:
Cruising The Oslo Fjord
Bygdøy Island; Maritime and Viking Ship Museum:
After 30 minutes more cruise, the next stop is Bygdøy Island:
Harbour at the Fram Museum; the boat Roald Amundsen used for the South Pole expedition in 1911.
The end of the cruise:
In 30 minutes from the last stop at Bygdøy, you are back at the harbour by the City hall. There you can:
Buy fresh steamed shrimp at the fish market or dine at many of the restaurants at Aker Brygge.
Oslo Blog Gathering 2010:
This is an example of how you can enjoy a 90 minutes cruise at Oslo Fjord or hop off at some or the stops to explore and make it a whole day cultural and relaxing adventure. Not only is Oslo a compact city, but you can enjoy a cruise or hike in the mountain, just from the city’s doorstep. Participants in next years Oslo Blog Gathering get the Oslo Pass with free travel on all public transport, free admission to museums and sights – even 15% on this Mini Cruise! Go check the Official Gathering site and mark your calendar for a trip to Norway in August next year!
Oslo city is bounded by the Central Station (Oslo S) to the east, the Royal Palace to the west and the seafront by The City Hall to the south. It’s a compact area and easily walkable! Karl Johan; the mostly pedestrian main street connecting Oslo S and the Palace is the artery of downtown Oslo and takes only 20 minutes to walk through. So when I meet someone new in town, I always walk them through Karl Johan and advise them to remember the name. Getting acquainting with this main street, you never get lost in Oslo, or you can ask everyone for it to get back on track
Social Media connecting People:
As a network evangelist, I have a lot of connections also out of Norway. My regular readers know I have met some of them, especially blog friends. A few weeks ago, a Facebook friend of mine in Canada recommended a fellow citizen to contact me since he was visiting Oslo. We hooked up on Facebook and started to plan for our meeting. He and another friend of his came by train from Stockholm in the afternoon and I met them at Oslo S upon arrival. So I took them on a guided tour and gladly take you along to some of the highlights, referring to my earlier posts:
The New Oslo Opera House:
It’s only a minute walk from the Central Station and you don’t need to like Opera to enjoy this extraordinary building that rises directly from beneath the fjord and the only Opera where you can walk on the roof. Shaped as a glacier or a ship, the amazing building seems to float by the inlet Bjørvika, giving a stunning impression. I’ve posted a lot about it with pictures before (e.g. The largest single cultural-political initiative in contemporary Norway) – here I am together with my guests:
Pradeep Nair, Shaun Toolsie and RennyBA at the Opera House.
The Karl Johan Street:
The main pedestrian street has plenty of quality shops (click to read: Oslo – Shopping with a charming atmosphere), as well as some monumental buildings where in particular the Parliament-Palace axis has a certain Parisian grandeur. The same with Grand Hotel (click to read: Jazz Brunch at Grand Café in Oslo), where the Nobel Peace Prize winner stay as well as the National Museum and the former Oslo University.
Aker Brygge:
Is the coastal area located south, at the City Hall, 5 minutes walk from Karl Johan. It’s a former shipyard area in Oslo harbour, across from Akerhus Fortress. In 1982 work started on demolishing the former shipyards and workshops of Norway’s largest shipbuilding yard. It’s now been converted into a shopping and nightlife centre, pulsing with life – there are outdoor restaurants and bars almost everywhere (click to read: Show off your tan at Aker Brygge in Oslo).
After a couple of hours walk through the city – Yea, I know I said just 20 minutes, but it takes some more time with me constantly stopping, showing and talking about the buildings and the city’s history – we where all exhausted and hungry. We ended up at one of the many restaurants at Aker Brygge with outdoor serving and had some seafood pasta delight:
My beloved American wife DianeCA joined us half way through Karl Johan so during dinner, there were a lot of questions answered about how it was adjusting to living in Norway
Oslo Blog Gathering 2010:
This is an example of what you can experience if joining our gathering in August next year – it won’t take you long to get acquainted with Oslo. Included in the program fee, you get the Oslo Pass with free travel on all public transport (easily available on Karl Johan) and free admission to museums and sights. During three days, you will be able to explore the Oslo Fjord, The Maritime and Viking Museum, Vigeland Sculpture Park, The Botanical Garden as well as hiking in the woods at Holmenkollen Ski Jump and Mountain – and many, many more options. Check out the gatherings officially program site and start planning to meet bloggers from all over the world – booking will soon be available!
Athens the capital city is in many ways the birthplace of Classical Greece and the cradle of Western civilization. As such, it is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography as well as political science. Athens – related tο name of the goddess Athena – has been continuously inhabited for at least 7,000 years. So for a Norwegian who loves travelling, it has been on the top of my visiting list for a long time. I was lucky enough to be there this week together with my wife, combining EUCIP (European Certification of Informatics Professionals) business with pleasure. As always, we gladly take you along, so let’s start with an overview and landmarks:
The Athenian Acropolis is the ancient high city of Athens, a prominent plateau rock perched high above the modern city with commanding views and an amazing array of ancient architecture, mostly from the Classical period of Ancient Greece, the most famous of which is the Parthenon.
Historical monuments from centuries back:
The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by a number of ancient monuments and works of art:
Hadrian’s Arch
Athens retains a vast variety of Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of remaining Ottoman monuments projecting the city’s long history across the centuries:
The city also contains a variety of different architectural styles, ranging from Greco-Roman, Neo-Classical, to modern. Many of the most prominent buildings of the city are either Greco-Roman or neo-classical in style:
Left: The National Library – Right: The Academy of Athens.
Walk in the Urban life and architecture:
Athens offers some great urban walking. Several major streets have been recently pedestrians, and a mostly car-free archaeological walk has been implemented connecting the Acropolis and nearby sites. We had a pleasant afternoon and evening walking around the Plaka and Kolonaki districts:
Walking stairs and narrow streets.
The Greece cuisine:
It reflects the Mediterranean style of cooking and diet. Fruits and fresh vegetables play an important role in making some of the most well flavoured and colourful Greek delicacies. Among them garlic, onions, fennel, zucchini, grapes, apples, dates and figs are widely used. Seasonings and herbs like dill, mint and oregano and lemon rind also form an important part of the recipes. Lamb is very common, of course moussaka the national dish is well known but the fish dishes are the best ones as Greece is a country surrounded by the sea and fishing is a main factor of the Greek agriculture. As a Norwegian and lover of seafood, I had to try when we where eating at the Plaka districts together with some Spanish EUCIP colleagues:
At an outdoor restaurant on a pedestrian stair walk. Left: Kalamarakia (squids) and the Greek beer Mythas – Right: Tsipoura (sea bream)
Oslo Blog Gathering 2010.
We were only in the beautiful city of Athens for three days. I even attended a business conference in that period, but we really had a lot of good experiences and a feeling of a vacation. Like Oslo, the center of Athens is very compact and easily available on foot or by public transportation. We took a bus sightseeing trip to get an idea of where the important monuments were and the distance between them, and then we were able to pick and choose what was most important for us. This is really a good example of how one can have a lot of great experiences in a compact period of time, much like the planned Oslo Blog Gathering in 2010. So remember to click and check out the plan and maybe you will enjoy a similar experience with us as your host.
Oktoberfest is kind of a new tradition in Norway – another proof of that the world becomes smaller and that habits and cultural occasions are adapted. Well, don’t misunderstand: even from the Viking period, Norwegians have celebrated harvest and made beer from grain and aquavit from potatoes. Great feasts were held to celebrate the harvest, it’s just that they didn’t call it Oktoberfest.
My company was invited by our copy print provider – NetPrint – and as a party boy, of course I said yes:
The original “Oktoberfest”:
occurred in Munich, on October 18, 1810: For the commemoration of their marriage, Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (namesake of the Theresienwiese festival grounds) organized a great horse race (the marriage took place on October 12; the horse race on October 17 — therefore, there are different dates named as being the first Oktoberfest).
Now it’s known as the Largest Volksfest (People’s Fair) in the World. In 1999 there were six and a half million visitors to Theresienwiese – most of them from Bavaria, but also from the surrounding EU countries and non-European countries including the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil and Australia.
NetPrint’s Oktoberfest:
They make a lot of efforts and plan this very seriously. To set the right mood, a brass band was playing at the entrance (and I had my mobile phone at hand so I could share the spirit with you of course):
The food is of course true to the Bavarian tradition and so are the server’s costumes:
You might like to have a closer look:
Food: Haxn (knuckle of pork), Schweinsbraten (roast pork), Würstl (sausages) and of course Sauerkraut (cabbage). Drinks: Beer and snaps (Bommerlunder).
NetPrint’s staff is very creative. Not only do they make promotional posters and delicate brochures, the also transform their garage into a Beer Hall:
Some of my colleagues and other costumers of NetPrint’s: We all are party boys and girls in an atmosphere like this. My thanks to the host for making this an unforgettable feast!
What’s on in Oslo?
Talking about all that happens in Oslo, Norway – and what I try to give you a glimps of. Now you are able to take part and meet up with other bloggers to explore and experience yourself. I keep on planning for the Oslo Blog Gathering 2010 – don’t forget to mark your calendar!
Oslo Blog Gathering, August 11th to 15th, invites all to explore the city and Norway’s history, culture and traditions. It’ll be a compact guided adventure invited by RennyBA’s Terella, to give everyone in Blogsphere a chance to see some of the attractions presented on this blog over the last five years. After the first day’s guided tour: Highlights of Oslo, you’ll learn how to navigate, use the public transportation and chose your favourite attractions such as museums, historical buildings, shopping, boat trips or hiking in the woods.
Program preview:
visitOslo is a key contributor to this Gathering. Sharing their knowledge and experience has been an important input for composing the program. Thanks to them we get the guided tour: Highlights of Oslo and even the Oslo Pass which give free travel on all public transport, free admission to museums and sights. Passengers from Oslo Gardemoen airport will also get a free ticket to the city by the Express train. I recommend a visit to their site and get acquainted with Oslo; what they have to offer and what you would like to do, e.g.: Top 10 suggestions
Blogging Connecting People:
As an active networker I enjoy using Social Media and blogging extensively. Through this I have met a lot of nice people online which I am curious about, and very much would like to meet personally. That is the reason behind this project – no other – I am not sponsored by any tourist group or agency, or any of the local hotels for that matter. So it’s not a commercial venture for me and I do not earn anything on the participation. I only wish to sett opp arrangements so that as many as possible are able to join us.
The Official Program site:
This post is a pre announcement and of course there will be more details about the program as well as accommodations and booking. For more details, in time as they are certified, this site will always be updated: Oslo Blog Gathering 2010.
This is an example of how you can enjoy a 90 minutes cruise at Oslo Fjord or hop off at some or the stops to explore and make it a whole day cultural and relaxing adventure. Not only is Oslo a compact city, but you can enjoy a cruise or hike in the mountain, just from the city’s doorstep. Participants in next years Oslo Blog Gathering get the Oslo Pass with free travel on all public transport, free admission to museums and sights – even 15% on this Mini Cruise! Go check the Official Gathering site and mark your calendar for a trip to Norway in August next year!
– we where all exhausted and hungry. We ended up at one of the many restaurants at Aker Brygge with outdoor serving and had some seafood pasta delight:
