The Oslo Fjord, crowned by the capital of Norway, is an inlet of the Skagerrak bay, stretching inland from the North Sea towards Øresund in Sweden and the Baltic Sea. A “Fjord” is normally formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock and many such valleys were formed during the recent ice age. In spite of its name, the Oslo Fjord is not a fjord in the geological sense, but it still is wide range of waterways.
This Fjord has an impressive archipelago of islands, which in summer becomes the city’s favoured playground and since the in-laws from the US are visiting, we wanted them to have a taste and luckily enough we have good friends with a cabin and a boat on the Fjord. They were kind enough to give us a whole day to explore and we gladly take you along:
Oslo is situated in an amphitheatre-like setting, with the city centre in the bottom close to the Oslo fjord, and residential areas stretching uphill from there in all directions. Behind the residential areas, the forested area extends, with flora and fauna that is quite extraordinary for a city of this size (click all pics to bigify & enjoy):
Enough facts and on to our round trip with the boat – I guess photos show more than a thousand words: Recreational, don’t you think?
A lot of nice beaches on the islands and shores.
Tourist highlights:
Above & Below: Oslo harbour at the City Hall
Above & Below: The new Oslo Opera House
Bygdøy island with e.g. Maritime and the Viking ship museum.
Some curiosities:
Above: Light Houses – Below: House boat
Moose are commonplace (easily spotted in winter), and the whole of the capital is part of Norway’s wolf reserve (even if they rarely come here). We did not see any moose that day, but on the island by our friend’s cabin, we saw this cute deer:
A culinary end:
The day was finished off with a delicious dinner of grilled pork loin, baked potatoes and salads. We were incredibly lucky to have good friends willing to share their cottage and boat and help us give a perfect summer Norwegian experience while my wife’s family was visiting. We will soon be moving on to Sweden, and then across the Norwegian mountains to Bergen. So keep checking in for a look at the fantastic Nordic summertime.
What to do when family comes to visit Norway for 14 days? It’s plenty of options; in Oslo and the aria around of course – and then you have; The South with the coastline full of beaches, The West with wild mountains and fjords, as well as The North with magical landscape and not to mention the Land of the Midnight Sun! In addition; we have a vacation home in Sweden, so why not visit two Scandinavian countries while your at it – out of US for a change, anyway!
Readers Guide for this post: Click photo to bigefy & enjoy – Click links to read my posts about it!
A taste of Oslo: A real challenge since it’s so much to chose from and we only have a few days before the trip to Sweden. Our suggestion is to start with “Highlights of Oslo” (three hours bus trip to get to know the city and see the Vigeland Park, Holmenkollen Ski Jump and Bygdøy with the Viking Ship Museum).
We’ll also take the Mini Cruise on the Oslo Fjord (hop on/off from the harbour, the Oslo New Opera House and Bygdøy at the Maritime Museum.
Luckily enough, some friends have a boat and cottage on Oslo Fjord and we’ll have one day cruising around and dine at their summer paradise in the end of the day.
A trip to Sweden: My regular readers know we have a vacation home in mid Sweden at lake Vänern (northern Europe’s largest) and we’ll go there for a couple of days. There are plenty of things to do in the local area around Mariestad, as my regular readers have seen over the years. Diane’s family hasn’t been to Sweden so this will be a fun experience for them. Some highlights we will visit are The Old Town, Göta Canal and Läckö Baroque Castle.
Of course we will meet some friends and enjoy an ice cream at the guest harbour. Plus no trip to Mariestad would be complete without a trip to enjoy the sunsets at Ekodden beach.
Over the wild mountains of Norway to Bergen: To give a real taste of the variety of landscape in Norway; the long trip over the mountains and along the fjords to Bergen is a necessity. We will give them what we like to call the Postcard tour. The scenery along the way is breath taking with everything from open farm land, rolling hills climbing to high mountains, a snow capped high mountain plain, as well as breathtaking fjord views. There are many waterfalls along the way, and we will cross one of the lovely fjords in a ferry boat so we will have the view from the water as well. Bergen is of course a fun city to visit with its own special charm, so all and all the family will get a lot of holiday adventures in a compact period of time.
Practising for the OsloBG: Some people might call me patriotic, but I do love to show off my country. It is always fun to have visitors who appreciate what we sometimes take for granted in our daily lives. We will now have an opportunity to warm up for the OsloBG where we will have lots of interested guests to guide around. It will be an advantage to go through the sites once more before our guests arrive and find the most efficient way to enjoy as much as possible.
Connecting to Social Media and the rest of the digital world with real time news, online map navigation, worldwide free calls and net meeting as well as calendar, tasks and notes management is now reality. To an always online gadget geek like me, it’s both a thrill and professionally a must. So when all this is merged into a sleek little mobile phone device, I feel free like a bird. I’ve had a Nokia N82 for a while and am looking for the next step: a Smartphone.
This time my wife DianeCA was one step ahead of me and we had a real great weekend when she got her new Nokia X6: Playing with wife’s new toy.
I know I am lucky being married to a woman who takes advantage of digital connectivity too. Then again, that’s how we met 12 years ago: She living in NY, US and me in Oslo, Norway – we met on the net in a news group. Then mail followed by photo exchange and chatting until we both “met” in video meeting. Love was growing, she moved over to Norway and we are happily married for over 10 years, and both a bit geeky.
So let me give you a peek of our playing with her new tool this weekend (click photo to bigefy and enjoy): My digital beauty with brain even let me play a bit
Synchronizing the digital world:
A new Smartphone with standard installations is a start, but to me there is way to go. Upgrades and updates is of course the first things to do – then adjustments, setups for Social Media accounts as well as email, makes it even more useful. Then synchronizing with all the necessary digitized stuff at you’re PC adds the contents that make it a joy to use like for me: about 2000 contacts, all my appointments and tasks, photos and videos of course and then favourite places marked on the map as well as bookmarks for web browsing and all RSS subscriptions. For that, Nokia Ovi Suite is brilliant and saves me years of work, collecting digital beauties.
Makes travelling much more fun:
We have AUX connection on the stereo in our car and even my “old” Nokia N82 connects with that and gives: hands free phone calls, music from the favourite list, listening to Podcasts and of course GPS Map navigation. Our car stereo does not includes that, and I am glad, because I want it on a portable device (yes, the Smartphone!) so when we stop at new places, I bring it along to find the best restaurants, entertainment, tourist info office or other public services etc. If I am travelling abroad, I always find a free WiFi zone and call my bellowed wife via Skype – with video to see her lovely face or show her something around me – for free! You may say I am addicted, but it’s all for a good cause, don’t you think?
Digital Beauties with brains:
Talking about things digitalized and the vague difference between the real and the virtual world: when playing with Diane’s new toy this weekend, I all of a sudden was thinking of a song a friend of mine performed at the Norwegian Computer Society annual meeting once. His name is Henrik Wigerstrand and he is a brilliant singer and guitar player – as well as writer. I recorded it with my compact camera and the lightening conditions were very difficult, so the quality of the video isn’t so good. I do hope you will turn up you’re speaker and listen to a very funny song with subtle and thoughtful touches in the equality debate:
Visit from FIL & preparing for OsloBG: Diane went back to Oslo now to work for 3 more days before her parents come to visit and to prepare our house for guests. I have to admit to a dash of withdrawal now that she took her new Nokia Smartphone with her. Now I really hope to get the new Nokia N8 in time for the Oslo Blog Gathering as I can see I really need this device to maximize the experience. I want to be able to post live as things happen along the way and make it more fun for my readers to check in and keep up to date with our events.
Btw: Talking about connectivity features; Nokia N8 supports options like: GPRS, EDGE, micro-USB, Bluetooth connectivity, HSDPA, WiFi connections, GPS along with A-GPS support. That should make me capable of keeping my readers up to date and keep my guests from getting lost at the same time!
The Classic Car Rally followed by a show and Old Ox Memorial in Mariestad, Sweden, is an annual tradition that draws participants and spectators from near and far. 100′s of vintage vehicles, cars and motorcycles are driven through the town and parked to be admired at Karl’s Holme (the “People’s Park”). This year, in the fantastic weather, the park was very popular (click photo to bigify and enjoy): People admiring the cars & enjoying a sunny day with fellow enthusiasts in the park.
It happens every first weekend in July, the start of the summer season when our charming vacation home town Mariestad attracts many tourists. It’s called The Pearl of Vänern (Northern Europe’s biggest lake) and a popular stop for boat travellers from all over Europe entering the lake through the Göta Canal. The park is close to the lake and the harbour (click for a closer look): On the left photo – in the background: the harbour filled up with boats.
Of course there are locals and visitors from all over Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia for that matter – including our Norwegian “colony”. The interest for cars and motorcycles; old and new, large and small, fast and even faster are shared by everyone at this show. I have to admit, I am not at all an expert, but I sure can enjoy some of the beauty (which I tried to capture the best I could – again, click for a closer look): Young & 0ld – Small & big
Mariestad’s Vehicle History Society:
The rally and show are arranged by this association (in Swedish; “Mariestads Fordonshistoriska Sällskap”) and their chairman gave an introduction and described some of the cars:
From their web page, I have translated some wise words (at least I think so): The history of the total 1900s is in many respects been a century when technology captured our culture. Communications sector, i.e. road traffic and rail expansion and aviation became tangible evidence of an expansive development in an important part of a growing society. The car to drive, as well as motorcycle created an existence where the concepts of freedom thrived. The technology was developed. Vehicle models saw the light, disappeared, and were replaced by new more modern and more efficient designs. From different parts of the world cars and motorcycles reached us and would be preserved as cultural treasures.
I sum up this post with a couple more picks:
Next week my father in law will be joining us from New York. This show reminds me of him as he has a classic car and loves attending the big shows. This is a good example of how modern technologies, in this case vehicle, intertwine our cultures and cause the world to grow in the same direction. People from different parts of the world have a shared cultural existence because of technology, just as we share existence through blogging and social media; it’s a win – win situation, don’t you think?
VisitNorway use Social Media to attract visitors in an exiting and exemplary way. You are free to choose any online media and send entries for a chance to see Norway.Your Way. It’s a competition which will show Norway’s true spirit. Whether you use you’re blog, video, sing or photograph, your creation will hopefully inspire future explorers! So the question was: Are you a creative wiz? Can you reflect Norway’s great nature or urban buzz? The winner will explore Norway; take paths set by locals, find hidden gems and share stories.
There are almost 1500 entries so far and still a week to go, so now it’s up to you to decide who should win an experience of a lifetime in Norway. Go visit the competition website and vote for the entries YOU like the most to help them win (click photo and vote!)
A Troll’s journey in Nor Way: When I was there to vote myself, I found a blog entry that caught my eye – something quite exclusively Norwegian (see the photo to the left!); A Troll’s journey! It’s Matt Jones from Bristol, UK, who explains his ultimate dream this way: “In Nordic Folklore the Troll has long been a legendary figure. Here I imagine a troll journey from the north through landscape inspire by the Nordic myth – back to his family in the south”.
Even I, who are brought up with Trolls and have learned how to deal with them, could not resist identifying with Matt’s dream. If you like to support him or at least are curious about this; click to read his post: “Send me to Norway!”.
While at it, I also recommend you to check out VisitNorway: On Twitter – On Facebook – and their Home Page!
Please don’t confuse this event with our Oslo Blog Gathering 2010, where my blog friends from all over the world will meet for a special gathering. There you will meet VisitOSLO at our information stand which will give the participants good advice on the local area and activities. Be sure to register if you haven’t already and join the fun!
