Oslo, Norway - June 22, 2013

 Oslo Opera House

 Vigeland Park

Vigeland Park

After a long flight through Frankfurt and an overnight stay at the airport hotel, I arrived in Oslo, Norway for the first time since I lived there 31 years ago.  After such a long time, not much is familiar.  Most striking is how small the city feels now that I've traveled the world.  Back in 1982, coming to Oslo was my first trip outside the U.S. and it seemed like a huge city at the time.  It was also much more pleasant to fly into Oslo this time.  Back then, I didn't have the money for a direct flight from NY to Oslo so instead, I flew into Brussels and took the train from there up to Oslo.  Departing on a Friday night with a festival in Copenhagen over the weekend proved quite the challenge and then when I finally arrived in Oslo on Saturday night, there had been a bomb in the train station. But I made it and learned a lot from it.

Back to the present, it was a rainy, dreary day in Oslo.  In the morning, I walked over to the National Gallery and saw the Edvard Munch exhibit celebrating 150 years since his birth.  "The Scream" was there along with more of his works of art in one place than ever before.  In the afternoon, I went on the guided tour - we drove through the city which was a great reminder of certain places.  There is a new opera house by the water which is very dramatic.  Then we went up to the Fram Museum to see the polar exploration ship as well as a walk through Vigeland park with the unique statues. 

I'm off to a welcome cocktail party courtesy of Lindblad Expeditions.  Tomorrow we take our flight up to Svalbard.  In the category of small worlds, there is another guest on this trip who was also on my trip to Antarctica!