We were greeted at the door by an enthusiastic Charlie, the Hungarian vizsla, who is the reason we are here in Oslo. His owners Jane and Ofer, whom we met in Budapest five years ago, are going to Canada for a fortnight and we are looking after Charlie and the apartment.
Charlie is a handsome big dog. He is quite a big fellow for his breed and he has a nice even temperament.
Sadly however, there is a very nasty outbreak of a virus here in Oslo and elsewhere in Norway which is responsible for the death of about 20 dogs so far. Dog owners are warned by vets to avoid taking their dogs to areas off leash or where other dogs congregate. Unfortunately, this means that Charlie will be confined to being on the leash on all his walks which is not nice for a big dog like him who needs a lot of running around. We will see how it evolves but, our prime consideration is keeping Charlie safe.
And now for a first view of some of the handsome buildings in this compact capital city.
The National Library.
Not sure what this building is but it is attractive. It looks like it was once a church perched on a small hill, but now may be offices of Norwegian Rail.
This one is a modern psychedelic coloured building - somewhat of a contrast to the more traditional.
Statue of Winston Churchill. Not a little unexpected to find in the Norwegian capital.
Sign outside the fish shop. Whale steak and whale burger. Norway is still a whaling nation, along with Iceland and Japan. Norway resumed commercial hunting of minke whales 1993 in open defiance of an international whaling ban. Norway contends that its quota of commercial whaling of minke whales can sustain a limited harvest and also argues that whales eat millions of tons of cod and herring, two of Norway's staple (and over fished) exports.
Inside the fish shop - the array of crustaceans.
Herrings in the front left and whale products on the right and at the back.
Jane and Ofer's apartment. It is bright and sunny which must be so important in a climate like Norway's. Spacious open plan living areas. The bathroom has heated floor.
It is in a nice district called Skillebekk, near the waterfront and only a short tram ride from the center of the city.
Just as a a point of information, dogs are allowed to ride on public transport. (for free. Jane tells us when they first came here four years ago she had to buy Charlie a child's ticket but that regulation has now been abolished). There will undoubtedly be a photo showing Charlie riding on the tram later this week :-)
We have been able to buy ourselves a weekly public transport card at a very reasonable price for seniors. We can now travel to our hearts' content everywhere within zone 1. We will need to top it up for our second week as you can only do it on a weekly basis. I find this more enjoyable than the Hop on Hop off option in other cities but when you only have a day or so somewhere, the HoHo is convenient. When you have the luxury of spending two weeks in a city having unlimited travel is very nice. We also did this in Budapest when we spent three months there five years ago and explored the city thoroughly via efficient and well organised public transport. With the unlimited weekly travel we can limit our sightseeing to a smaller portion of the day which is much more relaxing than full on all day sightseeing that one needs to generally cram into very few days.
Along the waterfront. This is at the town center end of the harbour. Restaurants line the front of the strand here. Not scenic, as you often see photos of the Stockholm waterfront.
Oslo's population is round about 635,000 which is slightly above the population of Copenhagen and Helsinki but about 300,000 less than Stockholm. Just for comparison, the population Karlstad in Sweden, where we spent the last two weeks was just short of 62,000. Sadly, we did not have the time to spare to see Stockholm which is a great regret. Maybe next time?
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