Oslo....Norwegian for "walkable"?

Question.....what do you do with your vacation time when the weather is sunny and warm but you have no running shoes?

Answer....put on your big boy pants and your hiking boots and then start singing "I will walk 500 miles...."

What started as a cool day in Oslo turned to a perfectly sunny, warm one by mid day. First stop...the architecturally famous Opera/Ballet House. Here we discovered that the city has a Harbour Promenade.....9 km long and featuring 14 information stops. The stops are difficult to miss as they are numbered and painted orange. The info includes a brief history of the location, its current situation and any plans for the future. Very well done. We covered 10 of the stops which means we hiked a majority of the 9 km ....and back to our starting point. I will cut to the chase....we logged over 20 km today on foot.

By late afternoon we figured we were done for the day and that a nice dinner somewhere would be the perfect ending. We started to think about Friday being it is our last day to see anything OR buy anything given we fly out early Saturday. During our discussion over beverages we agreed to be efficient with our time. That led us to purchase a 24 hour Oslo Pass and get on a tram.....to Vigeland Park. Dinner got moved to Friday!

Let's just say that at one point, Catherine was so awestruck that she couldn't even say WOW. The park within a park is the creation of Gustav Vigeland. He designed and sculpted most of the 600 pieces that are here.....all on display to the public for FREE. It is easily one of the major highlights of our trip....and that includes Iceland AND Bruno !!!

We catch a tram back to the hotel area and as our guide book said, "the round trip on the tram will show you parts of the city you may otherwise miss." Well, Catherine made note of some streets she'd like to visit tomorrow. That is Catherine code for "we're going shopping on these streets."

All in all a great day. Tomorrow will be a few Viking related museums and .........shopping !!

Pics....the Opera House, Harbour Promenade info stop, Nobel Centre, 3 in Vigeland ParkLes mer