Norway trip - Oslo

We did a 7 day trip to Norway in August, just after the kids and I returned from India. It was very hectic because we left the day after we got back, but luckily none of us had any jet lag, and the kids were remarkably well behaved (touch wood) on the flight back from India so I was not at my wits end.
We flew into Oslo and spent 3 days there. We had rented a service appartment in the centre of the city and that was good because a) the food is awful there, especially if you are vegetarian , and b) because we didn't have our car we could walk or take the public transport to the major locations

Let me start by saying that Norway is extremely expensive, even by Zurich standards which is saying a lot. The taxi ride from the airport to the service appartment was astonishingly high and we promised to use as much public transport or our legs as possible.

The first day we went to Bygdoy Peninsula. Its a really beautiful country area to walk in and full of musuems. We misread the bus directions and ended up walking some 2 km ( I had not brought A's stroller along (why ?) so there was much carrying and much of motivating to walk.) I saw the bus when we had nearly reached our destination after the long trek and thereafter I put myself in charge of figuring out the public transport! We started at the Norwegian Folk Museum. A quaint place depicting life as it would have been in the last century - with a typical bakery, pharmacy , bank etc. There was  live folk singing and dance,  farm animals and a modern playground which kept S and A engaged. I would say, worth a visit only if you have time.

Folk singing and dancing















Then after lunch at a local restaurant- seemed to be somebody's house converted into a restaraunt which was set in really beautiful surroundings but had a really limited menu we set out for the Viking Ship Museum. Very interesting. It had 3 preserved Viking boats and we could just imagine the Vikings rowing out on them!

                                            Viking boat

The second day we went to Frognerparken which has the famous Vigeland Park, with sculptures by  Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures are really amazing, very detailed and realistic. The part of the park surrounding the sculptors has rows and rows of beautiful roses. The girls had a blast running through them. S wanted to collect pink petals, but agreed to only pick those fallen on the ground. At the other end of the park is a children's play area. It had pretty unique stuff with many ropes and bridges, and doubles swings and the kids spent a happy hour there. So the park turned out to be a good outing both for the kids and for us.

Sculpture dedicated to the Holocaust                                                                                

Play area















In the afternoon we decided to walk around downtown Oslo. Very pretty. There was an outdoor jazz concert at one of the places, and the whole atmosphere was amazing. The Opera House is beautiful,  overlooking the harbour.


View from Aker Brygge
Both evenings we went to Aker Brygge around dinner time. It has a lovely view of the harbour and is a nice play to just relax, watch the sunset and have a glass of wine. There are a whole host of restaurants overlooking the harbour. We were surprised to see so many American restaurant chains - TGIF etc which we don't see in Zurich. Probably a lot more American tourists here.





All in all I really liked Oslo. It was a modern city but very scenic and beautiful, lots of things to see and do and a nice place to just hang around. We were lucky with the weather, it was cold (we needed sweaters in August) but it wasn't raining at least.

Why do they grow up?

They are so cute at this age. The other day i went to pick up A from the daycare and i found all the kids  in a dark room huddled around a light. They were making wishes. I asked A what she wished for. She said ' for mummy'.  My heart could melt just then. I told her, your wish has come true, here I am.

And then you have S. She had a playdate with someone in her class and she wanted to go with her mom directly from school. She had done this once before and started crying halfway through the playdate so i told the mom that A and I would also come along. But S would have none of it. She insisted on going alone and said that I should not come. I had to finally go there an hour later under the pretext that A wanted to play with her friend's younger brother!

Bunk Beds

We finally bit the bullet and got a bunk bed for the girls. Basically S already has a car bed so we bought a bed which fits on top of that and stairs to get up. The hubby made a slide to come down the other side. Yes, you heard right, he made the slide. Bought the wood pieces from Jumbo, had them sawed to the correct dimensions, then sandpapered it at home, hammered in the nails attaching the sides to the slide and voila it was done.
Of course that was not as easy as it sounds and it took three evenings to make it. The bunk bed had to be assembled as well and all in all the making of the bed and the slide was a major activity at home.

S now sleeps on the top, and slides down in the morning when she gets up. A sleeps on the bottom on the car bed (I wish!).  I lie down with her on her bed and she goes to sleep. Then she wakes up somewhere between 1 and 3 am and cries. So either i lie down with her again till she sleeps, or else if I'm too tired i bring her to our bed. I guess she has to get used to waking up and being alone- we've tried to convince her that she's not alone since S is on top, but i guess old habits are hard to break!

The slide is great fun and the girls have invented a new game of throwing toys on top and watching them slide down. Initially the wood was a bit rough and A went on it and refused to go again. The hubby had to put some wax and smoothen it and then only it was good enough for the fussy madam. This highly sanitised place has ruined her I say, even the slides in the playground have tyres at the bottom to absorb the shock!