Northward to Norway
And so the SSG, HM, BP and I decided to head up to Norway and Sweden for a nice mid-summer Scandinavian holiday, for this would be the last time the four of us would have the chance to get together at length before we each leave our current perch in London, bringing to an end this most delightful past few months at Goodenough.
We didn’t manage to drink much, given Norway’s strict licensing laws, but we certainly did lots of talking cock, revealing our silly sides to each other, and progressively picking up Portuguese and Malay swear words from the HM, while enjoying the most relaxing of jaunts through this northern expense of Europe.
We spent the first night at Asker, a town set on high ground on the outskirts of Oslo, overlooking the Oslofjorde channel, and upon arriving, we got right down to serious business.
Asker was quiet and pretty, providing us with much walking ground to cover, plus the first of many ice creams too. The SSG went ga-ga over the many sailing vessels moored at the marina there, and started fantasizing about buying a summer property there. Given her spectacular earning power, none of us felt that was it was an impossible dream.
When we got into Oslo the next day, Friday, we walked through the inner city core, down the pedestrianized Karl Johanns Gate, towards the Royal Palace and Gardens, and then to the Town Hall Square, the Rådhusplassen, where we boarded an evening cruise round the harbour, and promptly overdosed on prawns.
But we managed to tear ourselves away from the food to enjoy the attractive watery scenes which greeted us. I can imagine, though, that in winter, when the sun barely shines, and everything is frozen, and all is brooding and bleak, the atmosphere would be very different.
The following day, we visited the Nasjonalgalleriet, where one of Edvard Munch’s Scream was on display. It’s good that he painted a few versions of this most iconic of images, given that they seem to get stolen with alarming recurrence. In fact, there was an entire room devoted to his masterworks, including other famous pieces such as the Madonna.
We headed next to the nearby Historisk Museum, where a collection of pre-modern Viking era artefacts was on display, whereupon a strange force possessed the HM to go knocking upon an 800 year old wooden door, apparently oblivious to the old museum rule of See No Touch. She was roundly admonished by the jagas on duty.
After a nice al fresco lunch at a spectacularly un-Norwegian place – which we’re too ashamed to mention – we proceed onward past roads with stately 19th century homes to one of Oslo’s greatest attractions, the Viegeland Park, an open air sculpture park containing many different human forms, including a tall column of bodies. Deviant minds might conjure up decadent thoughts, but I can assure you we were thoroughly sober and sane.
Travel Notes: We left London Stansted for the Torp Airport in Sandefjord, south of Oslo, on board a Ryanair flight. Incredibly, the SSG secured us special discount tickets costing 1 penny each, inclusive of tax. I kid you not. In Asker, we stayed at the Quality Hotel Leangkollen, while in Oslo, we put up at the Thon Hotel Spectrum, a short walk away from the main train station.
We didn’t manage to drink much, given Norway’s strict licensing laws, but we certainly did lots of talking cock, revealing our silly sides to each other, and progressively picking up Portuguese and Malay swear words from the HM, while enjoying the most relaxing of jaunts through this northern expense of Europe.
We spent the first night at Asker, a town set on high ground on the outskirts of Oslo, overlooking the Oslofjorde channel, and upon arriving, we got right down to serious business.
Asker was quiet and pretty, providing us with much walking ground to cover, plus the first of many ice creams too. The SSG went ga-ga over the many sailing vessels moored at the marina there, and started fantasizing about buying a summer property there. Given her spectacular earning power, none of us felt that was it was an impossible dream.
When we got into Oslo the next day, Friday, we walked through the inner city core, down the pedestrianized Karl Johanns Gate, towards the Royal Palace and Gardens, and then to the Town Hall Square, the Rådhusplassen, where we boarded an evening cruise round the harbour, and promptly overdosed on prawns.
But we managed to tear ourselves away from the food to enjoy the attractive watery scenes which greeted us. I can imagine, though, that in winter, when the sun barely shines, and everything is frozen, and all is brooding and bleak, the atmosphere would be very different.
The following day, we visited the Nasjonalgalleriet, where one of Edvard Munch’s Scream was on display. It’s good that he painted a few versions of this most iconic of images, given that they seem to get stolen with alarming recurrence. In fact, there was an entire room devoted to his masterworks, including other famous pieces such as the Madonna.
We headed next to the nearby Historisk Museum, where a collection of pre-modern Viking era artefacts was on display, whereupon a strange force possessed the HM to go knocking upon an 800 year old wooden door, apparently oblivious to the old museum rule of See No Touch. She was roundly admonished by the jagas on duty.
After a nice al fresco lunch at a spectacularly un-Norwegian place – which we’re too ashamed to mention – we proceed onward past roads with stately 19th century homes to one of Oslo’s greatest attractions, the Viegeland Park, an open air sculpture park containing many different human forms, including a tall column of bodies. Deviant minds might conjure up decadent thoughts, but I can assure you we were thoroughly sober and sane.
Travel Notes: We left London Stansted for the Torp Airport in Sandefjord, south of Oslo, on board a Ryanair flight. Incredibly, the SSG secured us special discount tickets costing 1 penny each, inclusive of tax. I kid you not. In Asker, we stayed at the Quality Hotel Leangkollen, while in Oslo, we put up at the Thon Hotel Spectrum, a short walk away from the main train station.
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