On my way to Norway....again

Yesterday I set out on another trip to Norway...this time to Bergen. I'm currently sitting here in the Amsterdam Airport waiting for my flight from Amsterdam to Bergen. It's about half past 11 in the morning and my flight is not until 315 pm. I have a long wait ahead of me.
As Deana was driving me to the airport Derrick was asking me all about the type of plane I would be flying in...well I've been on two so far...first I was on an A319 from SLC to MSP...from MSP to Amsterdam I was on an A330. Who knows what the plane from Amsterdam to Bergen will be....Since DJ is interested I have taken a picture of interesting planes in the Amsterdam airport. You can't see them very well so I'll tell you behind the KLM plane there are several with different designs painted on their tails....One thing is for sure I'll be on a KLM plane for the flight to Bergen.
As I walked through the Amsterdam airport I also snapped a couple of pics of the Christmas decorations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving! I got up early so I could take the turkey to my daughter Deana's house. In past years I've gone with my parents to one sibling or anothers home. Last year and this year I've spent with Deana and her family. It's nice to be with them.
Deana and I shared the responsibility of preparing the dinner. It was nice to work side by side with her preparing the meal. It's exciting to see how the meal will turn out.

We had a great dinner...Deana is a great cook and we had a lot of fun.

Where am I now?

Last week was an interesting week. Tuesday I was in the office for a second week home from travel. I needed to take a couple of hours to get a task or two done at home in the yard. While I was raking leaves and picking up a few necessary things from the store I got a call from work that I was needed in Colorado Springs....TODAY!!! WOW! This was about 1 in the afternoon....by 4 I was in the Salt Lake airport waiting for a 440PM flight to Colorado. I was in Colorado Springs an hour and a half later. I spent the rest of the week at The Gazette helping to solve some software problems that were causing the newspaper some major frustration.
I'm home now....for one last week and Thanksgiving before setting off again, this time to Norway for a couple of weeks then from there to Wales for a week.

My last day in Norway

Today I was able to go site-seeing again. I met up with Paul's wife Joanne and we headed out on foot to visit the National Gallery of Oslo. As we walked up Karl Johans Gate (the main street/shopping district) we passed the National Theatre which is a very cool old building. Joanne took my picture in front of it. There is a plaza around the Theatre and a park. It's very nice. There is also a Hard Rock Cafe and a TGIFriday across the street.

From the National Theatre we headed to the National Gallery....on our way we pasted the Historical Museum..on the side of the building was this big banner and a collage.

We continued around the corner to the National Gallery to find that the Museum didn't open until 11am so we decided to walk up the hill to the Royal Palace. It is a very nice building with a large courtyard sporting a statue of a man on a horse and an excellent view of the city straight down Karl Johans Gate.

While we were walking around the courtyard taking photos the changing of the guard occurred. We were able to get a couple of pictures of the guarding switching out the last guard station and then marching back into the grounds.

By this time it was after 11 so we were able to head back to the National Gallery.
We weren't allowed to take photos in the Museum so we took pictures of the sculptures outside and when we were done viewing the paintings I bought a t-shirt with a print of the Scream by Edvard Munch. It is a very famous painting and was stolen a few years ago and later recovered. It is now back on display.



When were done at the museum we went out to find it was raining...we decided to get some lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe as it was one of the few places that you didn't have to sit outside then we headed back down Karl Johans Gate toward the newspaper and the end of the day.

Site-seeing in Oslo

So I went to work today and as usual there really wasn't anything for me to do. After a short while Paul asked Brigitta if I could be released to go site-seeing since there wasn't anything to keep me busy...She said I should go have a nice day....so I did.
First off I went to the city and caught the #30 Bus toward Bygdoy (the west part of the city) to visit the Viking ship museum.


It was very interesting. I couldn't believe how ornately carved the ships were. The ships in the museum were burial ships from sites that had been discovered and excavated. This ship is from


There were also artifacts from the ships such as carts, sledges, burial chambers, cooking implements, furniture and the like

.

I also went to the Frogner Park. This park is a huge park with nude sculptures throughout. The center point of the park is a huge monument called the Monolith.


A couple of the statues I found interesting were first, a statue of a baby throwing a temper tantrum that the locals call the Angry Baby and another with a man and several small children the locals call Daddy had too much to drink again.

Food in Norway

I haven't been having very good luck with food this week. First off it's very expensive....Sunday night I mentioned I had chicken curry at the local Irish Pub...that has been the best meal I've had this week so far!!!
Monday night I went out too late for dinner so I ended up at the local McDonalds...it was not good....Tuesday I decided to walk up the street to a deli in the 7-11 that someone suggested.....It was ok...so tonight I decided to walk across the street to the little market....I got a deli sandwich, a bag of Lays potato chips and a coke...the sandwich was supposed to be a chicken sandwich...I took a bite and got a taste I wasn't quite sure of....must be chicken salad rather than just chicken but I couldn't really see any mayo or salad dressing on the chicken...I looked under the chicken to see if there was mayo or some other form of salad dressing....I saw what looked like potato salad...surely not...I stuck my finger in the stuff and low and behold there was a lump....I put it in my mouth hesitantly....It was a potato...VERY ODD!! Still it does taste pretty good so I guess I'll finish it.

View of the street... Tollbugata

This is a picture of the street facing south from my hotel window.

The building on the right has a mini market at the ground level. The rest of the building is some sort of office building. If you walk down the street between the two buildings the Dubliner Pub is on the next block.
Here are some pictures of the room I'm staying in....this room is advertised as a spacious room.The first 2 are my huge bathroom!

Oslo, Norway adventure

Saturday afternoon I departed for a week in Norway. My trip took me from Salt Lake to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Olso. As I flew over Amsterdam I looked down expecting to see old windmills and quaint villages and to my surprise I saw a very modern and industrial city. We did fly over a beautiful landscape of farmlands and I did get to see 1 old windmill mostly I saw modern wind turbines and of course a very FLAT terrain!
I arrived in Amsterdam and headed out to find my flight in a very confusing airport. I had to go through customs to get to my next gate. When I found the correct gate it was a cramped little room with the passengers packed in like sardines and it was very hot! My flight from Amsterdam to Oslo was short and I attempted to sleep. The snack on the flight was a packet of little sandwiches. One set was on white bread that had a really weird taste and had a fig sauce and a slice of goat cheese. The other was some sort of wheat bread with big bits of some sort of nut and lamb meat with some other sort of sauce that I couldn't put a flavor to. Needless to say it was a test of the taste buds.
As I flew over Oslo all I saw was snow covered fields and hills. When we landed I had to proceed to baggage claim where I waited for about 15 min for our bags to come. Once I had gathered my bag I headed through customs yet again...As I exited the terminal the Customs police (an unassuming young woman in jeans and a sweatshirt) flashed her badge and me and escorted me into the search area...she proceeded to ask me why I was in Oslo, did I have anything in my bags that she should know about such as alcohol, food, or cocaine! When I told her I was there on business she asked me what my business was, what company I worked for and what company I was here to do business with...I couldn't remember any of it I was so tired! She finally let me pass without searching my bags.
My next task was to find the train to Oslo...the Express Train or flytoget. I found the train and purchased a ticket. The 20 min ride cost me 130 NOK which is about $19.40.
When I arrived in Oslo and stepped off the train, I had to haul my bag up an escalator that was shut down. It was very dirty(covered in cigarette butts and trash).
I walked about 8 blocks to the FirstHotel Millenium where I am staying for the week.
Fortunately I had purchased a guide book to help me get around! I still walked one too many streets West so I had to turn around and go back.
After I checked in, Paul Fulop my coworker, dropped round to take me on a walking tour of this part of the city.
We walked west toward the port. The first thing we saw was the first Market Square in Oslo. There is a statue in the middle that memorializes Christian IV saying that was the spot where the center of Christiania would be. Christian IV moved the city because the original city kept burning down.

We walked to the Fortress that sits on the edge of the port to view the sunset.


There is also a statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt....wasn't sure what that was all about...Paul says he had something to do with helping Oslo during the war.

We finished the afternoon by walking back toward the hotel to a little Irish Pub called The Dubliner....we had chicken curry and a beverage....the cost....210 NOR.