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

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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.

National Arboretum

The week before last was my last week in Washington D.C. During the week the guys I was working with at the Washington Times invited me to go for a walk with them in the National Arboretum. In the weeks I had been in D.C. previously they kept telling me I should go out to the National Arboretum since there is an entrance to the park from the parking lot at the Times. The guys walked in the Arboretum nearly every day. I was finally able to go with them that last week.
On the first walk they took me up a hill to a meadow and there we came upon the columns. The Capitol Columns were original part of the East Portico of the Capitol building in 1828. It was very cool to see them there.
We also walked down a paved path that took us out of the Arboretum to the shore of the Anacostia River. It was very cool. There was a picnic area and a small dock for boats to land.
One day Bill and I walked around to see the columns (Bill didn't walk with us the first day) we ended up at the Bonsai Gardens. The Bonsai were very cool and we enjoyed wandering through the garden.
The last day Lambert and I walked up a different trail to view the children's garden. It was very sweet and quite fun. The flowers were still in bloom and very colorful.

Maryland Blue Crab

Tonight Bill and I actually got away from the paper at our normal hour so we decided to drive to Annapolis for Maryland Blue Crab. We went to a little restaurant called Jimmy Cantler's Riverside Inn. It was a very fun little crab shack. The food was fabulous! and MESSY!!
We had 6 Large crabs between us, a cup of clam chowder each and a cob of corn.

Another weekend in D.C.

This past week I have been in Washington DC on business. I stayed the weekend because I will be working here again next week. I decided to go into the District to take in some more sites and get a copy of the Declaration of Independence for my grandson. On the metro I saw a whole troop of Boy Scouts in full uniform...it was very refreshing to see.

I headed to the Capitol via Bartholdi Park to aquire a tour ticket. The park was very pretty. The line was about 300 yards long and it was 1030 in the morning. The tickets are usually gone before everyone in the line has been given a ticket. I decided I didn't need to stand in line half the day for tickets that I probably wouldn't get anyway so I headed toward the National Archives to get the DOI for DJ. The line wasn't too long so I decided to go for it.
After the National Archive I decided to go see the Jefferson Memorial. I walked across the National Mall and down to 15th street. I followed 15th to the Tidal Basin then followed the path around and across the bridge to the Memorial.
It was quite awe inspiring! As I was walking along the path I saw a squirrel sitting on a stump. When I took his picture he came right up to me and pranced back and forth in front of me. It was quite funny.
There were a lot of teeanagers at the Memorial all dressed in suits and dresses. I found out they were part of the National Young Leaders Conference.

I headed back around the Tidal Basin to find the World War I memorial and the Korean War Memorial. I was surprised at how small the WWI memorial was.
I was equally surprised by the Korean War Memorial. It was interesting to say the least. There are statues of soldiers walking through the trees and a reflecting pool.
Along the side is a Marble wall similar to the Viet Nam memorial except instead of names etched in the wall there are images. It was very cool how it reflected the visitors amongst the etchings....it was like reflecting the past and the present....I found it very moving.
After I was done with the memorials I decided to take the Metro over to the Pentagon to see the new Pentagon Memorial in daylight. I really enjoyed it. There is a wall around the edge of the area with years in brass embedded in it. The years correspond to the birth years of the victims.
The benches are laid out in order of their age.
I was tired by the time I had finished visiting all the Memorials so I headed back to the hotel. It was a very enjoyable day.