Day 7
Wednesday 20th August 2025 - Stockholm, Sweden - Oslo, Norway
We needed to return to our hotel for a 2.00 pm departure to the central train station for our trip to Oslo.
It was uneventful getting to the station and boarding into carriage #6, of which our tour group occupied more than half the carriage. Luggage storage was limited and some of the large cases had to be lifted up to the overhead racks. The six hour journey actually seemed quite quick even though repairs to the track meant stops along the way to let other trains to pass us. At times, our train reached speeds of 160 kph. Scenery consisted of lots of trees and water !
We arrived at 9.30pm, and the transport to our hotel by 2 maxi-cabs and one normal cab seemed to make the 450 metre journey quite difficult. Due to many pedestrian and one way streets in the area, the 27 of us and luggage took about 15 minutes to arrive at the hotel. After being seated for hours on the train, Tania ended up walking a more direct route with 7 other people on our tour but taking only 5 minutes !
We dropped our bags in the room and immediately went out for a stroll around the hotel / train station area. After a long day, we headed back to our hotel room and got to bed after midnight hoping for a good night’s sleep.
Day 8
Thursday 21st August 2025 - Oslo, Norway
We woke at 7.00 am and went down for breakfast, the spread provided continues to be impressive here in Scandinavia with an excellent selection of muesli, seeds, dried fruit, berries, nuts and yoghurt. The cooked buffet selection also offered a variety of options.
We had a couple of hours to kill before the bus picked us up at 11 am so we walked into the centre of town, seeing the Parliament House and cathedrals. Pedestrian streets and boulevards made it easy to get around without having to worry about the cars….it’s only the bikes weaving in and out in places that were of concern.
Keeping an eye on the time, it was back to the hotel for check out. On the bus TJ, our local guide took us for a drive around Oslo, with the first stop being the Vigerland Sculpture Park. Didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be very interesting. The statue gardens had 212 sculptures fashioned in stone, bronze and cast iron. All works were commissioned by Gustiv Vigerland who did a deal with the government where he received a place to live for life, but had to give all sculptures back to the government. He designed the entire gardens and had 13 sculptors working for him. All the figures, being of all different ages, are nude so as to show the emotions and feelings of each figure and not dating them by clothing of a certain era.
Circle of Life
The central theme is the Wheel of Life which is the symbol of eternity designed as a rotating bronze wreath of women, men and children holding onto each other for all eternity.
The Angry Boy
The Angry Boy (Sinnataggen), considered Vigeland’s most famous sculpture, is amongst the 58 sculptures located on the Bridge and is constantly surrounded and touched by visitors to the park.
Beyond the Bridge the Fountain stands out with six giants holding a large saucer shaped vessel above their heads and a curtain of water spilling down around them. They represent dealing with the burden of life, and the water is a symbol of fertility. At each corner of the fountain’s perimeter stand 5 trees, 20 in total depicting man’s relationship to nature and the evolving stages of life… childhood, adolescence, adulthood to old age and death.
The Monolith located at the highest point of the gardens stands 17m high and is carved out of one massive stone block. There are 121 human figures intertwined together with children at the top and the increasing ages of men and women wrapping downward toward the base.
The next stop on the tour was the Fram Museum, which along with the original wooden ice breaker boat called the Fram, included the history of polar exploration by the Norwegian explorers. We walked through the well maintained interior of a vessel that scientifically explored both the north and south poles. The allocated hour spent there was not really enough time but we had to get back on the bus again.
We headed down to the port of Oslo, a quick lunch in a dock food hall enjoying a plate of chicken souvlaki before boarding the Nordic Pearl ferry ship. The cabin for this 16 hour overnight trip to Copenhagen is slightly larger than the previous ferry trip, and offers more room since our large cases are currently stored elsewhere. Not wasting any time we were straight off to the coffee station to sit and type up the blog content as it has been a few days since we had updated it !!
Fascinating reading! Surprised by how much spare time you have on this trip (which is a good thing!)
thanks Kerrie – but not enough time to keep our blog up to date – finally caught up now ! Last post talks about our experience with the TripaDeal your .. you may find that interesting … Overall we were pretty disappointed. Even fellow travellers, some of who have done other TripaDeals (and raved about them) said this one was very poor! Oh well put it down to experience.
I am having trouble comprehending the fact of Tania getting up so early! Well done!
Hi Roger – yes Tania has had a number of early mornings so far — that’s what happens on organised tours !!
Enjoying your blogs
Thanks they been a bit slow coming, the tour was pretty full on and time was limited .. should be more up to date from now on ! – famous last words