Oslo - powered by nature

HONEST PURE RAW These were the messages that greeted us in the Oslo airport (and will probably take the rest of our trip to understand) We had a wonderful much needed sleep and after our Airbnb hosts got our internet working we were off to explore Oslo. We walked to the train station through The Royal Palace gardens after a quick viewing of the changing of the guard.

At the train station we picked up our reserved tickets for the Norway in a nutshell tour, (which we will embark upon on September 30) thus the title of this blog. The Norway in a nutshell tour is a combination of a circular train/boat/bus/train jaunt through fjord country from Oslo to Bergen. It's a famous trip and magnificently scenic and offers a delicious slice of Norway they say. More about this next week. Weather has been pleasant today around 14 with a few showers of rain. Patios are still popular and ready to entice customers in with polar blankets ready!

Here are some pics of the lovely street scales and a quick visit to the Oslo opera house.

We also walked along the riverfront promenade 'Havnepromenaden' a very interesting historic walk through Oslo's past and future. There are 9 stations which either lead you to the opera house or like we did in reverse leads you to a unique riverfront condo area with hotels and restaurants and shops. This area is referred to as Tjuvholmen - the new Oslo. 'Known in the 18th century as "Thief Island" because of its role as a prison islet, the waterfront district of Tjuvholmen is now home to one of Scandinavia's most exciting urban renewal projects, as a thriving center for business, art, and nightlife.' Part of our day was also spent looking at restaurant menus of hamburgers to determine which one had the highest priced hamburger which is really the only price $30 Cdn, 180 Norweigan Krone. We won't be dining out for hamburger and prefer shopping in the local grocery stores and making our own meals. Here are a couple of photos of our grocery tours

Those who have followed my blogs before know that I love highlighting interesting signs in different countries. Here are a few.

I especially like the camel sign - still trying to figure that one out and I thought that the sign about the spot to clean your fish was pretty considerate of the city! Bravo Oslo. I didn't see any fish guts on my waterfront walk but did trip over a fish that someone had just removed from their line. Tomorrow and for the next 3 days we are embarking on a museum marathon and using our Oslo pass which provides us with free admission to 30 museums, free public transport, and other discounts on sightseeing. Stay tuned. It was a super duper day!