The last few days of our trip were spent enjoying the beautiful weather and sites in Oslo. Oslo is a very easy city to hang out in; Good public transportation, big parks, tasty food, and nice people. First stop was the Oslo Opera House, a landmark of Oslo. The opera house was designed to be enjoyed by all. The roof is sloped such that you can walk up to the top. Many people on their lunch breaks use the opera house roof as a picnic spot.

Walking up the roof

On the roof.
   

Views from the roof.
    

Sculpture in the bay

We wandered around the roof and then went inside for our backstage tour, where we had the opportunity to see the set and costume departments. We also visited the backstage area of the main stage, which was absolutely enormous. I had no idea how much space was backstage. There were multiple stages that could rotate, move in, drop down, etc.

Inside the opera house.
 

After the opera house, we took a tour of the Nobel peace center. While very interesting, it was definitely a bit of information overload. I could have spent hours there learning about all the inspiring individuals that have won that award.

Loan with the Dalai Lama – Courtesy of Loan’s camera

Instead, we headed off to Slottsparken and the Royal Palace, where we learned that tickets for tours were sold out, and decided to hit the National Gallery instead.

Royal Palace

View of the park from the Royal Palace

Changing of the guard

I’m not a huge art fan typically, but the National Gallery was just my speed. It was a relatively small, very manageable art museum, organized (and color coded) by periods. The highlight was Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’. Munch is Norwegian, so he’s a big deal over there.

Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’. We weren’t supposed to take pictures, but we snapped one from outside the room.

Imitating art; I decided to keep my clothes on so we didn’t get kicked out of the museum.

Leaving the gallery, we walked down a very happening (and somewhat touristy) street with outdoor cafes. Dan and Ryan saw a motorcade and stopped to see what the commotion was. Bill Clinton! At least it looks like him in the photos, no?

Bill Clinton!

Elephant on the street

Rejuvinated by some beer and mango smoothies, we headed to Vigeland Park, filled with tons of people and lots of statues of naked people. We had some fun posing.

Angry baby; It’s good luck to rub his left hand.

Phallic symbol?

Dinner was at a family run restaurant around the corner from our AirBnB. Life is good in Norway; The restaurant does so well that they close on weekends and the entire month of July. The son, probably a little older than us, runs the front, while the father cooks. And boy was he a talker! He had us there till 11pm. But he was very interesting and knowledgeable about history and current events. The food was pretty good too.

After a crazy packed first day in Oslo, we took it a bit easier on the second. We took a cruise over to the Viking Ship Museum first thing in the morning, where there were multiple viking ships and other relics that had been dug up.
   

After being retired from the sea, the viking ships were used as burial vessels, where people would be buried with valuables like the relics below.
       

Views from the cruise.
    

The afternoon consisted of wandering around, souvenir shopping, lunch, more wandering, and a nap. Obviously day 1 in Oslo had tired us out! We had a nice last dinner of the vacation, and then hung out at our apartment, swapping photos, and enjoying the company and our last day of vacation.

Dinner

KLAD’s flight to Germany was early the next morning, while Ryan and I didn’t have to leave till mid-day. Unfortunately, the flight to Germany was changed, but no one found out until they made it to the airport. Ryan and I caught up with them in the terminal for a few games of Uno before hopping on our plane back to JFK via Reykjavik.

It was a wonderful trip with great traveling companions!

Who can pass up bacon oast for breakfast?! We tried to bring some home, but it has to be refrigerated. So, what exactly is bacon oast? It is basically cheese with bacon in a squeezy toothpaste looking tube. Does that sound delicious or what?
    

After a nice breakfast of toast, fried eggs, and bacon oast, it was time to leave the awesome Ringebu farmhouse.

First stop was the Ringebu Stave Church. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt; We searched for a man and two pig carvings, a dragon carving, and Norse god faces at the top of some pillars.

I think this was the dragon carving in the top left. Doesn’t really look like a dragon to me

And this was the man with 2 pigs carving; Again, questionable

Pretty sure we were all churched out. Next up was Maihaugen, an open air museum with replicas of Norwegian history (churches, houses, barns, fishing villages, post office). I found some great little homemade booties and a lamb stuffed animal for Kate and Egg’s baby (Nate was born August 19th). The funniest part about the museum was the ‘20^th Century Houses’, basically 1950s style.

One of the oldest two-story houses in Gudbrandsdal. Oddly enough, it didn’t actually say when the house was built.

One of the most exciting pictures from Maihaugen.

Adam and Loan fishing at Maihaugen.  Pictures courtesy of Loan’s camera.
     

The best part of the day came in Lillehammer. We visited the Olympic ski jump. There were a bunch of people practicing, even though there was no snow! The surface of the jump was like a turf, and they would just stop at the bottom in the grass. We were able to walk underneath the jump and up to the top where the skiers would take off. It was very cool to be able to get that close! Never would have happened in the U.S.  The following are lots and lots of pictures of the ski jump.  Some of them you’d swear were against green screens, but no, we were taking pictures next to and below the jump.
 

We took the long way up

The skiers take the short (smart) way up

View from the top

Olympic torch

Loan and I doing our best ski jump impression; Loan looks much more committed.

Outside the Olympic ice rink.

We made a quick stop in the town for lunch and headed on to Oslo. We took a round about way (ie, we had no idea where we were going) to fill the cars with gas and drop them off at the rental company. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out and relaxing in our Oslo lodging, another great AirBnB apartment.

Napping in Oslo before dinner.

Sunday was a slow morning, finally starting the drive to Ringebu around 11am. Amazingly, I have found traveling companions that are even slower than Ryan getting going in the morning. I really don’t mind, though, because it makes for a relaxing trip. Most of the day was spent driving. In addition to the ‘normal’ cars mentioned in an earlier post, we have seen a very large number of Teslas and American muscle cars. We made a stop at a few churches along the way and a cemetery that (we think) had a lot of the Kostad ancestors.

Ryan outside a Stave Church

Norwegians love their trolls!
     

Church and cemetery with Kostad ancestors.
      

We rolled into Ringebu pretty late, after most restaurants and grocery stores had closed, so we picked up Chinese takeout on the way to the AirBnB. This AirBnB was absolutely breathtaking! It was the second house on a farm, where the grandparents used to live. The houses overlooked a beautiful green valley and lake.

Unloading at the farmhouse

View of the valley out the back

Storage barn off to the side

The mom was there when we arrived and showed us around the house using the little English that she spoke. Amund, the son, who we estimate to be a little younger than us, arrived a little while later. He was the one who had put the house on AirBnB, and we were his first visitors! Amund had been an exchange student in California during high school and then attended a small college in Michigan. The family invited us to eat dinner out on the porch of their house next door. While we ate our Chinese takeout, they brought us out local delicacies to try, including aquavit (potato liquor), cured pork, potato crisps, and beer and wine.

Dinner on the deck at 10 something at night – Courtesy of Loan’s camera

Proscuitto, potato crisps, and aquavit – Courtesy of Loan’s camera

The house itself was an interesting mish mosh of stuff.

View from the dining room table

Ryan sitting at the dining room table, engrossed in Lonely Planet

Chilling in the living room before bed