It was a beautiful morning (about 2 A.M) - April 9, 2009, with the tender warm rays of the sun when we left home to board the bus from the Nils Ericsson Terminalen (Nils Ericsson Terminal) in Gothenburg, Sweden. We were very excited, since this was our first trip in the EU region.
Three families (including ours) started from Gothenburg to Oslo by Swebus. The journey was about 3 hours - was about 8 AM by the time we had reached Oslo. It took a while for us to venture out as we were all tired and badly wanted a cuppa coffee/tea. We wandered around the bus station for a while for the information center to open. As soon as it was opened, we gathered necessary information for the Oslo city sight seeing.
On the way to all the places, we enjoyed the tall buildings (Oslo being the capital city of Norway, had so many tall buildings - which is not so likely in all the European cities).
A little about Oslo - Lovely ‘fjords’ and kilometres of woodland, Norway’s capital is an easy-going city with architectural mix of old and the new which anybody would fall in love with! The perfect size for exploring on foot, the city boasts world-class museums, a lively nightlife and plenty of outdoor activities for the energetic.
First, we took tram # 2 and went to the Vigeland park which is a sculpture park built by Gustav Vigeland. This park has about 180 sculptures of entwined lovers, tranquil elderly persons and some beggars. It also has a beautiful sculpture which is certainly a center of attraction - about 100 wriggling human sculptures. Apparently, this also happens to be the highest point and a sculpture carved on one single stone.
The weather was very foggy and cold when we entered the park. As the day went by, it was slightly sunny and we already felt the warmth of the rays. We spent about 3 hours in the park and then headed to the harbour - to take a fjord for sight-seeing.
Then we took long walks in front of the Nobel peace center, we weren't allowed to enter it though! We then headed to the city center where we were to board our over-night cruise to Frederikshavn (Denmark. Since we had a couple of hours in hand, we went to the Royal Palace, which was very beautiful. The view from the palace was beautiful too - overseeing the cty roads and the traffic.
We then decided to move towards the harbour as we had to embark our cruise. We were very excited as it was a new experience for us on a cruise! We lost our way en route the harbour, but finally managed with the help of the bus drivers and other pedestrians - who were all very helpful and most importantly understood and spoke good english. We finally boarded our cruise after long wait in the queues. But, it was such an amazing experience. We enjoyed thoroughly - and were very tired by the night.
We settled inside our rooms inside the cruise and very soon the cruise began to sail! Aditi enjoyed the most - she was 3 years old and was super exited about ships and the beautiful waters!!! We shopped, ate and went around the cruise. We slept by 12 in the midnight and woke up by 4 AM the next morning to see the sunrise. It was bone piercing cold and fog at that hour - but we still managed to smile and take a few clicks :-) Me and my husband went in turns to see the sunrise as Aditi was still sleeping. It was a beautiful, cold, foggy morning! We posed like Jack and Rose from the famous titanic movie and took a few pictures too :-)
In the next few minutes, there was an announcement that we'd reached Frederikshavn. The crew was waiting for us to disembark the cruise - we were too many people and took more time in getting ready...
We realized that the weather was still very windy and chill when we came out of the cruise. We walked in the shopping street for a couple of hours and shopped for a few things. Everything is so dearer in the Nordic countries, or rather in the European countries!
We then had to advance our trip and return to Gothenburg due to the bad weather. Overall, it was a fun-filled trip and we 3 had a nice time :)
