What a contrast - flying into Oslo from Istanbul!! From hustle and bustle to large open spaces. I spent 10 days travelling in Scandanaiva [unfortunately Matt had to head back to the UK for work]. The first things that struck me about Norway were the open spaces, the many beautiful parks, wide streets, the fact that 97% of the population seemed to be tall, beautiful, blonde and fit!! and yet all in all Oslo probably wasn't as spectacular as I was expecting... I think that was mainly down to the fact there were a couple of drab buildings around the main part of the harbour...
A highlight of Oslo for me was definitely the Vigeland sculpture park - a huge park which contains over 200 bronze/granite sculptures.
I also visited a couple of Museums - including the Viking Ship Museum and the National Gallery which contained a few of Munch's (the artist who painted the Scream) works. Also timed my visit to the Royal Palace right on time for the changing of the guard... though you can't really miss it... a marching band walks all the way up the main street to the front of the Palace (which was no fences... you could walk right up and look through the window if ya wanted to.. and I guess if the guards let you!)
After a couple of nights in Oslo a took a train across Norway to Bergen, via the Flam Railway and a Fjord River Cruise (followed the 'Norway in a Nutshell' tour route). Should organised my trip so this was last... as it was absolutely amazing... Rushing waterfalls, mountains, clear water, quaint villages, rainbow across the Fjord... I really can't rave about it enough and I really encourage anyone who has the chance to take the time out to do this trip!
By the time I arrived in Bergen it was quite late... and it was raining (though there was a pretty good chance it would be given it rains about 265 days a year!). Bergen is a beautiful little city... loved the narrow streets, the little fish market, view from the top of the cable car... It was really nice to be able to spend a couple of days just wandering around, doing some of the walks in the mountains around the city.
View over Bergen Harbour
The Bryggen
Is Norway really that expensive? Yes and No... Some things like travel and groceries are about the same as London.... but eating out is a lot more expensive... but probably only slightly more expensive than Paris... One thing that really hurt was that I needed to do some laundry in Bergen... cost me 65Kr (about £7)! Ouch!
Stockholm
Really enjoyed my couple of days in Stockholm... wandering through the old streets of Gamla Stan...
Taking the ferry out to Drottningolm palace... past all the islands... it's a very green city...
Went the Vasa museum which contains a restored ship which sunk in Stockholm harbour in the 1600s...
Copenhagen
Copenhagen was the final leg of my trip. I took a train down from Stockholm... took about 4 or 5 hours. Like Stockholm, I enjoyed wandering around the shopping streets, visiting some of the museums...
one of my favourites of course being the Carlsberg museum...
But I also managed to get out to Fredensburg, about an hour north of Copenhagen, were Princess Mary's residence is... the grounds of Fredensburg Palace were great... lots of walking trails which was a nice way to spend the afternoon
Made a relatively late decision to head to Oktoberfest for a 4 day weekend... arrived on a Saturday.. left on a Tuesday... Flew Easyjet into Munich (ended up catching up with my cousin Michael in town which was an added bonus) then stayed at Camping Thalkirchen. We had booked through Festival Tours, which is a reasonable deal... £99 each for the 3 nights, camping and included all shuttles to and from the Festival and they ran tours out to Dachau Concentration Camp and to Andechs Monastery.
Back into the Festival the next day... tried as many tents as we could [we had our backpacks with us and some of them wouldn't let us in :( ]... and actually managed to venture into 0Munich itself as well...and had a good look around town (including the permanent HB Beer Hall!.
