Visit to Portugal - a rough start

 I was not expecting things to go smoothly for this trip, in part because I was 5 for 5 delayed/missed flights in the past month, and in part because any trip with 3 legs is bound to have something go wrong.  And, because any confirmation number that spells EFDLAY, is sure to be cursed.

48 hours after departing Wichita, overnighting in DFW, transiting Barcelona instead of Madrid, we arrived in sunny Porto Portugal. Tired, but excited to explore. 

First views of Porto from the airplane

AirBnB is just a block from the Cathedral Se do Porto with an amazing view from our patio. 

We walked a few blocks around our apartment looking for the grocery store our host mentioned.  Only little mom and pop stores with 3 choices of cereal and shelf stable milk.  We managed to get some pasta and pasta sauce with some wonderful fresh rolls from a bakery.  Dinner was adequate, we were ready for early bed so we could hit the road first thing in the morning. 

View from our patio at night!

Had to laugh at the "severe weather" warning of high temps to 75 when we're hitting 95 in Wichita.  Granted, we have AC, but still, 75 is lovely.  

Pictures around Oslo

 Random photos from walking around and observing.  I would readily visit Oslo again.  It was beautiful!

There were a lot of sculptures around the city.  I liked this one of the child reaching for their dropped teddy bear.

I've never seen someone backpacking their parrot around before (!)

I liked that the manhole covers had St. Hallvard and his 3 arrows and millstone on them.  (People thought I was weird taking this photo).

The waterfront by the City Hall. 

This bell originally hung the City Hall, but it became out of tune and they removed it from the carillon.  It has a foot pedal at the base of it that you can step on and make the bell ring.  It has a electronic clapper installed.  This is right on the water front by City Hall and as you walk around you hear a gentle 'dong, dong' throughout the day as visitors walk by and try out the pedal. 

This is the Oslo Cathedral (Church of Norway).  It was rebuilt in 1848, so this building is not particularly old.  The King and Queen and the Prince and his wife were all married here. 

After the bombing and mass shooting on July 22, 2011, thousands of people left roses at the Cathedral.  A local artist started an initiative inviting survivors and others to forge roses from iron in remembrance of those lost. No two roses look the same. It is quite beautiful. 

Organ in the Cathedral.  The painted ceiling is quite stunning.

Its hard to tell from this picture, but the front alter piece is a carved wooden sculpture. 

Royal seats

Pulpit

Freia is the Norwegian national chocolate.  Founded in 1889.  It was acquired by Kraft General Foods in the 1990's

Pretty tasty.  I like the 2nd one.  It has wafer bites in it. 

The airport is at least 30 miles from downtown Oslo.  We took a cab out to catch our return flight.  Although you can see the highway on the map of Oslo, you don't see it from the city.  It's all underground!  An extensive tunnel system.  I was surprised to find the GPS could tell exactly where we were.  There must have been booster signals in the tunnels.

This was taken at about 5:30 am on the way to the airport.  The rolling fields (with grain?) were so picturesque.  This photo from a moving taxi doesn't really do it justice. 

 

Oslo - Last Night Bay Cruise and Patio Dinner

For our last night at the conference, our hosts arranged a cruise around the bay in Oslo.   I didn't realize until I looked at the map that it is a good 20+ miles away from the open sea.  The inlet it sits on is quite long.  I had envisioned icy fjords for the cruise, but it was clearly a harbor cruise. lol.

Go figure that the boat we were on was the Nobel. 

You can see a large ski jump on the hill in the background.  It is 60m high and one of the oldest in the world (dating to 1892).  It was used in the 1952 winter olympics.  The stadium around it seats 30,000 people!  I wish I'd had time to visit the slope and the ski museum. 

The Akershus Fortress dates back to 1299. It has evolved a lot over the centuries.  The royal mausoleum is in the castle. The outer fortress is a public park (this is where the Renaissance festival was)

Another view.  The sun on the castle with the dark clouds was cool.

We left the docks and circled out around several islands with summer houses and then cruised by the downtown sky line. 

The water was very calm and the island and houses looked so peaceful.

If you look in the distance, you can see what we thought was a small chapel...

...but it is a lighthouse. 

We could see people in the distance just sunning themselves on the docks.

I liked this view of the downtown buildings in the distance with the summer huts on the nearby island.

A house surrounded by lilac bushes in bloom.

The crooked building is the Edvard Munch museum.

This is the Oslo Opera House.  You can actually walk the slope all the way to the roof for a great view (I didn't get to do this, but some of our group did)

There is an iceberg sculpture out front. 

These floating saunas are in use year round, with several parties in progress when we cruised by.

We had dinner at the Engebret cafe - the oldest restaurant in Oslo.  Founded in 1857.

I decided to try the reindeer.  It was good. 

Boysenberry and chocolate mousse for dessert was amazing!