Tourists

Oslo is said to be one of the most family friendly destinations in Europe....which is good, when you live in a small apartment with two little energizer bunnies.

This past week, we've seen numerous attractions and have reached them by foot or train. Walking is a way to de-energize our two little bunnies...all though, I am not sure it really works. The kids still have energy in excess by the time we come home. And all the train rides are still for (my) educational value as well as the kids' entertainment. Benjamin seems to pick up on the train schedule too. See, we live right between train stops A and B and yesterday, we were supposed to meet up with Carl at train stop B. Instead of walking straight to B, Benjamin guided Annika and me to train stop A and wanted to ride the train to B. So, our otherwise 5 minute walk turned into a 5 minute walk, 10 minute wait and 2 minute ride. But, he was happy and very satisfied with himself.

Vigeland Park is a very interesting park, filled with over 200 large and small sculptures. Of course the perfect weather and big playground worked out in our favor too. We brought a lunch bag with us and got to enjoy a European style picnic, surrounded by to-go-grill-boxes, bikes parked in the grass and people of all ages enjoying the sun, as if recently coming out of hibernation.
Here is another picture from our trip to Holmenkolbakken. It was a 25 minute tram ride and 15 minute walk to get to the ski jumping hill. Seeing this hill up close makes you appreciate the athletes standing up top, ready to make their jump. The view over Oslo is also great from this location too. This will be one of our destination spots this winter for sure.
We've passed the opera house several times traveling to and from our apartment and the main train station. It's structure and bright white color impossible to miss. So, today, we got to finally "climb" it. It's designed so visitors can walk up a ramp and onto the roof. The kids loved the big ramp and got to run and jump up on the roof too. So far, we are enjoying being tourists here in Oslo. With all these big American cruise ships coming in to port, we really blend in with our sneakers (all though not bright white), jeans, backpack and camera going "click" "click" "click"...