Day 4: Sculpture Gardens and Missing Munch

Hello Norway!

It's morning and that means another opportunity to spend an hour at the Carolina Breakfast Room! We had a seat by the window and have found our favorite Norwegian breakfast treats. It was a rainy, overcast morning, but for some reason, this energized me all the more! Spending a day exploring Oslo with my husband in the rain sounded adventurous and romantic! Everything just seems right with the world when you are viewing it from the window of the Carolina Breakfast Room while sipping tea and eating lox. What a way to start the day yet again!

First stop: The Royal Palace. We mainly walked through the rose gardens and around to the back all the while admiring the preciseness of the Royal Guardsmen. This was so interesting to us as we obviously do not have this in the States. Following a tree lined path, we ended up outside the Palace gates toward the West side of Oslo. What a treasure! Each winding road seemed like it was luring us in. We found a great travel shop/bookstore and a quaint kitchen store where we picked up some Marimekko goods to remind us of our trip. We decided to start heading onward. After all, we have many museums awaiting us.

We grabbed a quick lunch and found ourselves at a shopping center completely dedicated to interior design. It was Scandinavian design at it's best with one store right next to another. A quick browse through the Aker Brygge Mall and then onto the Akershus Castle. I was astounded at this larger than life stone fortress and the job it must have functioned in it's time. It's crazy to think that it was built in the 1300's and is still standing strong today. What great architecture with such a rich history!

After the castle, we headed to the Munch Museum. We hopped on the subway and made our way to the Munch only to discover that the museum was not open because they were working on new exhibits. What a bummer! What could we do but purchase Munch post cards as if we had seen the whole collection. After sympathies were offered, the kind lady at the gift shop gave us invitations to the grand opening of the museum where the queen would also be in attendance. She said that if we couldn't see the museum, we could at least have the satisfaction of knowing that we were invited back to the same event as the queen.

We continued on our quest to see Oslo to the botanical gardens where we wandered through the twists and turns of the paths only to decide we have been going non stop and Chris' blood sugar is beyond E. We needed a little pick me up. One of the beautiful things about Oslo is a cafe is never far. The tea and coffee were great as usual. We spent awhile there, just enjoying each other and soaking in the fact we are so blessed to be here in this incredible city!

Warmed up with caffeine in our bodies, we took a bus to the sculpture gardens. We had the best time there! Maybe it was the beauty of the sculptures, the many nature trails, the gardens, the company, or most likely a combination of it all that made it so great. Part of why I liked to see Vigeland Sculpture Park is not that I am well versed in my knowledge of art and sculpture, but that there is always good fun to be had. As we gave our best thoughts on what the art said to us, Chris ended up standing on his head on the cement stairs to try to capture the essence of one of his favorite pieces. Good work Chris!

I could have stayed there for hours. In fact, I think we did. But then we had to leave because it was starting to rain a little harder and it was time for dinner. We ended up back at Brasserie 45 mainly because we knew right where it was and we were hungry! We ended up having the same waiter who recognized us and asked how our marathon went. How thoughtful!

It was hard to think about this being our last dinner in Oslo. We had a wonderful time the past 4 days. Words can't describe the experience. Norway took us away from work and life and wrapped us up in the wonder and enchantment of this absolutely wonderful city! We spent quality time with each other, bonded over an incredible Norwegian marathon (that's three now!), and had a blast exploring the history and culture of the area. We both agree that our four days in Norway made us want to come back for more! We're already making plans of when we will be returning.

The trip isn't over yet, and we were having a craving for chocolate cake! We ran back to our hotel, got another layer of warm clothing and off we went on a mission. CAKE! Just past the University of Oslo we found our gem. Deli de Luca had just what we were looking for. We left with cake...and a carmel brownie. This is where we continue to justify what we eat by saying, “we just ran a marathon.” Back to the hotel for a late night snack of chocolaty bliss. YUM!

We apparently still have jet lag. It's late. It's about 3am and are writing a blog when we should be sleeping. I guess all the cake could be contributing to sleeplessness. Did I mention it was delicious?

We have a list of about 20 things we want to do in the morning before we have to check out at noon. The alarm is set. If we could only fall asleep.