Rainy start to the day but we started on a bus tour with a local guide pointing out the sights. Our goal was to drive to Bygdoy peninsula.

We started with a tour of the Viking Ship Museum. This museum holds archaeological artifacts and three viking ships. These ships had once been ocean going vessels but were found as part of a large Viking burial site.

The Oseberg - built around 820; used as a burial ship for two powerful women.

The Gokstad - built around 900; about 10 years later became burial ship for a powerful man.

The Tune - discovered 1867, the first Viking ship to be excavated in modern times; dated back to 900.

Other artifacts

Our next museum was the Non Tiki Museum.

Thor Heyerdahl is one of history’s most famous explorers. In 1947 he crossed the Pacific Ocean on the balsawood raft Kon-Tiki.

Tne museum also contained the RA II, a papyrus boat the Heyerdahl took from Morocco to the Barabados in 57 days (about 3600 miles)

The group tour ended. Five of us including Gus, Ann and a fellow traveler Karen stayed on to visit the Fram Museum. Here we learned a story of Norwegians who participated in expeditions to both the Arctic and Antarctica. We were able to walk on board two of the ships.

The Fram was the first ship specially built in Norway for polar research. She was used on three important expeditions: with Fridtjof Nansen on a drift over the Arctic Ocean 1893-96, with Otto Sverdrup to the arctic archipelago west of Greenland - now the Nunavut region of Canada - 1898-1902, and with Roald Amundsen to Antarctica for his South Pole expedition 1910-12.

It was difficult to get photos of the Fram - low lighting - large ship in small area. I include on from the internet.

The Gjøa was the first ship to be sailed through the entire Northwest Passage. Roald Amundsen and his six companions accomplished this in 1903-06.

The space where this was located was a bit more open.

When we finish on Bygdoy be took a ferry boat to the Oslo city hall. From there we found our way back to the hotel.

City Hall

National Theater

Studenterlunden Park

Parliament Building

Oslo Cathedral

The Akerhus Fortress

We walked from the hotel to Aker Brygge for dinner.

Popular area along the inner harbour with restaurants, shopping, apartments and office buildings. After a thorough renovation, the area has a fresh look and lots of new restaurants and shops.

The late afternoon light (actually about 7 pm) was very nice on the fortress.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel via an older section of Oslo.

In Kvadraturen you find the square Christiania torv, known for its fountain with a sculpture of a hand pointing to the ground. After the big town fire in 1624, the Danish-Norwegian King Christian IV decided to rebuild the town in this area and name it after himself. He supposedly pointed to this spot and said: "The new town will lie here!"

Kvadraturen is the area between Akershus Fortress and Grensen, Jernbanetorget and Egertorget. This was King Christian IV's town from the Renaissance. Only a few buildings from the 17th and 18th century can still be seen.

Two of the buildings in Christiana Torv - the historic town square in Oslo's old city center.