Wednesday 8th May Oslo to Geilo

Our morning was spent with a lovely, local tour guide joining us on a tour of Oslo. It was very easy to fall in love with this beautiful city. So clean, so peaceful, beautiful architecture, and flowering gardens everywhere. Our coach took us on a tour of the area called old town which was once built several hundred years ago by wealthy residents. Of course the buildings were magnificent. From here we were taken to the famous Frogner Park to see the magnificent bronze and granite sculptures of Gustav Vigeland. The photos will show what an amazing place this was. We spent 45minutes here before visiting the port and the Akershus Fort built in the 1200’s, with its huge very old stone wall, the new Oslo Library and the Oslo Opera House, built over the water. Following lunch we said goodbye to our local guide and started the drive to Geilo, a ski town located in the mountains. This drive was about 200kms and was both entertaining and stunning. Our coach driver is from Norway and was surely a comedian in another life. Our general tour guide is from Sweden but originally from South America. Anyway we heard all about the rivalry between, Norway, Sweden and Denmark and it seems that Norway was always winning out as a country, over the other two. As we drove, we were entertained by the banter between these two men as well as learning more about the history of the Vikings and the surrounding countryside. The stunning scenery included, beautiful, still lakes and fjords, rushing, tumbling rivers, forests and snow-capped mountains. Arriving at our hotel at Geilo, we were delighted to see that it was a beautiful old ski chalet called Dr. Holms Hotel. The view from the chalet was magnificent. Snow everywhere and ski runs close by. We finished the day with a delicious dinner in the hotel dining room. Really can’t fault the trip so far. Our group is not that large, with less than 40 people, all from Australia and at this stage we all seem to get along very well no matter who we’ve met and spoken to.



































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