Ships, Dancers and Opera

 Up early, our Hop on Hop Off bus served as a transportation to tour the city with a couple of longer stops along the way.  You know how the typical tourist bus is open air on top?  This bus was a convertible with a cloth top peeling back to expose us to a brisk morning.  

Our first stop, The Fram Museum, houses a preserved Arctic ice breaker.  We were turned loose with three ballerinas to photograph them on and inside the ship.  Low lighting conditions challenged our skills and I’m not sure I really captured their beauty and grace.  







Our next stop was the The Opera House.  Modern architecture made the exterior of the building as interesting as the inside.  A large sloping slab leads up to a large window looking into the building.  The Opera House overlooks the water and across the bay a structure serves as a launching point for those who wanted to brisk dip into the ocean.  I think I’ll pass!







We moved our little popsicle ballerinas into the warmth of the lobby.  Very graphically pleasing, we broke into a loose 3 groups to work with them against wood paneling, geometrically faced curved walls, and windows overlooking the outside. 







A comment on the people we’ve encountered.  A good number are tall and fair complexioned. Since Norway and Sweden share a peninsula there’s a good deal of mixing of the populations. Our driver from the airport (Chinese raised in Norway) said that the Swedes are the hard working ones that you find working in the food service industry.  They are polite if not overly outgoing.  I also don’t see a lot of selfies being taken which is a pleasant break from home. Also, no graffiti.

After being dropped at the hotel we went back to the gastro pub across the park for lunch.  This time I tried the mussels (delicious!) while David stayed with the burger. We returned to the room for a little nap time before going to Olivia a block from the hotel.  This bustling Italian eatery serves decent if not awe inspiring cuisine.

With an early bus call to the airport the next morning, we packed and turned in early to get a decent night’s sleep before  our travels up north.

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