Cruising with Kids (part 2) - Oslo, Norway

These posts are taking a bit longer to get up than I had planned.  To see part 1 where I talked about our flights, day in Copenhagan and getting onto our boat here.

 

Our first port was in Oslo, Norway.  We were still pretty exhausted by the time change but rallied through as best we could.  We had decided on going on a Walking Tour of the city and it was so great to get to learn more about Oslo and Norway in general.

Pulling into port and getting to see all the Fjords was pretty cool.  We had our breakfast on the boat and I was so excited to see some black pudding in the buffet (I've been dreaming of it since our Scotland/Ireland trip back in 2014).  Unfortunately it was overcooked and a bit dry...big disappointment.

Then we got organized and met up with our walking tour group.  Our first stop was at the old Castle/Fort and it's just incredible how these European cities preserve their old buildings.

Dad of the year pushing the girls around in the stroller on very uneven ground - hard work!!

 One cool tidbit we learned was about the architecture in the city.  When a majority of the buildings were erected they were only 2-3 stories tall, then when the owners got more money or it changed owndership and they wanted to add more levels they just added them to the roof, which seems normal enough except they built the additions to go with the style of architecture of the day.  So when you're walking around the city you'll notice a big difference in the style of the buildings as your eye looks towards the top.

 

We happened upon their farmers market which has been meeting in the garden square for 100's of years.

Ever the plant lady I am, I was most fascinated with their florals and plantings.  Not pictured but of note, Finnley did well about half of the time in the stroller.  I then had to pull out the Ergo and do some wearing with her to keep her calm.  We did come fully prepared with snacks and drinks to keep the girls happy as we walked around the city.  For the most part they were both pretty compliant and we did have Ellie in a pull up as we were unsure what the bathroom breaks would be like.

The Palace right at the end of "Main Street".  There was no barricade, you could just walk right up to it.

Off to the museum.  There is great significance about this clock...but I can't remember what it was, just that I should take a picture of it.

And this girl was wiped out. She was such a trooper and did the best she could but in the end she just couldn't hang so we told our tour guide we were out and started heading back to the boat.

Ellie woke up on the way to the boat just as we were happening past a toy store so we popped in and I was in love with all the Pippi Longstocking items.  I loved her growing up and it was so fun to see that she is still relevant.  The girls had a blast running around the toy store and checking out all the Norwegian toys.  I tried to find a cute book but none of them were in English so I had to pass on that opportunity.  Once we were done in the toy store we walked through their "Food Festival" they were having but the only offerings were Indian and Asian and as much as I love those foods they weren't native Norwegian so we passed and decided to just eat on the boat.  I'm so sad because I really wanted to indulge is some food from Norway.

Beautiful views from our boat.

Rooftop pool (that was freezing) and jumbo movie screen.

We met my dad for dinner and Ellie was still all sorts of tired...so she did this for dinner.  It reminded me of the stories my mom told me from my first trip to Europe when I was in Kindergarten that I never made it to dinner and always fell asleep at the table before our food came! So I guess I can say Like Mother Like Daughter 😍

And that was the end of our first port day.  All in all I would say it was a fantastic start to our trip, and since we only chose to go on a 3 hour excursion it was perfect for helping us continue to adjust to the time difference.

♥ Ashley