An Hour Around Olso

On Niall Litchfield's recommendation, I had a quick look around the centre of Oslo this afternoon after arriving at the hotel around 3pm. Oslo's at the top of a large fjord and like Tallinn, it's got a busy port and docks and a bit of an old town, mainly centred around the Akershus fortress, the Royal Palace and around the University.

After walking down Karl Johans Gate from the central station to the Royal Palace, I took a walk down to the waterside and then across to the fortress. A bit like the area around the Gediminas Tower and the Arsenal in Vilnius, within a couple of blocks it was very quiet and almost like you weren't in the city at all, although I took a wrong turning shortly afterwards and ended up wandering around the docks, which isn't usually a wise idea when you're walking around with a large map and a large backpack containing your passport and a laptop. Still, I got a fair bit in within an hour or so, if I had a bit more time it'd be nice to take the metro out of the city centre as I think that's where the real sights are. More on flickr.

Of course Norway is a country that's a particular favourite of ours over in the UK. Every year since the war, the Norwegian government sends a Christmas Tree over to the UK as a sign of friendship, and we've all heard of stories such as the Heroes of Telemark and watched Norwegian footballers such as Henning Berg, Espen Baardsen, Steffen Iversen, Ronny Johnson, Tore Andre Flo and John Arne Riise over in the Premiership. And of course they've stayed resolutely outside the EU, which one or two people in the UK wish we'd done as well...

If you're a football fan though, and you watched England during the 1980's, probably the thing you'll most remember about Norway though is this commentator - "Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana, Maggie Thatcher ... can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher .. your boys took one hell of a beating." Superb.