Day 25 (May 27) Oslo, Norway

The last port stop on any of our cruises begins the deflation of the energy associated with the entire cruise.  Oslo was no different.  We were in port slightly ahead of schedule around 9:30am and Ian Page provided scenic cruising commentary for the 2 1/2 hours time cruising up the Oslo fjord. We didn't attend the first half as our rest time was too short as it was.

The ship berths right downtown with the bow facing the City Hall and right across the street from the ancient fort.  We disembarked the ship and found our walking tour group which was organized by a CC member.  This was to be a 5  hour tour and we were underway by 10am.  Agnes, our tour leader, led us up the fort pathways and down the back side towards the Opera house and beside a replica of Noah's ark.  

The Opera house has a very unique design which makes it look like an iceberg plus it's possible to walk on the roof leading to some spectacular views.  From there we walked towards the downtown area by the National theatre to the City Hall (Rathaus) where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented.  On the second floor are some nice paintings of Norwegian royalty.

We then purchased tickets for the #12 tram which took us out by the American Embassy to the 80+ acre Vigeland Park which is home to the numerous nude sculptures designed by Gustav Vigeland.  While he didn't actually carve the sculptures, he designed them and created the models.  They are really quite well done.  We then took the #12 tram back to the waterfront area where our tour ended at 3pm.  We found an ATM to get some more Norwegian currency and ate a quick snack of pizza and Coke Zero at a 7/11 store before doing some wandering around the port area and the City Hall in search of magnet souvenirs.  We then wandered back to the ship did our 5:30 all aboard time.  I turned in the receipt to the taxing authority on board he ship for my jacket purchase and got the $12US tax back.  

Right on schedule, Captain Emil pulled out of the berth, did a 180° counterclockwise turn and we sailed out through the Oslo Fjord listening to Ian's scenic cruising commentary for about 45 minutes before eating dinner in the Lido and watching the fjord pass by.  There was some sort of sailboat race and if was neat to see the boats healed way over as they sailed back towards Oslo.  There was also a scenic cannon emplacement to view that Ian gad alerted us to during the scenic cruising.  We caught the 8:30 performance of the cast show of Billboard Hits (a replay for us from the first two week cruise).  We tried to watch the poolside movie, Interstellar), but couldn't get into it so we returned to the room to read before lights out at midnight.