So Mel is currently working in the Dorf (Dusseldorf) for a few weeks and she thought it would be a good idea to meet up for a weekend in Berlin. Impressively the four of us (Mel, Jen, James and I) were able to organise something quick smart. I’ve always loved German cities for some reason and Berlin was definitely no exception. Our weekend in Berlin can be split up into to aspects – the touristy sight-seeing aspect and the partying aspect – both equally good for their own reasons. Photos are here.

When?	2nd weekend Jan 2007
Why Go?	Amazing history (see the wall before it is totally brought down) and fun bars/clubs.
Transportation	EasyJet
Weather	Cool, grey at first fine by Sunday
Hints	Check out Helter Skelter Hostels – but go for their apartments. Our accommodation was fabulous and a great find by Mel. For only 50 euro each for two nights we were able to get a giant apartment which sleeps up to six people. A gigantic kitchen, a nice balcony, a bathroom with both a shower and triangle bath tub, space galore and even an exercise bike – it was definitely a bargain. Perfectually situated for the social life as well.

The Experience

The best way to learn about and see Berlin at a quick glance is to take one of the numerous walking tours on offer. They normally take just over four hours (or you can do the all day one if you’re really keen) and you will cover a lot of ground but more importantly you will hear the history that makes it infinitely more interesting. The things we covered included:

– A visit to Museum Island.
– Standing in Babelplatz which is a public square bounded by the State Opera building, Humboldt University (where Einstein once taught), and St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, Berlin’s oldest Roman Catholic church. The square is best known as the site of the book burning (around 20,000 books) ceremony held on May 10, 1933 by members of the S.A. and Nazi youth groups.
– Passing through Checkpoint Charlie.
– Standing on either side of where the wall used to be and visiting the remains of the wall.
– Standing above Hitler’s bunker including sighting where his body was supposedly brought up to the surface.
– Standing in front Hitler’s headquarters which ironically is now a Chinese Restaurant.
-Strolling under the Brandenburg Gate but noting that where this was previously called the Death Strip is now where the Love Parade is held annually.
– The holocaust memorial was pretty special too.
– And my favourite, paying a visit to the Reichstag Parliament. A beautiful glass building with nice views over Berlin.

We missed out on doing some of the more touristy things including visiting the Pergamom and the Zoo but I think we had a pretty good summary of some of Berlin’s history in our walk above.

To balance out the sight-seeing we ended up going on a pub crawl. The pub crawl promises to take you where the locals go and with free shots, including free pouring into our mouths out on the street, it turned out to be a very fun night. I think we hit four bars – each distinct and interesting for their own reasons including the final bar which was actually spread across about 5 floors including an open air level. Actually, here is video of Mel dancing her way down some stairs:

After the pub crawl we ended up in some random night club where they were playing really good music until about 3 in the morning. Then it got dodgy. We met some really nice guys on the crawl too including the beautiful Lake North – can you believe that name?!, the fun restaurant manager Drew and the crazy Irish man Ronan. All really nice guys and surprisingly keen for a dance!

Definitely had a great time in Berlin although I think it will take me some time to recover from basically sleeping only eight hours over three nights! But check this out – the young ones where the ones who quit the night first! 🙂

The cathedral and TV tower	Babelplatz	The one without the Gate cut off
The boys and us	The shot we may regret	Leaving our mark in Berlin

I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s Eve so this year I thought it would be good to get out there and do something different. For 2007 this meant going skiing. We chose Åre, Sweden which is north east of Stockholm and practically on the Sweden/Norway border. There is something just magical about being at a ski resort and this week turned out to be the perfect way to introduce the new year.

Photos are here.

The Experience

We flew into Ostersund airport not really knowing where that was. Åre is actually supposed to be Sweden’s number one ski resort and usually has really good snow records – so much so that they are holding the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in just over a month’s time here. The lake, eventually frozen by the end of the week, made a superb background but the temps will have to get much colder before I would feel safe using it as a car park as they plan to do for the Championships.

As New Year’s Eve grew closer I started to worry that we wouldn’t have any snow to ski on with Europe experiencing what must have been the mildest temps over this period in a long while. Luckily on New Year’s Eve my wish was granted and on New Year’s Day we woke up to a magnificent snow covered Åre (great for snowball fights and building scary looking snowmen!).

“Sweeping mountains, pine clad forests and colourful homesteads” as described by the brochure is exactly how Åre turned out to be – pretty picture perfect for our skiing. The only downside being that the resort actually consists of three bases (Åre, Årebjornen and Duved) so you need to travel if you want to visit all of them. And although there is a free bus service proved to be a pain to get around on it due to the lack of more regular services and so many skiers/snowboarders. Of the three areas you definitely want to stay in Åre if you want some action, Årebjornen is more for families whereas Duved is extremely remote (but just the thing if you want a peaceful holiday.)

We stayed in the Årefjallby Apartments which is located right next to the Olympia chair lift where much of the World Champs action will occur. Unfortunately as beginners we ended up on another slope and not at the one conveniently located next to us. The apartments were extremely comfortable and well fitted out.

New Year’s Eve

Åre is definitely a beautiful destination but perhaps arriving on New Year’s Eve without pre-booking any tickets to the two or was it three night clubs in the Årea was a bit of a mistake. Luckily for us it didn’t turn out so bad with everyone piling into Åre Square anyway to welcome in the New Year. I think the average age of the square though was about 17! The scariest thing was the fireworks going off all over the place including in the crowd. There’s always one or two idiots!

Here is some video of the fireworks:

The Skiing

The skiing fantastic. Jules and Sandra had never skied before and although Steve and I had been before it wasn’t for very long and was many seasons ago so re-learning was a lot of fun and I definitely had more confidence coming down the slopes this time than I did before. The most frightening aspect was trying not to fall off the t-bars. What a nightmare but it was amazing once you got to the top of a mountain. Views were breathtaking. As usual the ski boots absolutely killed my gigantic calves but once I started skiing with them unbuckled it made it a lot more comfortable.

The ski days are fairly short which actually turned out to be just the right amount of time to get in a decent amount of skiing yet not leave you dying by the end of the day. There was night skiing available on some slopes but unfortunately not on any of the beginner ones.

Apres-skiing

All three resorts are reported to give great non-ski winter activities but much of this is dependent on the weather. We were most disappointed not to be able to go snowmobiling though Sandra and I chose to forgo a day of skiing to spend an afternoon with the sweet Alaskan huskies. They weren’t what we expected them to look like but they were very sweet, worked really hard to pull us around and full of energy (they were funniest when they were going to the bathroom while they were running!). This has to be seen to be believed – watch out for the dog on the left at the back:

We also spent an evening at Tannforsen which was supposed to be Europe’s largest frozen waterfall. I’m sure it would have been magnificent if only it could have been cold enough to freeze.

Åre’s nickname is little Stockholm – a relaxed atmosphere, stylish with a funky edge. During the week its fairly laid back but visit any of the hot spots, in particular the Broken Bar, just after the ski day has finished and you would be hard pressed to find a seat/table to relax at. It made for a good atmosphere though. Oh, also, a visit to Sauna World at the Holiday Club is a must. Not only are there 6 or 7 different saunas to try, you also get the ice plunge pool and ice room, an indoor slide and a huge pool with jacuzzis, water massages, and a wave pool. It was definitely the way to end our week in Åre.

This must be, ummm, my fifth time visiting New York and somehow I’m still as enchanted by it as I was on my first visit way back in early 2003. I thought I would have run out of things to do/see/smell/eat etc. by now but the more you scratch under the surface of New York, or Manhattan in particular, the more you find underneath.

After the disaster that was my flight out of Heathrow the rest of my holiday turned out pretty well. I was hoping for a white Christmas but wasn’t expecting too much considering that winter has been very late coming to England and in fact I wouldn’t even say it has arrived yet! This could only translate to a relatively mild week of weather in New York which is exactly what we got. For the most part I was able to walk around in just a jumper with there being really only one day when a coat was needed and even then that was only because we were up 70 floors (or something like that), outside and it was after dusk!

My first couple of days was spent catching up with the family and doing a bit of shopping to replace my temporarily missing luggage. On Christmas Eve everyone kept saying how my grandma was so happy to see all the grand kids, except one, together. She really couldn’t stop smiling. So we had a nice night and if I couldn’t be with my dad, mum and Stephen it was definitely the next best thing. Oh and the spread of food … incredible.

The rest of the time Pat and I took in some sights around Manhattan. To our surprise we were able to find new things to do like:

• The newly opened Top of the Rock. A new alternative to the Empire State Building which gives you sweeping views from the top of the Rockefeller Center (see how that works). It was fabulous and we timed it so we could see the sun setting through to night. Breathtaking both for the temperature (bloody cold!) and the views (just beautiful.)

• From the top to the bottom we ventured down to the Rock Center Cafe to try what is touted as the best French Toast in Manhattan. It was in effect a wine soaked brioche and whilst tasty after the first slice it was almost a bit too much to finish. You definitely need a side of bacon to temper the sweetness of the dish. The cafe is also one of the more comfortable spots to view the annual winter ice skating rink.

• For the first time ever we braved the TKTS booth which is where the tourists flock to get discount tickets to Broadway shows. The line actually does move relatively quickly and the man that constantly berates you to move up is vastly entertaining. Unfortunately tickets to good shows are very rare and I ended up getting Pat and I tickets to Slava’s Snow Show. What a mistake. I don’t think I could even give this a rating and if I did it would be something like negative infinity. It was that bad. Have I mentioned I dislike clowns? Well, imagine a show full of clowns just doing stupid meaningless things on stage. The best bit was the end when these balls, gigantic balls, were flung into the audience to bat back and forth. Even that was fairly pointless.

• We also indulged in some mega-touristy things like eating at Bubba Gumps with their literal popcorn shrimp, visiting M&M world at Times Square, and dropping into the new Nintendo Shop at Rockefeller Center.

Finally there was the shopping. If you think pre-Christmas shopping then post-Christmas shopping is a whole new world. Macy’s was utter madness to but surprisingly the old favourite for discount clothing, 21st Century, was very quiet at 8am on Boxing Day. Thank goodness.

So many many more photos here.

Finally at the last breath my luggage has turned up. Ironically Pat, who left London two or is it three days even, arrived before my luggage did!

Merry Christmas!

Not only have I arrived in New York a whole day late, TAP have now gone and lost my luggage! The TAP staff at the Newark airport were disappointingly unhelpful so who knows when my luggage will turn up. Thanks to my relatives though for being so patient and still re-arranging themselves to pick me up from the airport.

So hopefully in a couple of hours time we will finally be continuing our journey to New York. I guess I should be grateful that we were able to escape Heathrow and the fog yesterday but it hasn’t certainly hasn’t come without trauma.

I knew when I arrived at Heathrow that maybe we’d have a bit of delay and that the terminal might get a bit crowded but in the end I’d make my connection in Lisbon to Newark. It wasn’t to be with our London to Lisbon flight first officially being delayed for 3 hours, then extended to 4 hours and then extended to 6 hours as we sat on the tarmac on the plane for nearly 2 hours! It was really wierd because everyone was acting like we were in the air with beverages and food being served on the plane but we hadn’t actually taken off. As a result of all this there was no way I would make my connection. I wasn’t worried as TAP staff in Heathrow assured me that the Lisbon TAP staff would help me out …

Unfortunately I was once again let down. No TAP staff were in Lisbon to meet us and in fact none turned up until about 2 hours of us chasing and hassling other Lisbon airport staff to get someone to help us. Finally we got booked on to the next flight to Newark which was sadly today and not yesterday. I guess the only consolation was that I met some super and fun people: Ian (who we affectionally call Kiefer for his resemblance to Mr Sutherland), Kid and Hemi. We spent an uncomfortable night sleeping in the airport – entertained by this cleaning lady who kept zooming by on her zamboni style floor cleaner. We must have been quite amusing to her because she literally drove back and forth past us ALL night.

Outside Lisbon Airport	As the name says – the Cockpit Bar	Passing time
	The Morning After

So someone, ahem I guess that would be me, had the bright idea of going back to Euro Disney after only visiting it about 4 months ago. Well, I guess we did have annual passes and we did find cheap Eurostart tickets and most importantly we still had to add Donald Duck to our collection of character photos. All good reasons to go right? 🙂 Plus by going this weekend we caught the end of the Halloween celebrations at Euro Disney, Bonfire Night (don’t ask me why the French are celebrating this English Anniversary) and the start of the Christmas celebrations.

Having said that, there is only so much you can do in Euro Disney before doing it to death (I think we have now reached that stage) so we also spent a whole day in Paris.

Photos are here.

You are probably thinking what else could we actually do in Disney that we hadn’t done before? Well, we saw a couple of new parades (Villain Parade and Christmas Parade), admired all the Pumpkin Men that were dotted around the park, chased down a couple of characters that we didn’t catch last time, designed our own roller-coaster and rode this roller-coaster (located at Walt Disney Studios this “ride” was a bit of an anti-climax because a simulator can only go so far so although you get a lot of jolting etc. that you get from a roller-coaster you don’t really get the sense of speed/rush), did some ice-skating (fun and great atmosphere but its fair to say that my skills in the ice-skating department are fairly non-existent!) and of course caught the fireworks and action from Bonfire Night. The actual bonfire was disappointing because although it looked gigantic I’m fairly sure it was a fake fire as it started quite quickly and then seemed to just be turned off! Plus the wood didn’t appear burnt at all. Ah well – the fireworks were fun.

Plus in the middle of that we made sure to ride our favourite rides (Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Aerosmith Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaste), oh, just a few times.

To break up our long weekend at Euro Disney we went in to Paris (only a 45-50 minute easy train ride) on the Sunday. This turned out to be the perfect day to go because on the first Sunday of every month entry into most museums etc. is free! Not only did that make it a relatively cheap day out in Paris it also seemed to make the crowds flow that bit quicker through the entrances (because you didn’t have to stop and pay and get processed).

The last time I was in Paris it was almost a “look but don’t touch” type of approach to visiting a city because it felt like Lana and I did visit all the major sights but didn’t actually go into any of them! So this time around I was determined to make it into a few museums.

Here is what we saw:

Thing	My Comments	Sandra’s Comments
The Louvre	There is a lot said about The Louvre and I guess if its your kind of thing you would absolutely love it because it is GIGANTIC and you could spend days literally lost in it. And lost we were quite a few times! Except for the Mona Lisa I wasn’t really sure what were the real highlights so armed with the guidebook I planned for us to see a few of the major items including the Mona Lisa (not sure what the hype is there) and a few sculptures including Venus de Milo and the Marly Horses. Oh poor Sandra. The quest to find the darn Horses was nearly impossible. The Louvre was like this giant maze and even though we had maps aplenty we could just not figure out where we were! We were in the Louvre for what seemed like hours.	The exit is the best feature of the Louvre.
Arc de Triomphe	Great views down the Champs-Elysees and its surrounds for as far as the fog would allow. This was a good alternative to climbing the Eiffel Tower which due to the foggy conditions probably would have been a waste of time.	Definitely liked it. Worth climbing the stairs for.
Musee de l’Orangerie	An interesting oval shaped room plays host to Monet’s water lily series. The rest of the museum includes works by Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse and even a few early Picassos. The water lily series was pretty but this type of art isn’t really to my taste.	My favourite of the day.
Sainte-Chappell	Its no wonder this church has been hailed as one of the greatest architectural masterpiece in the Western World. I could have stood in the upper chapel all day gazing at the stained-glass windows rising 15 metres to the roof. Truly gorgeous but hugely overcrowded – if you want to enjoy the peace of the church try and get there first thing before crowds build up.	Concerned by how much glass there is to clean but quite beautiful.
Conciergerie	We stumbled into this attraction only because it was next door to Sainte Chappele and it was free. I think it was supposed to be a fortress or a prison or something. The room of guards (69m long and 27m wide with its four large fireplaces each large enough to roast an entire ox) was pretty stunning. I think its most known for having Marie Antoinette as a prisoner with her cell now a memorial to her.	Still trying to understand what it was.
A Boat Tour	So the River Seine should make for a beautiful and interesting boat tour right? Wrong! This was the most boring tour I’ve ever taken – who knew there was so much meaning in the bridges crossing over the Seine. Before each and EVERY bridge our tour guide would start with a huge introduction “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” so you’d get excited and think there was something cool to see but no, it was just another bridge. I believe I even fell asleep at one stage.	This is the tour for people who like bridges.
Centre Pompidou	Definitely my favourite museum of the day the Centre Pompidou is cool before you even enter as its like a building turned inside out with the lifts, air and water ducts, and the building’s skeleton on the outside. The gallery on the inside was very cool because even though sometimes you had to wonder what on earth the artists was trying to say the pieces were all challenging and interesting to look at even if you didn’t fully understand.	The giant Pompidou – what is the meaning of it? But I liked the gigantic lips in the pond.

So normally my travel reports are all about the things to do/experience in the place that I’m visiting but the trip to Dublin didn’t really turn out like that at all. Dublin will not be memorable for its sights and attractions (which for such a popular and international city seemed surprisingly boring) but for the fab time I had with Sandra, Sir Jules and Fatkins and especially for the movie Rollerball (the original mind you – not the dodgy remake.) Eh? Well, I guess its not an association most people immediately make when you mention Dublin but I think in my mind the movie will now forever be associated with this party town. Guess you had to be there!

When?	Oct/Nov 2006
Why Go?	The craic cause that’s all there is to Dublin! Okay maybe that’s not all to Dublin but it is definitely known more for the party atmosphere than its culture.
Transportation	Aer Lingus
Weather	Nice enough in Dublin, awful on the West Coast (Galway Bay)
Hints	If there are more than two of you consider self-contained apartments as they are cheaper and give you loads of space (and if you bring Sandra along lets you have a nice “home” cooked hot English breakfast. Thanks Sandra!) The penthouse apartments in Oliver St John Gogarty’s are great with the only drawback (though you could consider it a plus) being their location in the Temple Bar area. I don’t know about the attached restaurant or bar though as we never went in as it was ALWAYS heaving – no matter what time of day!
	Get to the pubs early if you want a seat or space because they get crowded very quickly and very early on in the day!

Photos are here.

The Experience

As you probably gathered from above I was not super impressed with Dublin’s attractions. Sandra and I were actually in Dublin to take up our usual roles as Marathon Groupies to support Sir Jules and Fatkins running. We probably didn’t plan it the best as the marathon was on the Monday and we arrived in Dublin on the Friday before the marathon and left the Tuesday after. This meant the boys couldn’t really indulge in the days prior to the marathon. Though having said that it was probably better for everyone, from an overall health perspective, that we only really had one serious drinking session the whole long weekend!

So there are plenty of guide books on Dublin and they all seem to highlight the usual suspects – a castle, the zoo, the parks, museums. Fairly stock standard stuff really with, to me, nothing too outstanding. These are some of the highlights (not in any particular order):

• Trinity College. This is Ireland’s most famous university and known best for the Dublin’s biggest attraction – the Book of Kells. The college grounds were absolutely beautiful and is definitely a nice escape from the otherwise industrial feel of the City.

• The Book of Kells. I’ve included this as a highlight but only because I’m impressed by the amount of money the university must make from this attraction! The Book of Kells is actually two rooms in which various pages from the very old manuscript are gigantified (my words) and illuminated so you can admire the gorgeous calligraphy. You’re entrance fee also allows you to venture into the Long Room in the Old Library. Aptly named for its 65m length the Long Room hosts over 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books. Its actually impressive to see but it is definitely look but don’t touch in this library. The Book of Kells must be a great money maker because we were in and out of there in not much time at all so you can imagine the turnover from the many people who go to see “Dublin’s biggest attraction”. If old style calligraphy is your thing (it really is beautiful) then definitely visit the Book of Kells, if not, well I don’t think you miss too much by not going.

• Guinness Storehouse. This is a definite stop for lovers of Guinness. The Storehouse makes the most use of multimedia as it brings the story behind the black stuff to visitors. It was all very slick and sophisticated really and with a number of floors to work through you really build up anticipation of entering the rooftoop Gravity Bar where you not only get a free pint but an amazing view of Dublin. I must make note here that Sandra must have been super thirsty as she finished her pint when the boys weren’t even halfway through theirs!

• Watching Rollerball. This is definitely a classic movie and whilst strictly you could watch this anywhere for us it definitely provided fodder for the rest of the weekend.

We also managed to slip away on a day trip to the west coast of Ireland. I did actually have hopes that our tour would take us over to the Aran Islands for some dramatic cliffs and whatever else you find on islands but unfortunately circumstances (namely a dodgy train and dodgy weather) conspired against us and we ended up mainly sitting on trains/buses all day! Still we did get to see a bit of Galway Bay and, I think it was, the Connemara region with an abbey, garden, gothic church, donkeys and the dramatic stone walls the area is known for. Our tour guide was also quite funny though half the time we were laughing at him laughing at his own jokes rather than the jokes themselves!

Marathon day was a pretty good day with both boys doing well to finish the marathon, Sir Jules in particular achieving a personal best, and us doing well to finally spot the lads at the 26 mile mark. Commiserations to Mark who unfortunately came down with food poisoning and therefore missed out on running the race. Post-race became all about drinking and eating. We even made it to the actual Temple Bar to enjoy some Irish music. Not surprisingly we ran into a lot of marathon runners all over the place.

Overall I had a great time in Dublin but its probably not a city that I would put on my must visit again list except maybe as a rest stop on a trip around Ireland.

As Dublin was not the most exciting of place for photos I started to look for some themes in the photos I was taking. The following are a few of the themes that cropped up:

	The Names
	The Silly Shots
	The Sleepers

Geneva is probably the only city I’ve ever visited where absolutely no one was begging for money, even when I dragged Pat around to check out the very intriguing public housing. Thats not to say that is all Geneva is memorable for but it certainly stood out as something unique.

As a city Geneva is great for a weekend, however, it is also a great base for visits to the Swiss or French Alps – not that we had much time for that this weekend unfortunately (though we did find time to hop across the French border to visit Mont Saleve)! I think what I liked most about Geneva was its walkability with most sights within walking’s distance of each other and if you are feeling just a bit lazy you can easily hop on one of the convenient and efficient trams.

Photos are here.

The Experience

We, or I, crammed a lot of our sight seeing into our Saturday visiting most of the major sights as below. To do this we did a LOT of walking but it was such amazing weather that the walking was extremely pleasant. In between we had a few food stops including indulging in some Swiss specialities (raclette and Filets de perch) at a restaurant where Bill Clinton ate (the plaque said so anyway!) and eating a lot of yummy ice-cream. Mmmm.

We also found ourselves mucking around on few kiddie play areas as Geneva has some pretty cool things on their playgrounds. (DISCLAIMER: No children were harmed in the making of this holiday.)

Some things worth doing:

• Visiting the Cathedral De Saint Pierre. The cathedral itself is beautiful but the most interesting aspect is the climb up to the North Tower which gives you access to sweeping views across the city. There was also apparently an archaelogical site for those who are interested in such things.

• The Old Town.

• A walking tour that takes you past key sites such as the Jet d’Eau, the Flower Clock (I’m sure much more impressive in spring) in the Jardin Anglais, Monument de la Reformation (91 meters long it represents the four Genevese reformers. Just around the corner are the giant chess, checker and other board games), Town Hall (where the first Geneva Covention was signed), and the Promenade de la Treille where you can see the longest wooden bench in the world.

• International Red Cross Museum. The museum highlights the origins of the Red Cross and is always recommended by the guide books. For me it was rather bleak and sombre but gives an understanding of all that the Red Cross has done for humanity.

• Jardin Botanique (Botanic Gardens) has lots to offer including deer, farm animals, an aviary and lots of, well, gardens. A nice place to spend some lazy time.

• Tour of the United Nations. If you haven’t done the tour in the New York UN building you can do one here but a visit will require careful planning as tour times are limited and finish relatively early.

As we pretty much covered everything we wanted to on the Saturday on Sunday we took a quick bus trip across the border to Mont Saleve in France (as an alternative to the longer day trip required for Mont Blanc). Mont Saleve is a limestone ridge not too far south of Geneva and though you do have to bring your passports with you for the border crossing in all honesty the guards didn’t seem to be too concerned as they must see a lot of tourists going back and forth. There is a small walk from the bus stop to the cable-car but it is well signed so you won’t get lost. Actually we had a friendly local guy chatting with us on the way there. I felt a bit lazy after finding out that whilst we would be taking a 6 minute cable-car ride to the top he would be hiking up for about 3 hours to reach the same point! Once at the top you get great views over Geneva and there are a number of hiking trails you can do which will take you even higher. The weather was mild enough for us to do a hike which, though unexpected, was a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday.

Overall I found Geneva an extremely likable city and an easy one to do on a weekend (discounting the numerous day trips available that is.)

My brother was going to Oslo for a work conference so of course I jumped at the chance to go away for the weekend. Oslo is apparently the largest capital city in the world yet its city centre is compact enough to walk around. The reason it can call itself the largest city in the world is due to the Oslofjord which is this massive body of water that you cannot miss and around which a lot their tourism is centered.

The only research I’d had time for on Oslo was checking daily what the weather was going to be like so I had no idea what we were going to do over the weekend. I guess the extra time at the airport meant I could read all the guide books we had borrowed and rough up an itinerary. My brother had the luxury of an extra day or two before his conference started to do any wash up touristy things so it really was up to me to plan to cram in as much of the sights of Oslo as I could in my less than 48 hours there.

Photos are here.

The Experience

As with all the other Scandinavian countries Oslo has a reputation for being on the expensive side. You wouldn’t know it though with all the people eating out at the restaurants and their bars! However, there are ways for doing Oslo, if not on the cheap, at least on the cheaper. If you buy the Oslo Pass you won’t have to worry about transport or entry museum costs. Next to these costs you’ll spend most of your money on meals and, unless you really want to eat it up in Oslo, the best thing to do is make the most of your hotel breakfast, pick up some snacks to nibble on during the day and then have a nice meal in the evening.

Oslo is very beautiful but in particular around the bay, the developed areas along Karl Johans Gate and in their parks such as Vigeland Park. The weather was really kind to us and though we had come prepared for sub 10 degree temperatures we were pleasantly surprised with the relatively warm weather and strongly shining sun. It was simply amazing.

There is plenty to keep you occupied over a weekend but be aware that most shops are shut on Sunday and close early on Saturday so if you’ve come to Oslo to shop you’d probably want to either do your shopping in a hurry on Saturday morning (and they don’t open early either) or include a Friday or Monday and make it a long weekend.

Some sites that you may want to see include:

• Vigeland Sculpture Park and Vigeland Museum for the amazing life-size sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The park itself is also absolutely gorgeous.

• Visiting Bygdøy for the Norsk Folkemuseum (over 150 buildings in this open-air museum) and the Vikingskiphuset (where you can see two of the worl’s best-preserved Viking ships). On the island is also three other museums which you may want to drop into: Kon-Tiki Museet, Frammuseet, Norsk Sjøfartsmseum (Maritime Museum.) We went in only because we had the Oslo Pass but I’m not sure I’d otherwise pay to check them out. If you don’t have time to do a fjord cruise, the trip out to Bygdøy also gives you some time out on the water.

• A two-hour Fjord cruise around the maze of islands in the bay. The tour guide is very entertaining with her stories more about the trivia rather than about the mundane details of the bay.

• Akershus Fortress which is the site of a couple of museums and the Akershus Castle. Go there for nice walks and a great vantage point to see down to the bay and Aker Brygge. Great for watching the sun go down and its also the spot to catch the last of the sun’s rays.

• Its a relatively long way out but you must make your way to Holmenkollen – a ski recreation area and the site of Holmenkollen ski jump. The tower has been there since 1939 and has been steadily upgraded over the years. It has been upgraded so much that now the International Ski Federation has stated its too steep! So, this ski jump is on the way out with a plans for a new one to replace it. See it while you can but note that the walk up from the T-bane is not easy!

• For contemporary art lovers a visit to the Museet for Samtidkunst is a must. There were some very interesting exhibits but the most entertaining was The Rubbish Man – a room full of rubbish dedicated to the Man Who never Threw Anything Away. Its all catalogued and named. Even the lint from the couch has been catalogued and filed!

• Finally a visit to the newly opened Nobel Peace Center where you can literally experience and learn about the various Peace Prize Laureates and their activities as well as the remarkable history of Alfred Nobel. How this information is presented is pretty cool. Also, there will normally be some sort of exhibit in relation to war, peace and conflict resolution which can be an emotional journey depending on how much you invest. A striking exhibit was a photo essay on the children used in the wars around the world. Very moving.

Oslo is a great city to spend a weekend though I’m not sure how much the great weather contributed to my experience. Most people will probably find themselves spending a lot of their time around the bay, perhaps having a nice meal at Aker Brygge, or taking in some of the museums around town. Cafe sitting seemed to also be a very popular past time.