I'm like 99.9% sure this was our last day in Oslo. At least, I don't have any more pictures from Oslo after this, so unless I managed to take no pictures on our actual last day, then this would have been it. So this would have been August 2nd.
After our usual breakfast in the "water restaurant" as Mara refers to it still...
...Corky, Mara and I met up with my mom and went to visit the Oslo cathedral. This was a place Corky had wanted to visit. I wasn't really sure why at the time, as I've never known him to express an interest in churches. However, when we arrived there, I could see why he wanted to come!
First, we were greeted by this sight:
I had to laugh, as I've never seen pigeons stand
on a slanted ledge like this before. They looked funny
standing all crookedly. Silly birds.
And then we walked in (past a sign that said "Silence please," which made me sweat a little, knowing that my 2 year old is not terribly adept at being quiet. To be fair, though, she did great for the most part).
That balcony looking thing up there on the left is where
the Royal family sits when they attend church here.
There were tons of these stained glass windows. I
would've taken pictures of more, but it's hard to focus
on that when you have a kid to chase around.
At one point, Mara was sitting on one of the pews looking cute. I took this photo:
And then right after I took it, this woman approached Mara. I'm not sure where the woman was from because she wasn't speaking English but because we had to be so quiet in the cathedral, I couldn't really hear what language she was speaking (I think she may have been German or Swiss). She beckoned Mara over and handed her a coin to put in the box attached to the candelabra where you can light a candle for a loved one who has passed away. Mara dropped the coin in, the woman helped her choose a candle and showed her how to light it. I stood nervously by as my 2 year old lit a candle and placed it in the candle holder.
Photo credit: My mom.
After we left the cathedral, we went and got some souvenirs. I bought baby boy a little stuffed animal moose and Mara an I *heart* Norway purse, which she loved and carried around for the rest of the day.
My mom returned to the hotel to rest or something, but Corky and I were good to keep going. So we walked over to the opera house, which Corky and Mara had summited once but I never had. It is steep! So up we went, with Mara in the stroller. The sun was coming out and the views were great from up there!
Funny little side note: that thing in the water is this sculpture/statue
made of glass. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, but Mara
decided that it's Elsa's Ice Palace. Lol!
(Oh, while finding the pics from this day I just found another one that I forgot to share from the previous day. I'll insert it here:
This pic was taken while I was at a bakery with my dad the day before. My parents and my sister had come to this bakery on some previous day and my sister had been raving about their kanebolle, basically a cinnamon roll, and I really wanted to try one. So I had one for lunch. Anyone who has been reading my blog for long knows that this was insane and monumental. And yes, it was delicious.)
Anyway, back to the day of the opera house. Later that afternoon, we met up with my dad while my mom and sister were off at some museum. Down by the train station there was a ferris wheel and a carousel. My parents and sister had taken Mara there on the evening that they hung out with her so that Corky and I could go to dinner, and Mara had been asking to go back. It was windy and COLD, not that that seemed to bother Mara at all....
Perhaps one of the funniest memories from this part of the trip was this tiger statue. Mara was smitten with it and climbed on its tail, and then Corky decided he was going to climb onto its back. So he did, and asked me to take a photo. As I was walking to the front of the tiger, these people started posing for a picture in front of the tiger... with Corky on top of it! I laughed so hard about the idea of him inadvertently photobombing these people. Imagine, years from now, them going through their photo album and their great-great-grandkids or whoever being like, "Who the heck is that??" Hilarious!!
That evening, despite my sister not feeling the greatest, we went to an Asian restaurant on the pier. Mara played on the playground one last time and we got ice cream (without chocolate dust) from the kiosk. Even though it wasn't exactly warm out (maybe 60F), the ice cream melted fast and by the time we reached the place where the pier meets the land, it had melted all over Mara. Again, not that she minded.
The sun finally came out as we were walking back to the hotel, just in time to show us the beauty of Oslo in the summertime on our last night.
These last three photos were taken as we walked
through the Akershus Fortress on our way back to
the hotel. It was a beautiful (albeit chilly) evening to walk.
This one is from the overlook point.
Whew!!!!! We made it through Oslo!!!! Coming soon, Part 4 - Amsterdam (take 2).
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