We dressed in clothes appropriate for the 85 degree weather in Oslo but may have been a bit chilly in the Islandic morning air as we headed to the airport. The crowds in the airport meant long lines to drop off our bags but we made it to our gate where Mack and Sophia eventually met us just in time to board our flight.
The heat of Oslo made us miss Iceland as we made our way by train, with all our luggage to the hotel.
Mack and Sophia, having come straight from the US, took a bit of a nap while the rest of us explored the streets of Oslo. This pedestrian only street led up to the royal palace and offered all sorts of interesting places to stop for dinner.
Cheese filled hotdogs, Norwegian KitKat like candy bar (better than a KitKat), waffles, and smoothies, made for an excellent sample of street food and filled us up.
Mack and Sophia met us in time for the palace tour where we learned all sorts of interesting things about Norway and their royal family. With no air conditioning no wonder they don't live there in the summer.
The palace was completed in 1906 and is one of the smallest royal palaces in Europe. We couldn't take pictures but I loved the tour and guide. She offered just enough info to be interesting but not overwhelming and without knowing much about Norway I could follow along and learned a lot.
Such as:
- the Norwegian King is actually descended from Denmark. In 1905 when Sweden and Norway dissolved their union Norway offered the second son of the King of Denmark the throne of Norway.
-The current crown prince likes to serve hot dogs at midnight during parties. The tradition started at his wedding celebration.
-The plates used to serve in the dinning room mimic the motif on the ceiling.
-There are 43 birds in the bird room, an antichamber where people wait to see the king. (Andrew came up with the closest guess)
After the tour we sought solace in the shade of the park watching people until it was time to head to our dinner reservation.
Some last pics from around the palace. It was neat how the pedestrian street led right to the palace.
a random bridge on our journey.
Our Indian dinner was fabulous, except that Blake didn't like it. Sophia and Mack took off pretty quick so the rest of us explored the rest of Oslo.
Andrew and Emily ran up all the Opera House stairs; Greg hung back in the shade.
The harbor was fun to watch although Emily and I spent most of the time there cleaning melted chocolate out of Emmy's purse. I guess the last piece of the KvikkLunsj (KitKat) bar didn't like the heat any more than we did.
On our walk we enjoyed lively debates about church and politics with Andrew while we walked our feet sore.
Steps: 17,829
Interesting Facts: Norway is one of 12 European countries with a monarchy (if you count the Vatican).
Everyone enjoyed a rare sleep in. Greg spent his morning trying to figure out where the boat was parked and around 11:30 we all left the hotel in search of the boat. Unfortunately, Greg's first guess was wrong and we arrived very hot from carrying/pulling our bags. But from that spot we could see the boat so we course corrected and started walking again. By the time we found the boat everyone was dripping with sweat, exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and had nearly 10,000 steps already.
So ready to put our bags down and give them to the cruise employees!
Hoorah!!! We enjoyed our first buffet lunch and explored the boat while we waited for our bags and Natali.
Natali had a close call but made it onto the boat minutes after they closed the office check in location (I believe they would still check people on after that but we were glad she didn't have to go with the back up plan of meeting us in Copenhagen) and an hour before we set sail.
Thankful to be staying in the same place for 7 nights of sleep, we unpacked, played cards, and I even led Natali and Kate in our own yoga class before our dinner all together.
About this point Lily said she loved cruises and we should go on more of them (we will see if she still thinks that by the end). She was a little disappointed when the scheduled "Global Trivia for MSC kids" was for 11 and under but at least now we know she is considered a "teen".
After a lot of drama we were all able to get to the same place to play some cards before we caught our first of many nightly shows on the boat. The singing wasn't always fabulous but the acrobats were incredible in spite of the motion from the boat moving.
By the end of the show the motion was starting to get to us but we saw pub trivia on the agenda and couldn't pass it up. Natali and I paired up and were the only group to get the correct answer to "Who is on the British 10 pound note?" Jane Austen for the win! Okay not the overall win, but at least that answer. We all had a blast and vowed not to miss a trivia night. Little did we know that at least one question from our first night of trivia would be repeated every other night of trivia so it's good we went.
Steps: 12,366
Interesting Facts:
The song YMCA was released in 1978
"I'm the king of the world" is from the movie Titanic (My answer was Newsies. I knew it was wrong but it was the closest I could come up with. The host saw my answer and said she loved it so at least I got love for my wrong answer)
"I feel the need. The need for speed." is from Top Gun (not Cars which is "I am speed.")
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