Luckily the weather forecast was right and it was nice and sunny this morning so we set off for our walk around the city. We started by walking up to the Parliament building which is actually quite modern looking but I think is possibly quite old. In front of the building is a grass park with a fountain very different to Westminster. We walked along Karl Johans gate which is the main pedestrian shopping area that links Parliament to the Central station. I am not sure if we were just early or if shops don’t open on a Sunday but the whole area was very quiet. From her we walked towards the University district past the July 22nd Centre. Although I remember the mass shooting where 77 young people had been killed on the island just outside Oslo, I don’t think I realised that there had also been a bomb planted near the government office of the prime minister where 8 people had been killed. There is a monument with the names of the dead on as well as the glass that was shattered during the explosion, in Oslo they used to put the days newspaper on public display so everyone can read it, the sonic blast from the explosion shattered the glass so as a memorial they have left that days newspaper and the glass on display. From here we walked round the University quarter until we got to the Historical Museum which had a Viking exhibition but unfortunately there wasn’t very much in it although there were a few artefacts we didn’t really learn much more about them than we had learnt yesterday at the Viking Ship Museum. After this we walked round to the Royal Palace. This is in a fantastic location on top of the hill overlooking the town. We watched the changing of the guard although it was rather low key compared to Buckingham Palace. We walked round the gardens then back down to the waterfront where the Nobel Peace Centre is. This is in quite an impressive building but all the displays are just i-pad photos of recipients with either quotes or extracts from their speeches. We decided we wouldn’t bother going round so walked down he waterfront to Aker Brygg’s instead. This is the old warehouse area of the waterfront but the buildings have now been converted to apartments with restaurants underneath. As it is Sunday it was actually quite busy but we managed to find somewhere overlooking the bay to have lunch then went back to City Hall to have a look round. There were a couple of events going on today so most people going in and out were in traditional dress which made the whole place look very colourful. The Great Hall is where the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony is held, each of the walls in the main hall have been painted by Norwegian artists and represent key moments in history such as the occupation and the fight for welfare reforms. Unfortunately we couldn’t go upstairs to the Long Gallery where there are more reliefs but we may go back tomorrow morning before we leave for Bergen to see if we can go upstairs then. After having a good look round we went for a bit more of a walk then headed back to the hotel to relax before possibly going out tonight.
