The WriggleButts on Norway - OSLO

Soo.. We've been getting some questions about Norway in our blog and we thought we'd try to educate you all a bit. Oslo is the capital of Norway and as we live just about half an hour from the city centre we though we'd start out giving you a tour of the city.Compared to the capital cities most of you will be used to Oslo is a rather small and green city with a population of 550 000 persons. The total area is 454 square kilometers and of this 242 square kilometers are forest. We'll start our little tour from the Central Station. Oslo is also known as "Tigerstaden" or the Tiger City. This was originally a name used to describe Oslo as a dangarous and merciless city. It was first used in litterature by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson in the poem "Siste sang"(Translates to the last song) in 1870. Today it's a name with positive associations and this tiger statue and Bajas' buddy was placed outside the station in 2000.
Oslo is the oldest of the Scandinavian capitals, and its history goes back to 1000 years ago, when the first settlements were built at the inlet of the Oslo fjord.After the Great Fire that destroyed the city in 1624, the Danish King Christian IV, decided to rebuild the city in brick and stone, and named it Christiania. Three hundred years later, in 1925, the citizens decided to rename their city Oslo.

Above you see the Akershus Fortress. The building was commenced in 1299. King Christian IV had the castle modernised and converted into a Reneaissance castle and royal residence.

This statue is placed below the castle by the fjord in memory of the 158 who died when Scandinavian Star sank on its way from Oslo April 7th 1990. In this case it looks like the little boy have forgotten something very important - Coco. The Statue of Whippety - located close by.

Oslo City Hall.Stortinget - the Parliament.

The Parliament is guarded by two lions - and as you've allready discovered Bajas tend to befriend the large cats. Tee hee..

The view from the Parliament towards the Royal Palace.
Roxy and Lucky wondered why there is so little car traffic. This is a rather quiet street because most of it is just for walking. This part of it is, however, open for cars - but it's not usually a convenient route. Plus it's Easter and a Sunday so most people would be elsewhere.
Soo many dogs have walked along here - it's almost impossible to keep up with the humans if you want to smell it all!
The old university - Mom sang at a concert here last fall. It was actually part of the Chinese Culture Festival and her choir had two concerts with Inner Mongolia Guangdian Arts Ensemble. They sang traditional Norwegian folk songs and the Inner Mongolian choir sang their folk songs. The plan is for the Norwegian choir to go to China this fall.

The Royal Palace was built from 1824-1848. The royal family do not usually stay here but outside the city. If you're interested in them they have a website here. The Palace Park is a popular recreational area with small lakes, statues and green areas where you can have a picnic or something.

This is Haakon VII king of Norway from 1905-1957. Well. It's not him, really. It's a statue of him. But we hope you got that before we pointed it out. We might get into some more Norwegian history in the future. Either way he was our first king as an independent county.

We hope you learnt a thing or two and that you enjoyed our sillypix.

Kisses from the WriggleButts