oh no Oslo

The 'oh no' more about where Oslo fits into our trip than the city itself. For me Oslo means we're on our way home and as much as I am desperate to see my cherubs I am not looking forward to Sydney sun and summer at all. So i have to say a big thank you Oslo for the especially wonderful WendyWeather. I knew the moment I opened the curtains that today was going to be one last gift of the rainy, cold, misty, grey weather in which I feel alive and peaceful. If you think the pleasure I take in this weather is crazy, you are not on your Pat Malone. I'm told you could line up a hundred people and not find one single one who agrees with me. I don't mind, I know what I like and am happy to travel to the other side of the world as often as I can to find it. Oslo came up trumps for me today.

The view from the window this morning

Anyway let's go for a walk in wintery Oslo, first stop on our trail is Oslo Cathedral.

and right opposite some shopping

We past by the Parliament buildings pretty quickly because we could see markets.

Our last Christmas markets. Tony doesn't look convinced does he, but all entered eventually.

 MGM found a way to stay warm while watching the ice-skating.

Ice-skating in the park in the middle of the markets. Isn't this just so Christmassy, even to Aussies who are not born to cold Christmases.

 Seen along the way. Not sure who this arm akimbo statue with attitude is but I like his style.

We could see the Palace in the foggy distance

we walked up to it but they weren't giving tours, didn't matter the walk was worth it.

The park was very prettily winter, and I will share a few photos of our wintery walk.

and also some photos of bare trees because I love them.

 and of course I found the National Library

The collection is underground, so no booky shots but I know all librarians hearts will flutter, as mine did, at the sight of these old catalogue drawers.

To close our walking loop we passed by the harbour.

  

and then up that icy slope to Akershus Fortress, a medieval defensive castle 

We didn't go in today, there's a story on the blog about this fortress from last time we were in Oslo (2013). We were ready to head back by now, having covered 10km's on very cautious don't-fall-over-on-the-last-day feet. 

One last look back over our shoulders as we say farewell to the iTour. 

We have enjoyed ourselves immensely, revelled in experiences that we know we are lucky to have and feel blessed to be able to share this time with Tony the Intrepid and Wendy the Wonderful. Thanks to you too for coming along on the iTour with us and we'll see you soon in summery Sydney, 

kisses
W

travel day: so here's three things

and also the view from the window that I haven't showed you for the last few days ...

see? you weren't missing much ;) That's Reykjavík airport out there, we did fly out of Iceland today but not from this airport. I was extremely sorry to leave this interesting, and usual place and I'd like to think that we might come back one day, but there are just so many places to see in this great big beautiful world of ours.

We left our Iceland hotel in the dark of the morning, and arrived in Oslo in the dark of the afternoon. Consequently, I have no photos of any interest to show you so here is a 'three things' post ...

1. 

when did showers get so complicated? 

2. 

Place names were complicated too on the iTour, Madonna de Campiglio, Ballynahinch 

Borgarbyggo, Hallgrimskirkga, Mydicksafloppin, Isheetmypants ... I could go on.

3. 

It's good to step away from the screen and participate fully in the experience. So I'm glad I did not wrap my phone in plastic and take it into the Blue Lagoon (a lot of people did this). Although I guess not everyone is lucky enough to have Wendy B running outside in the freezing cold to take a picture of us in the water.

I have two words for you ... blue lagoon

The view from the car window this morning on the way to the Blue Lagoon

We had a much needed sleep in, well the Allans did the Bests were responsible and had breakfast. We then drove through some amazing old lava flow terrain. It really is like nothing I've ever seen before. You can really see where the lava flowed and then cooled.

Excitement!

Although slightly nervous, because I didn't know what to expect.

No need to be nervous though, it's so well organised and so easy! You enter at an allotted time, get robe/towel/thongs. Go into the change room for getting your cozzies on and then you just walk into the water from inside the next room, or you can go outside if you like it's just a short walk, but we chose to enter from inside and ... oh my goodness. 

heavenly

We had a glass of beer, for the boys, and bubbly for me, from the swim up bar and I had a mud mask from the swim up mud bar. The water was just the right temperature and I could have stayed in there all day. 

Such an amazing experience.

I have no words to fully express how amazing today was.

Iceland: adventure one day, unique experience the next.

 A view from a window half way through the day, because it's snowing out there.

Inge picked us up promptly at 9am for more adventuring, first stop was Banrafoss. Where we saw some of the thermal waters bubbling to the surface. It's so unusual as an Aussie, used to arid conditions and water conservation even if we're not in draught, to see the absolute abundance of water.

We went for a lovely little walk in the gently falling snow so view this pretty area.

scenery everywhere you look. scenery to.die.for

We did some more scary driving in blizzard conditions back to the glacier from yesterday. 

To this. 

A tunnel underneath the glacier (thanks for the photo Tony).

We ski-doo'd over it yesterday and this time we were going for a walk underneath the glacier through an ice tunnel. I'll admit to being a bit nervous about 'tunnel' and 'underneath' as I have a bit of a problem with claustrophobia but I did  a lot of stern self talking (and squeezed tightly on MGM's hand) and it.was.amazing! A bit like when we stayed in the Ice Hotel in Norway except this was not man-made, just man-drilled - took them 2 years. 

yikes, right?

here we go! At least it's warmer down here, -6° outside/0° inside.

got my crampons on - spikey shoes so i can walk on the ice.

we walked through compressed snow and then down into the actual frozen glacier.

our very knowledgeable guide gave us lots of info and an impromptu solo in the chapel to demonstrate the acoustics. 

We drove back to town and had an extremely delicious dinner in the basement of a local restaurant (because the rest of the place was booked solid) before retiring for a very very much needed sleep.

It was another amazing day in this land of amazing.