22.06.2011 – 22.07.2011  24 °C

Later start today with both Bookie and Conductor, We spent the day wandering the streets of Oslo just checking out the town.

Started by wandering up towards the palace (yes Norway also has some sort of Royal Family) and then back down to the waterfront for a look around and an ice-cream!

Went back to the hotel and spent the afternoon organising our accommodation and train travel within Norway when we are finished our Svalbard trip. Its interesting organising for accommodation in the one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world! (This is because when we come back we are driving from Tromso to Kirkenes—both areas are well within the Arctic Circle—and are very sparsely populated) We had to accept the mentality of “if it’s available, well take it!” because there isn’t much accommodation out there!!!

After about 5hrs of planning we finally had worked out where, when and how and took back off for the waterfront and a well deserved cold beer. Down at the water front, there was a track set up and there was some sort of cross country roller blading come cross country skiing competition on! Cross country skiing must be a big thing in Norway because there were trailers setup with photos of the top skiers etc, similar to what we would have for a major swim meet or when the Quicksilver pro or something is on!! It must have been a big thing! And geez can the top cross country skiers MOVE! They can skate/ ski faster than the motor scooter can go! Those top skiers absolutely fly! It’s actually a pretty good spectator sport! Quite exhilarating!

Early night tonight because tomorrow we are off to Spitsbergen to see Polar Bears!!!