The Rest of the Story, Scandinavian Road Trip

Oslo Harbor

Leaving Copenhagen we headed to Gothenburg, Sweden spending two nights and doing a little bit of shopping and eating before we left for Oslo, Norway. An easy trip we followed major highways until reaching the capital city where a significant beautification project has most of the city center under construction. BUT despite that Oslo is a lovely city. The people spoke English well but were proud of being Norwegians, and quite friendly. At this time of the year, it is daylight almost all day so we never actually saw dark.

We discovered that a block from our hotel was the National Museum of Art which housed many famous paintings but its most iconic was “The Scream” by Edward Munch. The museum allowed photography, so like the leaning tower of Pisa, everyone had to stand beside it and imitate.

I moved on to the Norwegian Resistance Museum which was small but packed with many visuals and information to help understand how Norway fared during the Nazi occupation. Mike followed a short path away from the museum which led to an overlook of the bay. Our visit to this city was much too short and next time we will drive over to Bergen to enjoy a fjord cruise. The prices for this city were much more reasonable than in Copenhagen.

View of Norway from the ferry to Denmark

After an hour and a half drive, a four-hour ferry across the North Sea, and an hour and a half drive south we arrive at Aarhus, Denmark, one of the oldest cities in Denmark. It is a great city to visit which many attractions. My favorite was the Marselisborg Deer Park where two types of deer, Sika and Dådyr run freely and will eat carrots right out of your hand. We stopped on the way to our hotel with three apples and a bag of carrots. In fifteen minutes all of the food was gone. The next day we returned with two bags of carrots broken into small pieces. This allowed us to walk a lot further and see more of the park.

In the afternoon we traveled to Old Town, which is a park filled with old buildings that have been relocated to the area. In many are docents dressed in period costumes to help you understand life during that time period and shops and a nice café for lunch. This place could have been a full day’s trip.

Old Town Aarhus

Again, our American tendency to stay for only a little bit meant it was time to leave with much unseen BUT there are always future trips to be had!


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