Baltic cruise: Oslo

Our final port of call was Oslo in Norway.

The port of Oslo is reached by travelling up some 60 miles of the narrow Oslofjord. Of course the ship has to slow down as it passes through the narrow channel, giving everyone on deck a stunning view. Here are my photographs of the approach to Oslo.

First we were met by a pilot boat to help guide along the fjord. The pilot boat drew up along one side of our ship then suddenly U-turned and crossed the water directly behind us, in our churning wake, before drawing up on the other side of us. I presume the captain of the boat knew what he was doing, but I wouldn’t fancy crossing only metres behind a huge ship with 20 megawatts of power!

Passengers stand on our ship and watch both sides of the fjord pass by.

It really is a strange experience, standing at the top of the front of a 90,000 tonne ship, gliding silently through a narrow fjord. Fortunately the cocktail waitress was waiting at the ready (at 9:30am).

We were treated to another day of fine weather. You can see from this photo how bright the sun is, and how little the wind is disturbing the Norwegian flag that was flown with pride on the Jewel.

And finally, the port was in sight.

Right beside the dock stands the Akershus Fortress. Once the ship was in dock, it was too close to get a good view of the fortress, but luckily I took this shot minutes before the ship docked.

Once docked, the first attraction we visited was the Akershus Fortress – a leisurely twenty paces from the ship’s gangway. Here are some of the family at the top of fortress, inspecting the ship.

The fortress also afforded nice views of the sailing boats tied up in the dock.

I saw an unusual sculpture a bit further into the town. When viewed straight on, it appears to be a standard sculpture of a face. It’s not until you see it from the side that you realise it’s carved into the stone, in a concave shape.

Perhaps not very typically Norwegian – we saw a huge bronze tiger which bit Oliver!

We went to see Oslo Cathedral but unfortunately it was closed for refurbishment. If you compare my photo with the one on the Wikipedia page, you can see how clean and shiny the spire is now – so they must be doing a good job.

The pedestrian crossing lights in Oslo have two red men and one green man. I couldn’t work out the purpose of the second red man, as you never see one without the other – only both at the same time.

The Oslo City Hall is a bit of an ugly building, and it also has too many architectural styles crammed into one build. It has brown brick, grey stone, classical carvings, modern carvings and a rather unusual carillon on the top.

This is a photo of one of the more modern carvings on the side of the building.

As the afternoon wore on we returned to the ship, but not before I’d taken some photos of the sailing boats in the dock.

We were due to sail out of Oslo at 8pm (before it was dark). However, one of the lifeboats failed a routine safety check so the ship was unable to set sail until it had been repaired. It grew darker, and I went up on deck with my tripod and took some night shots of the cityscape.