Day 17

content/blog/day17.md

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+---
+title: 'Day 17: Lillehammer (via Hamar) to Oslo'
+date: 2022-09-10T20:19:45+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Our trip today
+
+{{< image src="/img/day17/map.png" width="300px" float="right" >}}
+
+Paul told me that during EuroBSD Conference in 2019 there was the 'main' hotel _Scandic Lillehammer_, which was also the conference venue, and
+then there was a secondary hotel for those on a somewhat lower budget, a few hundred meters due North, called _Birkebeineren_. Although the
+room here is pretty good, we did notice that there's a few highschool and/or sporting clubs who dropped their kids in this hotel. Kinds are
+annoying in general, but these kids were lollygagging and making noise until 2am in the morning and from 6am in the morning. We are treated
+to lots of screaming and yelling and overal teenage dumb-assery. Somehow I sleep reasonably well, not quite sure if Paul feels the same.
+
+Well, some nights are better than others, of course. But one thing really is good: we have a great breakfast in the hotel - it's kind of
+nice to have a few mornings in an AirBnB (more cozy atmosphere, less hassle), but it's also really nice to have a fully catered meal with
+boiled eggs, ham, brie, fresh fruit, and filterbrew coffee.
+
+After breakfast we take off, and the satnav says it's only 185km and 2hrs of driving, and the car still has plenty of charge. Underway, I
+notice that there's also a town called _Hamar_ which seems like the big-brother town of _Lillehammer_. We decide to make a small detour
+there, but after parking at the harbor and walking up to the main station (which is also not photogenic), we take a look at the local
+realestate here, and it's surprisingly affordable compared to _Zurich_. 
+
+{{< image src="/img/thumbnails/2022-09-10/IMG_7777.jpg" width="400px" float="right" >}}
+
+Then, 90 minutes later and on an E6 motorway where we're allowed to go a whopping 110km/h, we rock up to _Oslo_. The route here brings us
+over E18 which is a huge tunnel under the city (and under the waterline, too), and we pop out of the tunnel just along the Color Line docks
+at 11:41am. The _Color Magic_ is docked and ready to go, and it's clearly an "entertainment" ferry. We'll go check it out tomorrow, as
+we're not on this boat today, so we wave at it and continue to the hotel. The checkin is less smooth, we have to reception three times,
+the parking garage has a faulty parking meter, and they gave us a double room, not a twin. It's all quickly sorted, and the ladies at
+checkin are super friendly.
+
+{{< image src="/img/thumbnails/2022-09-10/IMG_5731.jpg" width="300px" float="right" >}}
+
+After the belabored hotel checkin, we go for some lunch. I had chosen our hotel to be in the old city center, just across _Aker Brygge_ and
+the _Akershus Festing_, so there's plenty of things to see and do here. Our lunch is at _Shufl_ and we treat ourselves to a small burger
+with fries. The bun of the hamburger is black, because they've infused the dough with squid ink. An interesting concept, we agree.
+
+After lunch we have decided that we're not interesting in walking the city. I do note that it's 13:48 and in about 12 minutes today's ferry
+will leave for _Kiel_, and we want to check it out. Seeing large ships like this manouvre through the harbor is kind of cool. So we walk
+over the _Strandholmen_, some waterside building project, and it turns out to be a twisty fjord-esque walk. We then bee-line it over the
+dock just to get stuck behind a cargo building with a closed fence. But, although we're 5 minutes late, so is the captain of the vessel
+(clearly not a Swiss captain!) so we manage to see it leave.  Then I have a "fantastic" Pim-idea&trade; as I see a bunch of scooters from
+Tier and Bolt. To Paul, that sounds like just the right amount of fun, and if we just hop on these guys and scoot over to the far side of
+the harbor, we can see the boat back out and leave the harbor.  Dope! 
+
+{{< image src="/img/thumbnails/2022-09-10/IMG_5735.jpg" width="500px" float="right" >}}
+
+Off we scoot, but scooting while navigating with a phone is not my fort&eacute;, so we see fields, dirt roads, some buildings and
+some more roads, until eventually a sign _Huk Strand_ presents itself. We scoot there as fast as these little 20km/h scooters will let us,
+to find that 5.2km and 25 minutes later, that the park is geofenced and scooters turn themselves off there. Parked the scooter, and ran
+to the beach, only to see the boat as a sub-pixel image waaaay out in the water. So here's a picture of the Royal Palace instead. ☝️☝️☝️
+
+{{< image src="/img/thumbnails/2022-09-10/IMG_7788.jpg" width="300px" float="right" >}}
+
+We're having a lot of fun on the scooters though. We gently manouvre them out of the geofence and hop back on, scoot over to the Royal
+Palace and gardens, and see a bunch of really nice views. The palace itself is grandiose, the gardens have a set of sculptures in them,
+designed by and made for kids. I really like _Munnben_ (the mouth with feet), and Paul prefers _Ansiktsløs mann_ (a guy without a face but
+with a sock puppet). 
+
+I really need to go to the bathroom at this point, and this is no longer a national park where trees are begging to be watered, so we scoot
+to our hotel. There, I notice that Google has an office **right across the street** so we should really check it out! It'd be nice to drink
+a bottled water _on the house_ but alas, the door doesn't accept my badge and on an internal website I read it's open Mon-Fri only, I don't
+want to bother them to be an office-tourist.
+
+{{< image src="/img/thumbnails/2022-09-10/IMG_5747.jpg" width="400px" float="right" >}}
+
+As we walk onto the city hall _Rådhusplass_, we see a street food and cultural exchange, but behind that still, we hear thumping music. As
+we walk up the hill to the _Kontraskjæret_ park, it turns out, it's Oslo Pride! We hang out with the community a little bit and listen to a
+speech (in Norwegian, we could only understand a few words), and some music by a guy called [Big Daddy Karsten](https://bigdaddykarsten.no/), 
+who crushes it. What we find particularly fun is to see the deaf mimes who are miming the rap and music in a most entertaining way. It was
+really fun to watch :)
+
+{{< image src="/img/thumbnails/2022-09-10/IMG_7798.jpg" width="300px" float="right" >}}
+
+From here, we walk up the hill to the old _Akershus Fortress_, which has a nice view of the marina below, an old courtyard (which, for once,
+we visit just 5min _before_ closing time rather than _after_ it's already locked up for the night), we see the fortress, its row of canons,
+some sculptures -- the one that most impresses me is called _Glory Glory with Crutches_, which is a one-legged woman carrying all sorts of
+bags on her back and shoulders, on two improvised crutches. Her face is non-discriminate (so it could have been any of us), but her burden
+is both physical and mental. Laura Ford did a fantastic job on this statue.
+
+On the way down from the fortress to street-level, I quickly grab a geocache in the fortress wall. It's good to try to keep up the tempo and
+get one each day (except when we're hiking), I've logged more geocaches this last two weeks than I have in the several months before. I
+should geocache more.
+
+{{< image src="/img/thumbnails/2022-09-10/IMG_5768.jpg" width="400px" float="right" >}}
+
+We return to the hotel and I continue our scouting for a Japanese place. I've been craving a nice Noodle-soup for a while now, and while
+Paul is happy eating Sushi (et al), and he claims he likes the _taste_ of noodle soup, he does not enjoy the _splatter_ of noodle soup. I
+have less hygienic requirements, and am in principle happy splattering noodle-juice everywhere. I find a place called _Japanese Dining Sato_
+and we (of course) scoot over there, why walk if you've already proven you can do that with a 28km _Besseggen_ hike?! And once we arrive,
+we're pretty sure this place is classy, because it's full of Japanese folks eating Nabeyaki and Sushi.
+
+I finally get to slurp my noodles!  And they are super tasty. As we decide what to eat 'for realz', we nom on some _Gyoza_, _Wakame_ and
+_Edamame_.  Paul orders himself a _Deluxe Sushi/Sashimi_ plate (which is very deluxe) and I order my craving: A _Sashimi Combo_ and a
+_Nikomi Udon_. This is among the best Udon I've ever had. Super tasty broth with lots of veggies, several different types of mushrooms, a
+scampi, thinly sliced beef, and (not too much a fan ..) squid rings. But, I nom it all, and it's delicious.
+
+We make our way to the hotel, pay the parking fee for the night, and sign off.
+
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_7777.jpg" caption="Our Color Line boat is docked, ready to go">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5725.jpg" caption="Bronze statue of a sunbathing lady in Oslo">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_7779.jpg" caption="Aker Brygge Clock Tower in Oslo">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5731.jpg" caption="Pim and Paul are scooting around on Bolt/Tier">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5735.jpg" caption="The Royal Palace in Oslo">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5743.jpg" caption="Munnben in the Royal Palace garden">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_7788.jpg" caption="Ansiktsløs mann in the Royal Palace garden">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_7789.jpg" caption="Pim and Paul celebrating pride under Roggbif">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5745.jpg" caption="Pim spots a familiar office in Oslo">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5747.jpg" caption="Oslo Pride is in full effect, it's super fun">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5754.jpg" caption="Oslo Pride folks having fun at a concert">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5756.jpg" caption="The courtyard of Akershus fortress">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5751.jpg" caption="A panorama of Pipervika, the sailingboat marina in Oslo">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5759.jpg" caption="A canon at Akershus fortress">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_7798.jpg" caption="Glory Glory with Crutches, statue in the yard of Akershus fortress">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5763.jpg" caption="Nobel Peace House in Oslo">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_7801.jpg" caption="Street art in Oslo">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5766.jpg" caption="Sashimi at Japanese Dining Sato">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5768.jpg" caption="Nikomi Udon at Japanese Dining Sato">}}
+    {{< gallery-photo fn="2022-09-10/IMG_5770.jpg" caption="Paul enjoys a Sundae Plain at McD's">}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}