Travel Journal Scandinavia 4 Sweden

Our train left Oslo at 7:32 am, so we were up early to have breakfast at the hotel and get to the train station. This train is run by the Swedish railroad and is a little different from the Norwegian trains we have been on. No assigned seats, but plenty of room. The seats recline strangely, but there are cupholders. The trays and armrests are wood.
(L note: On the train we heard Swedish for the first time. For those who remember and love the Muppets, the Swedish Chef was NOT a joke. That’s the way Swedish sounds.)
So we left Norway and entered Sweden. Then they announced that the overhead cable for the electric train was down in one section, and we would have to switch to busses for that section. About 10:30 we stopped in Karlstad, and were told we would have to wait until noon for busses to arrive. We could wait on the train, or we could go onto the platform. They also offered free coffee, pastries, and sandwiches from their “Bistro” car. So we hung around for an hour and a half. There seemed to be just one conductor providing information for maybe 250 people in I don't know how many languages. Anyway, we felt uninformed. 
Cranky Old Hag
(to be continued)

Travel Journal Scandinavia 3 Chicken Caesar Salad

 By 5 pm we were exhausted. The problem with museums is that there is too much standing and not enough opportunities to sit. So we caught the ferry back to the harbor and a tram back to our room to rest a while before dinner.
Finally decided to go back to the place where we had enjoyed dinner the night before. Our experience was not as positive this time. It took a while for them to take our order, then apparently they lost the order. About 1/2 hour later they came by bring us our drinks and to apologize and say our order had now gone to the kitchen. When our dinner finally arrived it was after 8 pm, and they gave me a spaghetti dish instead of the chicken caesar salad I had ordered. It was good, but much too heavy and too late for me. Grump! At least they gave us a discount.
Back at the room we got ready for an early (L note: Early as in really early; 5 am alarm time) morning departure and went to bed.
(to be continued)

Travel Journal Scandinavia 2 Kon-Tiki

  Next was the Kon-Tiki museum, documenting Thor Heyerdahl’s several voyages. There is a full-size reconstruction of Kon-Tiki, the balsa wood and bamboo raft he and 5 others sailed from Peru to Polynesia in 1947 to prove ancient peoples could have done it. Also Ra II, the papyrus reed boat used to sail across the Atlantic in 1970. There are also exhibits about Easter Island, the Galapagos, and other places Heyerdahl went.
 Finally, the Fram museum is about various Norwegian polar explorations (both Arctic and Antarctic. It contains the actual Fram wooden sailing ship that was used for both. It was interesting to tour the ship and to see the exhibits about the hardships of the explorers. (L note: The Fram was built so that it could be frozen into the ice and not be crushed. It worked.)
(to be continued)

Travel Journal Scandinavia

Slept a little later (gotta catch up sometime). Breakfast was included with the room—pretty good buffet selection. Then we took the tram to the waterfront and the ferry to Bygdøy peninsula, where we went to three museums.
  The Viking Ship museum has 3 wooden Viking ships that date from about 900 AD when they were used as burial vessels. They were found and dug up in the last 150 years, and are in varying states of decomposition. A couple were pretty well preserved; a third, not so much. There are also some artifacts discovered with them—a wagon, a few sledges, barrels, daily tools and utensils. The gold and silver were long since stolen. Preserving the wooden ships and artifacts is an ongoing dilemma. Pretty interesting.
(to be continued)