We had to pass through Sweden to get to Norway by train. Strangely, though, when we inquired about booking seats to Oslo, the ticket office told us there was no direct train. We needed to travel by bus for an hour from Gothenburg to Trollenhanne and get on the train that starts from there. Since the bus did not leave till noon, we had the morning to explore Gothenburg further. We headed up the widest street in the town called The Avenue on the map, but tour guides refer to it as THE OTHER Champs Elysees. It did not have an Obelisk or an Arc de Triomphe but it did have a very good Art Gallery at the top end. Halfway along we found this figure of Charles Felix Lindberg whose name appears on many statues and was a great benefactor of the town. Was he the father of the aviator? They were setting up for a concert on the square at the top end where this statue dominated.
We could not identify him. Behind the Gallery was a park on a hill which we climbed to get a view of the town. The best vantage points at the top were reserved for blocks of flats. We sauntered back to the station where we found a surprising version of the three wise monkeys in the square.
The bus zoomed straight out of town on a freeway that was right next to the station and we thought we would be on the train in no time. But it was like the Pacific Highway north of Newcastle with more roadworks than completed freeway. It will be great in a couple of years. On the train we had a pleasant trip watching the change in architecture as we crossed into Norway. In Sweden the country houses were often dark red walls and black roof while in Norway they were more often white or pastel coloured. Along the way we saw the biggest thatched roof yet.
As we were more inland we saw a lot of lakes surrounded by forest and appreciated how Scandinavians like to move out of cities to lake houses in summer.
When we arrived in Oslo we headed for the FOREX office to change some Swedish currency and found it is closed on Sundays. We were able to get some from the ATM however. Next priority was to go to the tourist office to get a map and find our hotel as the google map we had was hopeless as usual. A German lady was coming away from the entrance and told us it was also closed (which we found out was not correct the next day) . She had no local currency and no card for the ATM so we swapped one of our 100 Norwegian for her 100 Swedish so she could get the train to her accommodation. She was very grateful. We gave up trying to locate a direction to head from the station and went to the taxi rank. So much easier. The Perminalen Hotel was satisfactory and we learned that it had a contract with the army and there were always soldiers staying there. We saw an advertisement for authentic Norwegian food, so dutifully found the restaurant and ordered a meal we did not understand. It turned out to be slow boiled ham (with lots of fat), mushy peas. overcooked cabbage and potatoes. Probably good winter food if snowbound in the Arctic circle. Afterwards we walked downhill past a housemaid called Tilly
and found the waterfront and enjoyed looking at the wooden ships and the huge statues.
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