Sweden - Day 2

March 12, 2008
Oslo

I really can't quite believe we sat in downtown Oslo, Norway tonight and had dinner in a street-side cafe. Our trip today, as always, was not without its stresses, but all-in-all went remarkably smoothly and according to schedule.

We had a very nice breakfast at our hotel in Goteborg this morning (it only seems like a week ago!!). Then we got in the car and set out to find the Hotel Lorensburg, where we'll be staying next week. That was quite easy, so we then set off for Oslo. We ventured off the main highway in order to visit a couple of small communities along the coast. They were certainly worth the extra effort. Very picturesque and much more like visiting a different place. The hotels and restaurants and cities are not that different from other places, but we got a real chance to see rural Sweden today and it was beautiful and very interesting. We visited Lysekil and Smogen and found them very interesting. We then visited Tanumshede and saw Bronze Age carvings in a huge rock there (3000 years old!! - the carvings, that is, not the rock)

Then we fired up the laptop and began our trek to Oslo. Our only faux pas was to drive through the 'do not stop' lane where we were supposed to stop and pay a 'city toll'. We asked the hotel desk clerk what we should do and she said to forget about it. So we'll try to do that. It may come back to bite us when we return the rental car next week.

Tomorrow we're planning to see a real Viking ship and the KonTiki in museums here in Oslo. Then it's off to the ferry dock to catch our cruise to Copenhagen.