My last day on tour

Today I leave Oslo for Paris, Dubai and Sydney. Should only take 28 hours with stoppages! Can't wait..... Yesterday spent some time wandering around Oslo. This is a beautiful clean city. Not too sure I would like to be here in winter but it is ideal at this time of year. The city is also quite weird....but it's the most expensive place I have ever seen: $20 for a beer, $18 for 1 oyster, a steak is $60, so make sure you bring plenty of $funny monies. In the morning I visited the Vigeland Sculpture Park which is one man's exploration of the human form, including the bizarre "Man Attacked by Babies." The park contains 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. He worked over a period of almost 20 years, from 1924 to 1943, and donated his sculptures to the city of Oslo. The sculptures range in topic from representation of humans in everyday situations, such as walking, sitting, holding hands, to more symbolic subjects. “The Monolith” is the focal point of the park. It is a 14.12-meter high, highly symbolic sculpture consisting of 121 intertwined human figures, meant to represent the human desire to reach out to the divine. The carving of this monolith took over 14 years and involved work by the artist himself as well as 3 other stone carvers. In addition, 36 sculptural groups reside on the plateau around the monolith. “The Wheel of Life” is a sundial positioned at the very end of an 850-meter axis. Thematically, it continues the journey-of-life motive prevalent in the rest of the park. It represents eternity, with four human figures and a baby locked in a circle, floating in harmony. From the park (accompanied by Michael & Shari) from the cruise on Scenic we made our way through the city to the grave of Edvard Munch. Strangely, Edvard Munch’s grave shows no sign of the fluid lines and vivid pigments seen in so many of his paintings. The artist is laid to rest beneath a stoic bust of himself in the humble corner of Vår Frelsers Gravlund, but it was a nice walk to find it. We walked a bit further and I left Michal and Shari to make my way to one of the channels at Aker Brygge, via the Fortress of Akershus- (one of the most famous landmarks in Oslo). In the channel there is a modern statue of a man on stilts. The man gazes through the channel, towards the inner Oslofjord. This is a piece of outdoor sculpture belonging to a local hotel. The hotel has so much artwork it is the most highly insured hotel in the world and includes a $1.7 million Andy Warhol in the restaurant. I also found a moving plastic elephant in the street but no idea what it was there for. Oslo is a great place to get lost and just walk around, observing life......