We started the second day by heading out to pick up the car. It didn't start too well - when we got to the tram station (carrying all our luggage after checking out of the hotel) we found that the return track was closed for roadworks and we ended up having to walk half way through Oslo to find a working station.
When we got to the park, the kids ran ahead and came back holding a bright yellow piece of paper. Anyone who read our Copenhagen castle trip post will know what it was. I was pretty annoyed with getting a parking ticket as we had a valid Oslo Pass car permit so our first trip was to the tourist office that sold the pass to query the fine.
That was easier said that done - we couldn't find anywhere to park and we didn't want to risk a fine again. Eventually we parked by Akershus Castle as that was going to be our end point for the day, and walked into Olso central.
The people at the tourist office confirmed that we hadn't violated any parking rules and told us to talk to the traffic commission. When we returned to Sweden I called and found that it wasn't actually a fine for parking, but one for having studded tyres in central Oslo - 750kr (about AUD$120). We hadn't see any signs or any information on it, but ignorance of the law was no excuse. If we can eventually do a trip to another country without getting a traffic violation we may be able to afford to do more stuff.
After leaving the tourist office we heeded Tomas' request and headed to the reptile park. I was expecting a park like the ones you'd find in Australia, but instead we found small building with reptile park written on the windows. We went through a set of wooden double doors (covered in graffiti), through a small tunnel and into a backlot complete with bins and graffiti. We then went down some stairs into a basement. I was pretty dubious but we weren't murdered or trapped by some cult - however the entrance did smell like pee.
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| The tunnel - with footprints leading to the Reptile Park |
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| The backlot |
The kids really loved the park. Some of the terrariums were a little small, but there was a good variety of animals, ranging from lizards, frogs, tortoises and spiders (not strictly reptiles but still cool)
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| Pygmy Marmosets |
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| Rhino Rat Snake |
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| Tarantula |
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| Leopard Gecko |
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| Tarantula |
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| 'Pancake Tortoise' |
After the reptile park we went for a walk to a few of the cathedrals:
The first cathedral was formerly named "Our Savior's Church", now named Oslo Cathedral. It was built in 1694. It was the site of the wedding of Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway and Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby.
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| The Cathedral and the outer wall of shops |
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| Oslo Cathedral |
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| The tower |
Next was St Olav's Domkirke:
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| St Olav's Domkirke |
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| A gate near St Olov's Domkirke |
After finishing up there, we headed down to the Royal Palace to have lunch in the gardens.
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| Making lunch - notice Kris slacking off while I'm working hard with the camera |
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| They were much happier that this was ham and not reindeer. |
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| The Royal Palace |
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| The X-Games (extreme snow sports) had just finished in Oslo when we arrived |
Tom's hands were "too, too cold in his gloves" so he borrowed mine, even though they made his hands look enormous:
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| Monster Hands! |
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