Another short sail brought us into Oslo on Thursday 31st May
Our cruise on Sapphire Princess would take us to Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and finally to Norway.
Arrival in Oslo
This was my view as I woke up in Oslo.
The announcements that we could go ashore were made just before 7 am. Looking out of the window we were docked just passed Oslo’s ferry port.
The day was forecast to be hot again from our weather app. Breakfast was busy and we shared a table. While we were eating the bridge announced that they was to be a ship wide practice of emergency drills. During this practice all the ship board services would be limited and all the cabins were to be searched except if marked with a ‘do not disturb’ sign.
As we left the ship all the staircases were already manned and all the other crew members were lined up through the Art Gallery from the Atrium in their life jackets.
We walked out through to the quay and past the nearby bar and restaurant. The building work at the side of the Opera House had progressed since our last visit and now we could see the large buildings just needing to be finished.
As we walked past the oil protection barriers we could see ducks and ducklings. One of the ducklings had not been able to jump up over the barrier like the rest of the family. It was now marooned. We watched as one of the parents encouraged it to climb up but eventually swam away. The duckling was now clearly anxious and followed the barrier until it found a break and was able to climb up and walk along it and jumped off onto the other side.
As we walked past the building work this container had a cartoon decoration.
Oslo Opera House
We walked around to the Opera house and onto its sloping roof. By the water’s edge a team were building a scaffolding tower and I stood for a while watching the work. They were high up adding more and more pieces up top.
From the Opera House roof we could see that Sapphire Princess’ lifeboats were all out on the davits as the ship’s drills continued.
As we walked up the roof out of the shade it became even hotter. The views across the city and harbour were spectacular. Once right at the top I stood and watched a group of people working out at the top of the roof in the full sunshine. From there I could see even more building work.
The Opera House has glass walls alongside the sloping roof which made great opportunities for reflections across the harbour.
