Oslo Day 4. City Hall

After a pleasant breakfast in another of our neighbourhood cafés we set off for the sightseeing boat trip around the islands of the Oslo Fjord. Thankfully, the weather had improved, and, though cloudy and overcast, it was dry today. Our guide was pleasant and informative, and we thoroughly enjoyed the 2-hour trip.

Carl had been impressed with Oslo City Hall from the outside when he'd walked the streets on our second night while I was at the opera, and we'd agreed that a visit would be in order. We missed the last organised tour of the day but still saw quite a lot of the wonderful interior. Most of the walls and ceilings are covered in colourful frescoes, and this is just a small sample of part of one of the vast walls in the main hall, venue for the Nobel Prize ceremonies.

A study of our guide book and spotting ads around town brought us to the Ice Bar in another part of the city. This is a spin-off of the Ice Hotel which featured in one of Michael Palin's TV travel programmes, and is a an experience which we'd recommended to anyone who goes to Oslo. We'd expected that we'd just walk in off the street, but it turned out to involve set times and organised sessions at hourly intervals or so. Great fun, and I'd love to be able to link to some photos of what it's like and the mad gear visitors have to wear, but our internet connection in Saint Petersburg, where I'm writing this, is flakey at best.

Our evening meal tonight was in Bolgen & Moi, a restaurant which is located in an old power station in the Briskeby suburb of Oslo. The description in our guide book didn't prepare us for the fact that it's such an up-market establishment, which turned out to be far too expensive for what was on offer. The place was nicely done up, and the maitre d' couldn't have been nicer or more helpful, but the service was very slow and the food didn't justify the prices charged. The experience wasn't helped, either, by the over-loud thumpy-thumpy "music" which was blaring away all the time. In fairness, the matter d' realised that the music was affecting our enjoyment and switched us to a quieter table in the inside space.

After our meal we managed to find our way back to Grünelokke and Bar Boca which we'd enjoyed last night. It was a long wait for our cocktail, which wasn't as good as we'd got the first time. After this we once again managed to find our way to a different bus line which brought us back to our apartment in Sagene.