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Last Day in Oslo

Started the day with an orientation tour with our Latvian guide Gundega. There were only 4 of us on the tour. We refreshed our memory & saw some things we hadn’t seen before.

Swedish King Christian points to where to build the new city after a fire or alternative interpretation pushed the little people down.

Norwegian King Harald passed away last week. Flags are at half staff and a LONG line of mourners  extends at least a quarter of a mile down the hill from the palace for the 3rd day. A great variety of people waiting to pay their respects to the king. Some are adding to the piles of flowers on the Palace lawn.

Monday, still line at least 1/4 mi. to pay respects to King Harald

We spent the entire afternoon in the National Museum, It’s huge and covers both The history of Western art and the history of Norwegian art.

We had fish soup by the docks. Great people watching on a Sunday. We walked home through the fort.

Norwegian Parliament

Oslo, Norway

Arrived exhausted yesterday after long flights: Spokane to Seattle to Amsterdam to Oslo. Spent most of our day at the new Edvard Munch museum We both have long had an interest in Munch. Hope that’s not too strange. Years ago we traveled to NYC for Spring break because MOMA had a special Munch exhibition.

New Edvard Munch Museum

We didn’t wait to get a close view of the painting The Scream. There were other renderings including a woodcut print which I think I like better than the color version.

Crowd in front of one rendering of The Scream.

The new museum is beautiful and  incorporates some interactive activities for adults and children. After 4 hours we were satisfied we’d seen enough

View of Oslo Opera House from the 12th floor of the Munch museum

On the walk back to our hotel I made Dennis climb the Opera House roof. We climbed this roof in 2019 with rain and sleet blowing in our faces. I couldn’t Believe Dennis didn’t want to go up in better weather.

Last Day & Home

Our final walk was around Kalso from the river to along the shore of Kokenee Lake. My knees are functioning fine. I’m not authorized to speak for Dennis.

Very Few Swimmers

We left after breakfast Sunday morning. It’s a beautiful drive. We stopped at two beautiful roadside rest stops. All we expected was a privy and a picnic table.

The falls were huge I only captured part of them.

The small towns and Pend Oreille River views driving to and from Canada made the drive interesting. Our last meal of the trip was at a picnic table in Portage Park. We saw more than one fisherman making the very steep hike down to the river to fish. It was a beautiful spot and apparently the fish like it too.

River Walk Recovery Hike

View of the Kaslo River from the River Walk Trail

We weren’t sure if our weak knees could handle another hike but we thought if the trail was relatively flat we could make it. The trail had a couple of steep short hills and we both survived.

The map showed a mountain bike park along the way. It didn’t warn us about the strange & funny sculptures.

It was a fun hike and only about 2 miles. Just the right length for our recovery.

In case you didn’t know downhill is harder than up.

Our motel owner suggested the hike of Mount Buchanan is beautiful in clear weather. There’s a short loop with a viewpoint, a long loop with a viewpoint, and some trail where you go to the very top.

A long very steep hike up 
Looking at the boats in the bay

We got up to the highest viewpoint.

The trail continued across a ridge with very few trees and lots of grass and flowers especially fireweed. It looked like it might have burned some time ago. Next the trail took us down a little, thru a Cedar and fern forest. There were a lot of plank bridges where I imagine there is water and mud in the Spring. It was dark “Looks a lot like hiking in Northern Michigan!” so I we didn’t take any pictures.

From the Cedar woods we started down a trail named “No Brakes” which is used by both mountain bikes and hikers. It was VERY STEEP! At one point Dennis thought his knees wouldn’t make it. He’d only brought one of his treking poles. We decided I should go back to the car and bring him his other pole. We had about 1/2 mile to go but it’s a long way if your knees aren’t cooperating.

Thankfully, by the time I got to Dennis his other pole he could almost see our car in the parking lot. We decided no more mountain climbing for either of us for a while. Our knees can’t take it!

You can see from Dennis's walking app we were much slower going down the last stretch of the mountain

Escape to Kaslo, British Columbia

We managed to leave Spokane about 9:30am. This is an early start for us. No line at the Nelway Canadian border crossing. We stopped to eat our picnic lunch in Kokanee Creek, Provincial Park. Not many swimmers in Kokanee Lake.

We also stopped at Ainsworth Hot Springs where after a struggle we found the straight uphill cemetery hike. Well worth it!

Dennis resting on bench at Cemetery Viewpoint
View from our motel

Leaving Budapest

What makes Hungary special for me – different and weird things.

Ters (Squares), Parks, Statues, the Duna.

Ethnography Museum Heros Park

Squares, statues, & plaques that you can’t translate pop-up everywhere and sometimes in unexpected places.

Nagy Imre moved but obviously is not forgotten
Walking a different street we found Franz Liszt with hair flying

In a country known for its very good sausages

They choose to advertise an American hotdog 🌭

Budapest park playgrounds make the most of very little space. We saw a small soccer practice area built up stairs above the playground. Another park combined a soccer area with basketball ball hoops. Kids were doing both but they wouldn’t stay still for a picture.

Soccer Upstairs

I love any route going uphill, across a bridge or even stuck in traffic if it allows me a view across the Duna (Danube).

Chain Bridge

I find a lot of quirky things in endearing.

Sometimes it just a change from home. ☺️

Leaving tomorrow.

In Vienna – Why We Want NO Kings

We visited the Hapsburg’s summer palace Schonbunn shortly after missing the NO KINGS demonstrations at home. Reading the U.S. news and seeing two Hapsburg palaces got me thinking of the many reasons that the Americans colonists disliked monarchy. There were reason beyond being subject to arbitrary royal commands that Americans decided we want NO Kings.

How does the King afford the building & maintenance of the summer palace?
Did this statue erected by the King prevent future plagues?

Schonbunn above was the last residence of Franz Joseph I in 1916. On our tour it seemed that most of the family occupied only one floor. I imagine the cost of the palace and its maintenance must have been (and is now) quite a few $$. I’m sure some of the tab was billed to the Austrian people.

There are additional buildings & grounds.

The palace woods, park and fountains are impressive. Imagine the maintenance required in the 19th century and now.

Luckily Vienna now has tourists to support palace upkeep. We paid $92 for two tickets.

Four hours visiting the summer palace and grounds wasn’t enough. We took the Metro downtown and did a walking tour that included Franz Joseph’s winter home. We spent a morning in this palace 18 years ago. We decided we didn’t need to do it again.

It appears that the Austrian Army camps here for free 😆

In addition to selling carriage rides Vienna seems to employ a number of friendly Courtiers selling concert tickets to tourists.

They seemed to be having fun while peddling tickets.

Here are some interesting things we saw in Vienna the King had built.

Crypt for the family

Driving the plague out of Vienna

Here is a building Franz Joseph wanted torn down but he didn’t get his way.

In 1910 the controversial Looshaus apartments were in and the Hapsburg emperor was soon out. No happy ending. Near the Opera is a memorial to remind us of the horrors of Fascism and War.

Statue shows a starving Jew struggling doing forced labor under Austrian Fascism

The memorial features the horror of Orpheus entering Hades and a starving Jew forced to clean graffiti.

The moral of the story No Kings, No Fascism, and No War. That sounds easy.