May 11, 2012 Oslo

It is foggy, cloudy and raining, so we must be in Oslo, Norway.  Up at a normal time, then coffee and tea.  About 8:30 it was up to the restaurant for breakfast.  I had them make me some blueberry pancakes.  Not on the menu, but got them anyway.

We walked into town and visited the city hall and did some shopping and then headed back to the boat.  I stopped at Akershus Fortress for a look see, and Judi headed on back.  The walls of the Fortress were started in the 1300 and other buildings and walls were added over the centuries.  The Fortress is still in use today both by the military and as a National Monument.  The National Flag was flying at half staff today in honor of an important resistance fighter who passed away yesterday.  There is a statue of President Roosevelt there.  The United States helped Norway, with supplies of food and other products to live on while helping them fight the Germans.

We sailed about 2:00PM and it took about 2 hours to transit the fiord that leads to the North Sea.  Nice smooth ride out of the fiord.  It ended just about where the fort guarding the fiord was and where the Norwegians sank a German cruiser.

“After that Katy bar the door”.  The swells were running up to 20 feet and the wind gusts were up to 65 knots.  We rocked and rolled for over 4 hours before we got some relief by being in the waters between Sweden and Denmark.

It is off to bed and let the boat rock us to sleep.  Copenhagen tomorrow.