Oslo, Norway

We woke up the next morning to a blizzard…OMG, it looked COLD outside. Before we set out for the day, we went to have the breakfast buffet. It was heavenly! I felt just like I was sitting down to Christmas dinner! There it all was…the cold cuts, cheese, breads, hot dishes, Wasa crackers…it was so delicious and fun to see that our Christmas tradition was legit!

Once we were stuffed, we bundled up and started our walk to the boat dock. Alison had read about a great little boat tour to all the museums with nice views of the city. When we got to the marina and all of the boats were covered in snow, we though...hmmm, we can't see 10 feet in front of our noses, it's freezing and snowing. Is this really the best way to enjoy a boat ride?!? We assumed it wasn't running and were trying to think of a plan b when Bill asked if we had been sledding before. Alison and I had both never been and we got excited for our new adventure!

As we passed the boat office, a lady came out and asked if we were waiting for the boat, it was to arrive any minute. We had gotten kind of excited about our new plan, so we asked if she happened to know of anywhere we could sled. The people throughout Scandinavia were incredible!! They are so helpful, cheery and nice. The 3 people that were in the office called the sled rental place and gave us exact directions of how to get to the hill. We were expecting to do this in the city somewhere on cardboard boxes…not 'real' sledding…but we were up for the fun. I found an adorable little pup along the way too!

We took the train to the second to last stop to rent our sleds. Then hopped back on the train to the Frognerseteren stop and finally found our way to the starting line. The train route we took was on the way to Lillehammer, the site of the 1994 Olympics. We all took off and Alison sat still on her sled, after the first run, Bill and I were pumped up and wondering what happened to Alison?? We called her with our 'hooty hoo' signal and nothing…finally we see her creeping like a snail down the hill. Side note - Alison is good at everything! So seeing the total look of contempt for the sled had us laughing our asses off! This was a lot more work than we had bargained for, but gave us some gorgeous views and once we got the hang of it…it was so much fun!!! Oh, and Alison was zooming past me by the end!

We were all soaked…Bill and I were in soggy shoes, Alison's jeans were wet, so we just raced to get back to the hotel and warm up. We packed up our bags and decided to have another bloody mary in the hotel bar to warm us up for the hike to the boat dock to catch the ferry to Copenhagen. This one was no prez-club bloody, but it was a good thing we tried to warm up a little…it was still frozen outside!

When we spotted the ferry, we realized this was a little more than a dingy, it was a full-fledged cruise ship! We boarded at about 4:30 and expected to take off at 6:00. We dropped off our bags in the teeny room and went up to have a glass of wine before dinner. We pulled away from the dock promptly at 5:00! Good thing we didn't procrastinate too long! The views were beautiful as we left and it was a bonus that we got to watch the coast before our dinner at 6:15. The buffet was another smorgasbord with a crazy selection of foods. We gorged…the highlight were the cold and hot mussels…they were SO yummy. The biggest surprise on the menu was crawfish! They weren't seasoned Cajun-style…but still odd to see them on the buffet. We also learned at dinner that there was a trucker convention on the boat, so of the 1200 passengers, 900 were men. That made for a loud night of hooting and hollering outside our cabin, but lucky me that I'm a really heavy sleeper! I felt so weak going to bed early, but Alison had drugged us to make sure no one got sea sick…it was probably a good thing!! J

Next stop, Copenhagen!