We had an early flight from the Harstad/Narvik airport (very near where we stayed in Tjelsund) to the Norwegian capital of Oslo. We rented a car at the airport and headed into the city. We found a delightful bakery where we had a nice late breakfast, and then headed beck to the hotel to get a little rest. Once rested, we set out into the city to explore.  We started at the Royal palace, which we saw only a few days before the death of Norway's beloved King Harald V

We checked out the beautiful modern Oslo opera house; the architecture is really cool in that you actually climb along the roof of the structure, and the view of the surrounding city and water is quite nice.

For lunch we went to Harald's Vaffel, where Seth had his heart set on an authentic Norwegian waffle with brunost (brown cheese), lingonberry, and sour cream. It's not as bad as it sounds, and Seth loved it. We also had ice cream for lunch, so not our most nutritious meal. 

We continued our walk around Oslo, enjoying the architecture and city parks. Really such a pleasant city.

Eventually we made walked around the Akershus Fortress, the medieval castle at the center of Oslo. 

For hundreds of years it has served as royal residence, military base, prison, and now office of the prime minister. The castle was an important point of defense for Norwegian forces from invading Swedish and Danish over the course of centuries;

it survived every siege it faced although was given up to Nazi Germany in 1940 without combat when the Norwegian government fled the capital. Very interesting to see old pictures of the Nazis occupying this space, and then the Norwegians re-taking the grounds in 1945. A lot of cool history happened there.  

We grabbed dinner at a Palestinian kebab shop, and then continued our exploration of the city: