Oslo - Vigeland Park

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) is regarded as Norway's most famous sculptor. We spent time walking through Vigeland Park which is a massive area focused on Vigeland’s statues. There are more than 200 statues in the park

Vigeland focused on creating nude images. So, the images in the park are anatomically correct. The rationale for his approach is that he intended his works not to reflect a given time period. The statutes reflect individuals of all ages - birth to death. The sculpture is controversial as possibly having Nazi influences.

We had a memorable experience while walking the grounds. A woman had climbed the wall that surrounded the massive fountain at the center of the park. There was an empty moat around the center part of the fountain and she fell headfirst into this moat while trying to take pictures. People immediately ran to her aid and she seemed very shaken but able to sit. Now when I hear stories of people falling over the edge of a canyon to their death, I have an image of exactly how that can happen. 

Norway - planes, trains, boats, and automobiles

We have endured the flight and seemed to fare better than other long trips. My feet recovered after a day and several Tylenol treatments. We are staying in Oslo for a day to recover and then taking the train to Bergen. This trip is different from other recent trips as we are not part of a group and Cindy did all of the planning while sitting at her command center in the corner of her couch. To this point, all of the details have been covered perfectly.

We are staying in an unusual hotel called the City Box. It is inexpensive but not in the category we have come to call the “Oh wows”. The lower cost seems a function of several alternatives to common expenditures. There is no front desk and you check in using the type of device we now use to check out at many stores. You are in the system and it prints key cards when you identify yourself. No key card - no entrance. No key card - no elevator. No key card - no electricity. There is no front desk. The rooms are small but nice. There is no mini fridge. There is no free breakfast. The strangest thing - there is no television. The Internet worked great.

Cindy was well prepared for this trip because of a recent outing to Italy with Lynn. Everything works from your phone. Everything is tap to pay. You pay for transportation with Ruter. Public transportation is somehow linked to your Apple Maps and everything is explained - take tram 11, walk to station xxxx, take tram 13. I was lost the entire time, but this is usually the case when anything requiring navigation is involved. 

Running your fridge on a battery is risky

This is my final post on the trip to and from Salt Lake City. The trip home took several days with great scenery. Vast vistas are impressive but more difficult to capture with a camera than Mountains.

These images were taken from the Dignity of Earth and Sky plaza near Chamberlin, South Dakota.

We were having difficulty reserving a camping spot so we decided to stay in a motel in Sioux Falls, SD. Setting up and taking down the camper is not a huge problem but after dark and after a long day of driving is not fun and sometimes you just give in. The problems started the next morning when I tried to start the car. The engine would not turn over and all kinds of strange things began to happen with the electronics. The screen displays changed rapidly and the audio made all kinds of strange noises rotating through the different speakers in the audio systems. I could not turn the system off so the weird things just kept happening. We suspected the battery because I had not disconnected the car from the camper and we guessed the fridge in the camper had drained the battery in the camper and the car. Always a dilemma - you can't turn off the fridge over night without doing something with the food.

We called for a jump (perhaps a mistake because someone also sitting in the parking lot later offered a jump). It took an hour and a half for a guy from a gas station to show up in his car with a portable battery pack. Hint - do not call a roadside assistance service. If you are in a city, just call a nearby garage. The 5 seconds to jump and $150 we had already paid solved the problem. We pulled out and I reached the interstate and found that the car would not go faster than 20 mph. I could not rev the engine and I was afraid to turn off the engine because I was not certain that the battery had time to recharge. The garage guy had left a number and we called. He said we should try turning off the car, waiting 30 seconds, and then try starting it again. If the car would not start he would find us and jump the car again without a charge. Great guy. I did as I was told and everything was fine. I guess the lesson is that new cars are just a computer with wheels. Just like your home computer, if you are having trouble try restarting and many problems go away. Your home computer is a little different because it plugs into the wall, but the rest of the process works the same. There were a few other residual issues. That check engine light indicated there was still a problem, but we read that unless the light was blinking the signal only means that a code has been stored and the light would be turned off when a dealer hooked up his machine to check the stored code. It turned out the next time we stopped and then restarted the car, the error light also disappeared. Evidently, sometimes you must restart your computer several times to get everything fixed.

Antelope Canyon X

 We drove South into Arizona to see Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is a series of slot canyons on the Navajo Reservation and requires special permission and payment for access. Cindy picked Antelope Canyon X from among the different options. The name comes from Antelope using the slots as a migration route. At one time the Navajo would block antelope in the canyon and kill them for food. When Lake Powell was filled this blocked the immigration path and the antelope found a different route. The following are images from our time in the canyon.

Our guide provided the following demonstrations (I had to compress so Blogger would accept). Videos are better if you expand to full size. 

Crocodile fossil

Here is the reason it is called Antelope Canyon X. 

Lesson learned

We did not understand when booking access to an Antelope Canyon visit that there were multiple slot canyons. Because one says that the canyon is accessible by the elderly and those with mobility problems a different slot is not necessarily the same. We just thought we were visiting Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon X is accessed by a trail that descends abruptly for a length of about two football fields. Some of this trail is deep sand and the rest steps and sand side by side. The climb back up to the vehicles was quite challenging and we had to stop several times to catch our breath and get our hearts to slow down. We were last in returning by a significant amount of time. Tough being the old folks. 

Snow Canyon State Park

Our strategy in Utah has been to avoid the popular National Parks and to visit far less populated State Parks. Today it was Snow Canyon State Park. The smoke of yesterday has cleared and it was a bright and warm day. We did walk a bit and we seem to have become more tolerant of the altitude. There are land tortoises in this park. We did not see one but assume the probability is about the same as a moose or bear. Interesting signs to read anyway.