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Bald Nomad is the continuing adventures of writer/photographer Geoffrey Morrison, who spends most of the year in search of life, the universe, and everything.
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October 21, 2013
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Oslo Bike Tour

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Oslo Bike Tour

Oslo is a beautiful city, perhaps unfairly overshadowed by the waterbound beauty of Stockholm to its east, and the mountainous splendor of Bergen to the west. It is also a staggeringly expensive city, often rated as the most expensive city in the world.

But a bike tour lets you enjoy the city for very little money, and if you plan it right, you can see most of the city’s sights in a single day (museums excluded, of course).

There are several places to rent bikes around the city. We chose Viking Biking not least because I appreciated the rhyme, but mainly because my travel buddy and I could see it from our hotel room. The bikes were all quite new and in great shape. The owner, an American ex-pat, even helped us plan our route, to cover all that we wanted to see. He mentioned it was a lot, but figured we could do it all in a day (he was right on both counts).

We headed north into the city proper, then west, weaving our way past the museums and parks, up towards Frogner Park.

Frogner Park

Frogner is… unique, in that it holds dozens of statues by Gustav Vigeland. Odd, creepy, and fascinating are three words to describe the stone sculptures of humans in various poses.

Frogner statue

Frogner monolith

Heading down out of the park, we headed southwest towards Huc, on the water. Before we reached there, we stopped off at the Viking Ship Museum. Having started our adventure around 9:30, and it was just after lunchtime, we figured this was a good place to have a snack. We regaled ourselves with the foodstand adjacent to the museum.

Inside, the museum presents three Viking sailing ships in stark beauty. No pomp and circumstance, just the ships in a white-walled, cathedral-like setting. It’s beautiful, perhaps hauntingly so, once you realize ships like these carried Vikings all the way to North America, long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Viking Ship

From there we continued south, making it to Huk and enjoying a lovely view of the fjord.

Huk

Curving up though the Bygdøy, we looped around and crossed over our original path, headed back along the water towards Oslo.

We cut across the city, and followed the waterfalls north. The incline wasn’t steep, and the waterfalls were gorgeous.

Oslo waterfall

Near the top we broke off and made our way to Tim Wendelboe.

Tim Wendelbow storefront

Tim Wendelboe (the person), owner of Tim Wendelboe (the store), is a World Barista Champion and World Cup Tasting Champion. The coffee here, suffice it to say, came highly recommended.

Tim Wendelboe Interior

It was a little after 3pm at this point, and we were in solid need of a bit of a boost. I’m not a big coffee drinker, but this was easily the best cappuccino I’ve ever had. Rich and delicious, without a trace of bitterness.

Tim Coffee

Our time with the bikes winding down, we headed back down towards the water, through colorful streets and past even more parklands, finally ending up back where we started, with minutes to spare.

There’s a lot more to see in Oslo if you have more time. Check out WikiTravel’s Oslo page for more ideas.


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The Bald Nomad

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I stand at one end of the Piazza San Marco. In the shade, the air holds the crispness of late March. I know the sun will bring warmth. The intricate buildings loom, curved archways and stone facades iconic in their design. The eye is drawn towards the opposite end of the Piazza. The Byzantine domes and gilded mosaics of Saint Mark's Basilica reflect the late morning sunlight. Into the sky rises the Campanile, its white loggia tying it to is surroundings nearly as much as its red brick bulk separates it. The calmness of the morning has awakened to the beginnings of a crowd, enthused by the appearance of water from the coming Acqua Alta. Couples and families dance with pigeons, pose for photos, embrace and kiss. I am alone. The next track starts on my iPod: Bob Dylan, a statistically probability even out of the 5,800 songs held there. I had been deceiving myself with how miserable I’ve become. The previous year was a blur of work, stress, and boredom. An aimless boredom caused by a lack of direction and for the first time in my life, lack of a goal. Always a driven person, I reached the pinnacle of my chosen career before I was 30. My first novel had been a success (as much as any are in these digital days). The transition to freelance writer had been surprisingly smooth, and had become comfortably lucrative. Yet, it wasn’t enough. I was at a turning point. The previous two weeks had been spent with my father, driving around central Europe in a trip we’d discussed for the better part of a decade. It was brilliant, but my brain was still tied to home and work and all the stress therein. Minutes earlier I had left a dear friend, who by luck and chance I’d been able to meet in Venice. The first time we’d seen each other in nearly a year. She, and her travelling companions, had arraigned a gondola ride. I was to meet them after. In this brief moment, I was alone with my thoughts. In hindsight, I can see all the pieces in place for what would happen next. At the time, I had no idea the epiphany that was about to strike. As Bob started to growl his way into the first verse, a calmness came over me. My senses conspired to shock my brain into a new understanding. The view of the Piazza, the Basilica, the Campanile, the salty smells, the sounds of Venice filtering past the music, the power of the sun as I stepped out of the shade, all combined into one, simple thought: “This is the life.” This basic, obvious, simplistic sentence reacted like a catalyst in my weary brain, rapidly leading more thoughts. “This is the life. I should do this more.” “Why don’t I do this more?” My mind ticked through all the potential answers to that question, and couldn’t come up with any negative answers. I’d built a career that was flexible enough to be done anywhere. My income and expenditures were such that I could, if I was careful, do my job from elsewhere, fairly often. In that moment, I knew what the next stage of my life would be, and I was standing in it. I am an explorer. I need to see the world. Experience people, places, and things others write and have written about. What want in life is to go where I can’t read the signs, and were I’m the one with the strange accent. I am a bald nomad, and these are my adventures.

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