Olso II: Biathlon and weather issues

Thursday morning the first biathlon race of the week would take place. (For those ignorant people out there, combination of cross country skiing and shooting :P) With that also the first and only sunny day of our trip was a fact. During the women's race the sun came slowly through the clouds and by the men's race in the afternoon there wasn't a single cloud visible in the sky above the Holmenkollen hill. The races itself weren't a total success yet for our favourite Norwegians, but that couldn't withhold the enthousiasm of the crowd, us included. :)

The stadium in between the races and crazy norwegian fans

After the races we found it ridiculous to not enjoy the rest of the sunny day outside, so instead of going to our hostel and take a hot shower, we decided to visit the Vigeland Park once more. First there was ice cream and then we took a stroll down the park to see the sunset behind the trees and the hills in the distance. This park is the most visited place by tourists in Norway, although I could very well imagine some prude americans wanting to put an age limit on entering it. :P The artist Gustav Vigeland built all of the statues in the park and he is known for his naked work. All the sculptures show naked people, men, women and children. Very nice place in my opinion.

The sun setting over the Vigeland park

Friday was free of competition and as we has seen most of Oslo already in the past years we decided to take the train to Fredrikstad, the best preserved northern fortified city. Both my sister and I are sure it must be a really cute town, very lively and all, but all of that probably in summer and not on a stormy weekday in march. :P It was cold, raining, blowing, everything you don't want whilst visiting a city. My umbrella lost it's use after twenty minutes in the wind and rain, but of course we wouldn't like Norway so much if we couldn't handle a small hurricane. ;) Full of courage we visited some of the old fortresses, we took a very wobbly ferry over the river and had a great lunch in a cafe/shoe shop. Yep, weird combination, but as the main visitors were young mothers, I suppose it worked. :)