The Taelemans´ Blog

Every trip by plane requires a mandatory “Look Mom, I’m on a plane” picture. This picture was taken while descending to land in Oslo and shows two small towns: Hvam and Tuterud. Plane shots are always tricky as the multiple layers of Plexiglas make sure that you don’t accidentally get the whole picture in focus, but this one turned out quite nice. You can compare the picture with the google maps version of this area here (Tilt your head +-35° to the left).

The most beautiful thing I ever saw from a plane was the Aurora Borealis. This occurred last year while flying over Canada/Iceland on the flight from New York to Brussels. Too bad I didn’t have a decent camera back then to capture the moment… This is a picture of how this looks like from a plane:

Picture from Wikipedia

This time a real gate and not the Norwegian word for road. This is one of the gates in the Akershus castle, which was built to protect Oslo.

And another shot of the castle at night:

A portion of the fortress was replicated at the Norway (Epcot) pavilion at Epcot Center theme park in Orlando, Florida, as you can see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79761301@N00/1254556137/

Karl Johans gate (Karl Johan Street), named after King Karl Johan, is the main street of the city of Oslo. In its current route, it connects the main railroad station in Oslo and the Royal Palace.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Museum is a historical museum, depicting Norwegian military history. The museum is located at Akershus Fortress in heart of Oslo. Admission is free at the museum, too bad I did not know that at that time (not that I would’ve had the time to visit it anyway…).

More info:
http://www.mil.no/felles/fmu/start/museet/English/

This picture shows the Oslo Opera House which is scheduled to open April 12th, 2008. Not as beautiful as the Sydney Opera House, but still a very cool construction
Total expenditures for the building project is set at NOK 4 billion (521 million € or 745 US$).

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, but the last two weeks have been really hectic. I just got back from a business trip to Oslo on which I found some time to walk around in Oslo and take some pictures. So, expect to see a mix of Disney and Oslo pictures in the next couple of days/weeks (depending on how much time I can spend on blogging).

For now I leave you with a picture I took on top of the Akershus Fortress which shows the Norwegian flag in combination with the beautiful autumn foliage. As you can see the weather was great