MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 2012--Oslo to Stockholm
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| Oslo Railway Station Band |
I was up early to complete packing, get breakfast, and walk to the central train station about a block from the hotel, where I arrived 2 hours before departure time. A band began playing shortly after I arrived and we were given about a 45-minute concert by the "railway station band" in celebration of the opening of a tunnel. The music was good and railway workers handed out free coffee while the band played. I even knew most of the songs! The tunnel opening meant the end of a long bus ride over part of the route to a destination town. I decided against using the toilet before leaving the station since a charge was imposed for the use of it--and I had already exchanged my Norwegian money for Swedish money. Should have checked this situation out before changing out my money. Oh, well...Fortunately, a "free" toilet was on the train. Our tour guide had warned us that some places charged for use of the "facility"; however, I only encountered it once on the actual tour.
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| Train from Oslo |
The train out of Oslo had two cars and was a fast electric train. The route took us northeast before turning southeast towards Karlstad, Sweden. We passed along wide quiet flowing rivers, long lakes, and a lot of farms with green oats and wheat as well as some potatoes in the fields. We went past the typical red barns and white houses that we had seen enroute to Lillehammer a week ago, but there was more forested area as we approached the Norway/Sweden border.
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| Train from Karlstad |
I changed trains in Karlstad (western Sweden) without a problem and got on a longer train that had nice cars. It is sure easy to see why the Scandinavian people like to use their rail systems. The trains I have seen so far are clean, fast, run on time, and are relatively cheap to ride. People routinely bring their pets aboard for the ride—one car is dedicated to the pets. In fact, I was impressed by how people take their dogs nearly everywhere it seems.
I was entertained on this leg of the trip by a young woman and her two daughters, ages 4 and 7, who sat with me. The older girl wanted to show me her knowledge of English by counting to 10 and telling me the names of colors that she knew (quite a few). She also drew piano keys on a paper and pretended to play a piano while singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in English. The younger girl joined in singing the song in English and did a commendable job. They were a very nice family and made the time pass rapidly. Mari-Anne was at the Stockholm Central train station to meet me and we traveled on to Jakobsberg on the commuter train. Travel time from Oslo to Stockholm Central was 5:40 and the cost was about $70 USD. And, I got to see some more very pretty countryside!
