Another Day in Oslo, Norway
There is so much to see in Norway - if you've never been to Scandinavia, I encourage you to make the trip!
After our brief visit to Svalbard, we returned to Oslo and filled our day with as much as possible - we enjoyed a lovely lunch with some friends, stopped in at many interesting and inspiring design and antique shops and toured a new and interesting lounge at Scandinavian Airlines.
Here are some of our photos - enjoy.
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- Scandinavian Airlines provided all of the flights for our expedition group. SAS recently opened their new “Next Generation SAS Lounge”. Head Chef, Peter Lawrance, gave me a tour of this well-designed space. (Photo by Claire Takacs) https://www.flysas.com
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- Here I am with Chef Peter Lawrance. The lounge offers a wonderful buffet of Nordic breakfast and lunch treats, including smoked fish, rye and sourdough breads and cheeses, as well as a particularly delicious butter – we all kept tasting it. (Photo by Claire Takacs)
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- This cheese slicer is designed to easily slice block cheddar cheese into sandwich slices. It is so fun to use and very effective and precise. (Photo by Claire Takacs)
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- This photo booth allows you to create your own digital avatar. It was another fun feature of this lounge. (Photo by Claire Takacs)
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- There is even a “light energy room” that helps your body handle jet lag. Chef Peter and I stopped for one more photo. (Photo by Claire Takacs)
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- In a suburb just outside Oslo, a small group of us also had a lovely lunch hosted by Gunhild Stordalen, wife of Petter Stordalen and owner of our luxurious hotel, The thief. Here I am with Gunhild and the luncheon’s chef, Ole Jonny Eikefjord, who is also a cookbook author and restaurateur. https://thethief.com
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- This is a view from Gunhild’s balcony – it was a very calm winter’s day with temperatures in the high teens.
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- This Buddha statue, which sits on Gunhild’s balcony, was sent to cities around the world – each of which is inscribed on the piece.
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- Gunhild checks to make sure everything is ready for our lunch. Gunhild is the founder and president of EAT Foundation, an organization that focuses on reforming the global food system so that this growing global population can eat healthy food from a healthy planet. http://www.eatforum.org/
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- Our meal included this delicious salmon and micro-greens salad with cucumber balls, pine nuts, and a flavorful vinaigrette.
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- January through April is the premium season for wild-caught cod fish. Our next course was this cod and a variety of fresh vegetables including tomato and broccoli rabe.
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- And here is dessert – plated and ready to be served.
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- Dessert was a trio of treats, which included a lemon meringue tart and a homemade strawberry sorbet – everything was delicious.
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- Here I am with our lunch group – most of us were also part of the expedition to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard.
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- After lunch, we took some time to shop in downtown Oslo. This shop is called Morten Stamnes, an equisit antiques, interiors and design store. The owner, and general manager, Morten Stamnes, has 35-years of experience in the antique industry. He is one of the country’s most experienced experts in antique restoration of price crowns, floor coverings, wall and table clocks.
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- We saw some beautiful lighting fixtures, such as this 18th century crystal chandelier.
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- Here is another stunning light fixture hanging in the window of the shop.
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- We also stopped into this store, Galleri Gimle – another exquisite home design business.
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- I loved seeing these beautiful Aga stoves. Years ago, I installed an Aga stove in my Connecticut home. The Aga cooker was invented in 1922 by the Nobel Prize–winning Swedish physicist Gustaf Dalén. It works by steadily transferring the heat from its core into its ovens and hotplates.
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- I stopped to pose for a quick snapshot with the store owner, and then showed her a video of me demonstrating how to cook on my Aga stove. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHRDXZp1k5Q.
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- This is a rotisserie by La Cornue. This is great for roasted chickens and turkeys and ducks. The radiant heat roasts easily and slowly and the fat drops down into the tray.
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- In a nearby home goods and hardware store, we saw lots and lots of clocks.
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- And walls of brackets, hinges and other hardware.
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- Look at all the interesting hinges.
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- The shop also had shelves filled with different paints.
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- In another store, we saw these beautiful outdoor lanterns.
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- And a lovely plate holder – I also love displaying many of my platters this way.
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- This was a very interesting pendant light.
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- And here is an interesting use of horsehair in this lighting fixture. Perhaps I will make some of these at home.
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- Here I am with Kira, Kira’s friend, Cornelia Thrane-Steen and her business partner, Maria Erlingsdotter Neerland, and Heather. Cornelia and Maria own a company called Divine Design in Oslo. They took us around to tour the kitchen design stores and antique shops – it was a fun day and a very wonderful trip to Oslo. http://www.divinedesign.as/
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