Christmas in Oslo
This year I celebrated Christmas in Norway for the first time. My family arrived here the day before Christmas Eve. My brother and his girlfriend arrived first and while we were waiting for my parents to arrive, we went to Frognerseteren to have lunch. From Frognerseteren you have a very nice view over Oslo. An excellent starting point for sightseeing in Oslo.
Together with my family I had some really nice days here in Oslo during Christmas, with lots of good food, too much as always. We had a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner. Yesterday my family travelled back to Sweden again and life is back to normal. My apartment feels a little bit empty now...
It was the first time in Oslo for my brother's girlfriend and since I wanted to show her some of the tourist attractions in the city we went out for walks every day and enjoyed the sunny weather in Oslo.
This year is coming to an end and today we are driving to the ski resort Trysil to celebrate New Year's Eve together with some friends.
Weekend in Stockholm
The town hall.
The last weekend before Christmas we travelled to Stockholm. We stayed in a hotel in the Old Town. A cozy district with narrow cobblestone paved streets. We spent some time walking around in the Old Town, visited a Christmas market and looked at the Christmas lights and decorations. We also had Christmas dinner at a Middle Age themed restaurant in a cellar in the Old Town.
The alley of Mårten Trotzig. The narrowest street in Stockholm.
A candy cane store in the Old Town.
Having dinner at a Middle Age themed restaurant in the Old Town.
Middle Age entertainment.
We woke up to a sunny Saturday and walked over to Djurgården. There we visited ABBA The Museum, which opened up the doors in May 2013. It's an interactive exhibition about the pop-group ABBA. At the museum you can sing and perform together with ABBA, look at some of their stage clothes and of course listen to their music.
In the evening we had dinner at restaurant Himlen (the Sky) located on top of a skyscraper in the southern part of Stockholm. I had tuna with king crab, saddle of deer and crème brûlée. The food was delicious!
Night view from the restaurant.
The Galápagos Islands
The island of Santa Cruz was our first stop in the Galápagos archipelago. Here we visited Charles Darwin Research Station and learned more about the giant tortoises, Galápagos most famous inhabitants. After the visit to the research station we travelled up in the highlands and there we met the wild giant tortoises. On Santa Cruz we also saw the first marine iguanas and the red sally lightfoot crabs, which can be seen everywhere in the archipelago.
Sally lightfoot crab.
Sally lightfoot crab.
Marine iguana.
Giant tortoises.
A rare species of giant tortoise.
Santa Fé was our next stop. This island is one of the oldest in the archipelago. Here we met sea lions and land iguanas. I also had the best snorkelling experience ever here. I saw a white tip reef shark chasing a sea lion when I was snorkelling, and I was so lucky and managed to capture the moment with my underwater camera. Just before the camera broke down...
Sea lion babies.
Land iguana.
Land iguana.
A white tip reef shark chasing a sea lion!
Green turtle.
The cruise continued to South Plaza, but before we arrived there a frigate bird came to greet us and landed on top of one of the cranes onboard the ship.
Frigate bird.
A gull with its' chick.
Outside the shoreline of San Cristóbal you can find two vertical cliffs known as Kicker Rock or León Dormido, "the sleeping lion". Before we landed on San Cristóbal we went snorkelling around Kicker Rock.
Kicker rock in the horizon.
On the beach with the sleeping sea lions.
Lava gull.
On the island of Española we met colourful marine iguanas. Here the marine iguanas have a reddish skin. Between March and December Española lodge a colony of waved albatrosses. Majestic birds! We also met some funny looking blue-footed boobies here.
Marine iguana.
Waved albatross.
Waved albatrosses.
Waved albatrosses.
Blue-footed booby.
Sombrero Chino, the "chinese hat" got its' name because the island resembles a hat. There were less animals and birds here, but we were lucky to see a lonely Galápagos penguin swimming close to the island! The northernmost species of penguins.
Sombrero chino.
A little lava lizard is climbing the sea lion mountain.
Galápagos penguin.
The island of Santiago is a barren lava island and almost the only things that grow here are lava cactuses. Impressive that they manage to survive in this lava landscape.
Tine is photographing a lava cactus.
Lava landscape.
The island of Genovesa is home to thousands of birds. The island is sometimes called booby island, because of the many boobies which are living here. We saw both red-footed boobies and nazca boobies. The red footed boobies live up in the trees and it looks a bit strange to see birds with webbed feet cling to the branches.
Red-footed booby.
A nazca booby with its' chick.
This was a rather short summary of an amazing trip to a true paradise on earth! I spent one week cruising around in the Galápagos archipelago and visited a number of islands and landing sites, but there are still more places to discover and I hope I will come back one day!
Ecuador
The highlight during the trip to Ecuador was without doubt the week we spent on the Galapagos Islands, but both before and after we were there, we spent some days in mainland Ecuador.
We travelled by bus to Otavalo, an indian village famous for the market which is held every week. They also have a tourist market, open every day. We went to have a look and I bought two knitted ponchos there. A typical thing to buy in South America.
We travelled by bus to Otavalo, an indian village famous for the market which is held every week. They also have a tourist market, open every day. We went to have a look and I bought two knitted ponchos there. A typical thing to buy in South America.
Before we travelled out to Galapagos we spent a day in the capital Quito. Like almost every tourist in Quito we visited the equator monument.
About two hours drive from Cuenca you can find Ingapirca, which is the best preserved Inca ruin in Ecuador. I have been to Peru before and have seen Maccu Picchu, and Ingapirca is not even possible to compare with that, but still it was a nice place to visit. We had lunch there and for dessert I tried tree tomato, which was interesting. It tasted more like a fruit than a tomato.
