Visit to Oslo

Oslo is still in mourning after attacks by an anti-immigration zealot killed 77 people on July 22. Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb in Oslo and shot young people at a Labour Party camp on Utoeya island outside the city.

Oslo Cathedral, close to Hotel Rico, where I stayed for three nights, is still surrounded by tributes to the dead. I went past it each day I was there. One day I saw a boy place a single red rose in the railing by the doorway.

This graffiti of a child's face was on the wall of a lane leading to a driveway.

One of the most amazing things about Oslo is this neon sign advertising Freia chocolate.

It is very difficult to photograph, but a good shot worth a lot to the soul.

I caught this blue image at night and the one below during the day when the lights were off.

In general, Oslo is spectacular for its light and colour.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Oslo shares northern iconography with Canada.

Except that we do not have Viking hats in Canada.

I was lucky enough to have had a friend, Dean, who took me all over the city.

One place we visited was Vigeland Park, which is amazingly green and has the most incredible sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland made of bronze, granite and iron.

We went to the Viking Ship Museum, which houses Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune ships, and other Viking finds. The ships were found in royal burial mounds in the Oslo fjord. They were to carry the dead into another world and contained various treasures, which are on show in the museum.

We took the bus to the museum, and the ferry back to central Oslo.

We walked past the parliament and the building where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year.

The night I arrived we had Indian food in Groenland, the second night we went to an Italian restaurant called Olive for pizza and the final night we ate Norwegian cuisine at the Grand Hotel.

I had the best dessert -- rhubarb and strawberry soup -- at the Grand Hotel.

After dinner we went for a walk to look at the opera house.

On my final day, I went to the national art gallery. I saw Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" -- which I have seen before in New York -- in a room dedicated to his work.

Cat outtake from "Rest time in the Garden" by Pierre Bonnard.

Part of "Struggle for Survival" (Christian Krogh, 1889)

I might add more pictures.