Walking toward sun-sparkled water in the coolish warmth of an early September day in the north. Me. Oslo. I imagine people are smiling as I walk by them in my new Harris/Walz t-shirt, and I’m smiling too, and, you know what…I am happy. Hey brother Robert, it’s almost like those olden times we talk about—when our happys and sads had peaks and crevices. I’m feeling a little peak coming on…

I love this city. It’s just familiar enough so I can believe it is mine for a few hours when I return. Two days have passed too quickly. Tomorrow, the last day of my stay will bring with it a bit of melancholy, I’m sure. Last visits and all that.

So, here’s what I’ve been doing. This trip was planned with a theme of peace and relaxation and friendship in mind, which is working out just fine. Oslo may be the perfect city in which to launch just such a venture. It is a small city by global standards, with about one and a half million people in the metro area. The central city, where I hang out, is quite perfect for my present travel goals. So walkable, with interesting shops, restaurants, and parks along the main (wide, partly cobblestoned) street between the Royal Palace/park, parliament, and train station. The head of the fjord is very near as are some of the major museums—which is where I’ve spent much of the past two days. Okay, so Google could have told you all the many sites where you could get all of that info, better stated, but not with the love, I, a bona fide Norwegian by DNA and desire, offer.

Yesterday, the art adventure was the Munch Museum. As always, a treat. Bold colors and lines, bony faces, not frivolous, snow and forest…why else is he so Norwegian?…besides the fact he is Norwegian, of course. On another day it was the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. At the tip of land projecting into the fjord. Sunbathers all about on land. Yachts all around in the water. Luxury apartments all around above. And then there was art.