Tuesday was our first workday and was spent in the HP Asia Pacific HQ offices, so really no opportunity for photos. Because of that, I’ve included some earlier pictures that haven’t made it into a blog yet.
I’m staying at the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore, which has a roof top pool area with a great view of the city.
Four Seasons Hotel rooftop patio and pool
On Monday morning, I walked out of the hotel lobby and snapped this pic on my smart phone of Orchard Blvd. This is typical of most of the streets in the city… lots of beautiful trees and flowers everywhere.
Orchard Blvd, Singapore
While we were at the Sands Hotel on Monday, I took this picture of their ‘infinity pool’ at the top of the hotel overlooking the city. The other picture is of one of the several hot tubs overlooking the harbour!
Marina Bay Sands Hotel infinity pool in the Skypark
That evening, Keith and I went back down to the harbour for dinner and I took these pictures of the Sands Hotel and the downtown financial distric across the water from our restaurant. They have nightly laser light shows that draw big crowds.
Marina Bay Sands HotelSingapore Financial District
The only pic I took yesterday was of a page of the menu at My Humble House restaurant… not my favourite meal by any stretch! The bottom entry on this page, if you can’t read it, is for “Braised Fish May and Mushroom in Shark’s Cartilage Broth”! Yikes!
Fortunately, we have today to try to get rid of jet lag and to visit a bit of Singapore. It’s only 35C (95F) and humid! It literally hits you like walking into a sauna.
I met up with 3 other HP’rs in town for the meetings and we took a cab downtown to the Marina district to visit a very new development called the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.
Me, Rob Sloat, Keith Downey and Doris Devens
The 3 towers are all hotel rooms and the ‘surfboard’ on top is an immense viewing platform, restaurant and swimming pool complex.
Singapore Marina Bay Sands Hotel
Here’s a few pictures of the area many taken from the top of the building!
View of Singapore HarbourSkypark Hot-tubArtScience MuseumThe Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
We had lunch at the famous Raffles Hotel. After lunch, we got out of the oppressive heat and humidity and cabbed it back to the hotel.
As part of my role in the HP Worldwide Digital Health Practice, I was sent to various locations around the world to develop the local practice and to deliver training. This trip to Singapore and Sydney stretched from May 6-18, 2011.
I left Sarnia for the London airport around 3:45AM on Friday, May 6th to catch flights to take me into Vancouver around 10AM. I visited with Gramms in Chilliwack for the afternoon and then caught a late night flight from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia. We had touchdown in SYD around 9AM local time… yeah! A 15 hour flight behind me, a 7 hour layover and then another 8 hour flight to Singapore. Took a couple of pictures at the airport of downtown Sydney, but there wasn’t time to go visit.
After a cab ride right out of “Amazing Race”, I arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel on Orchard Rd in Singapore around 11PM. It was great to talk with my Babe to wish her a great Mother’s Day!
Very nice view of Singapore from my window on the 15th floor.
On our final day in Norway, we had a visit to Akershus University Hospital, which is the 2nd Digital Hospital in Norway.
Some more views from our hotel!
The Royal PalaceHolmenkollbakken ski jumping hill Oslo harbour… still frozen over
Rob Sloat, Ray Giles and I visited the Akershus University Hospital just northeast of the city of Oslo. It is recognized as the 2nd Digital Hospital in Norway and utilizes the same technologies as St Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim. Those technologies form the base of the HP Digital Hospital program.
Rob and Ray …… in the impressive hospital atriumTwo of the hospitals IT leads were our guides for the dayOne of the many automated delivery vehicles
After our visit to Akershus, we took the afternoon off to sight see!
Ray and Rob in front of the Royal PalaceNational TheatreOslo UniversityGrand Hotel
After touring the centre of the city, we went to the harbour to Aker Brygge
Ray enjoying Oslo!who needs a watch? that’s the Akershus Fortress in the backgroundtaking pictures of…… the fortressAker Brygge is the place for shopping and restaurantslots of ice on the harbourtime for a warm beverage inside in the mall!
Well that’s all from Oslo! We took the train from the downtown station out to the airport and went our various ways!
My itinerary took me from Oslo to London, where I spent the night at an airport hotel, and home to Canada the following morning. It was very strange to be in England, but not really, if you know what I mean!
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at St. Olav’s University Hospital, where there really wasn’t any opportunity for picture taking.
St. Olav’s University Hospital was the first place to implement the Digital Hospital infrastructure and applications that made up the HP Digital Hospital program.
The days were full of discussions with the folks from the hospital as well as our partner IMATIS.
Thursday was a travel day!
A view of Trondheim as we headed to OsloA couple of views…… of the Trondheim FjordJostedalsbreen National ParkOslo Gardermoen airportdowntown Oslo
Once we had landed at Oslo Gardermoen airport, which is 40 minute train ride from downtown Olso, we picked up Ray’s rental car and headed out!
We drove for about 2-1/2 hours southwest of Oslo to Porsgrunn to visit the Head Office of our partner IMATIS, where we met with their technical team and discussed their ongoing projects.
By the time we headed back to Oslo, the sun was starting to set and it was fully dark when we drove into the unfamiliar downtown streets with a distinct lack of English road signs! We had been using Ray’s cell phone’s GPS but then even it got confused… we must have circled our hotel block two or three times before we found the way to get to the entrance!
But finally, we were able to check into our hotel… Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel on Holbergs gate a short distance from the Royal Palace. A bite to eat at a local pub and it was off to bed!
As part of my role in the HP Worldwide Digital Health Practice, I was sent to various locations around the world to develop the local practice and to deliver training. This trip to Norway stretched from March 13-17, 2011.
This time by trip started from Detroit on Sunday evening, March 12th.
I flew Delta from Detroit to Amsterdam and KLM to Oslo and on to Trondheim. I met up with my teammate, Rob Sloat, in Amsterdam!
Arrival at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam… very modern and easy to navigate… but very large!
I met up with Rob after our overnight flights… jet lag city! We had some brekkie or maybe it was lunch, not sure! Then waited for our flight to Trondheim.
Lots and lots of KLM planes on the tarmac
Our flight from Amsterdam to Trondheim was about 2 hours and then we had a 40 minute drive into town in Rob’s rental car. We booked into the Radisson Blu Royal Garden Hotel, where I had stayed in 2007 during my first trip to Norway.
A view of the fjord from our planeOn our way to the cityQuite a few farms along the wayOur hotel on the Nidelva River in downtown TrondheimA view of the harbour from my hotel room… and another view
Wanting to avoid jet-lag messing up our day, we decided to walkabout during the day and try to stay up until a more regular bedtime.
Looking down Nordre gate towards Vår Frue Kirke (Our Lady Church)This is the back courtyard of the Stiftsgården… the Summer Royal Palace… … and this is the frontKing Olav Tryggvason monumentVår Frue Kirke (Our Lady Church)
One of the highlights of the day was visiting the Nidaros Domkirke or Cathedral. The following photos show some of the incredible architecture and sculptures.
Nidaros Domkirke (Cathedral)
After out visit to the cathedral, we wandered over to the Gamle Bybro bridge over the Nidelva River.
Colourful warehouses lined…… both sides of the river!We stopped in for a beverage at the Den Gode Nabo (the Good Neighbour) pub!
We met up with the rest of our group that evening, back at the hotel.
Our last day in Oslo, so we took a bus ride from downtown to Bygdøy, a peninsula on the west side of the city centre to visit the Vikingskipshuset or Viking Ship Museum!
Eager tourists at the parking lot of the Viking Ship MuseumThe houses in the neighbourhood were all of similar architecture but very unique
The Viking Ship Museum houses three Viking era burial ships that were found as part of archaeological finds from Tune, Gokstad (Sandefjord), Oseberg (Tønsberg) and the Borre mound cemetery.
The three ships are absolutely massive, as you can really see from the photo of Elaine beside the prow of the largest one!
After our memorable tour of the Viking Ship Museum, we caught the bus back to the downtown and wandered about for some time, trying to capture the essence of the city.
We chose a recommended brasserie downtown as their menu includes unusual items such as the one I had: grilled reindeer with marinated cherry tomatoes, red onion, roccola, parmesan, mustard and honey dressing.
Christiania Brasserie on Nedre Vollgate
The next morning we flew home having really enjoyed our ‘work’ visit to Norway. Great memories of the cobbled streets and interesting locales in Trondheim and feeling, while in Oslo, like we’d stepped back in time to the late 1800’s to visit a major European city!
I don’t know if we’ll ever return, but we may have enough memories to last a lifetime!
The day before we were planning on returning to Oslo with our guests from Sherbrooke, they decided on changing their itinerary so they could spend the weekend in Amsterdam rather than Oslo!
So we decided to rough it alone in Oslo! What a great decision!
On Thursday, we flew via SAS, thankfully on a larger plane this time, from Trondheim to Oslo and caught a cab downtown to our hotel, the very modern Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel on the Sonja Henies plass.
While checking into the hotel, instead of the expected tall, blond Norwegians, the lobby was full of shorter, swarthy men! It turned out the World Cup soccer match between Norway and Turkey was happening the following day and the hotel was full of Turkish male soccer fans!
Our room was on a very high floor facing westward, so I took a few pics of our view! It’s very hard to see, but in the distance in the 2nd photo is the famous Holmenkollbakken ski jump!
As we had the day to ourselves, we decided to walk downtown and just explore as much of Oslo as we could!
On our walk downtown… Radisson Blu Plaza hotel in the backgroundA local street performer!The view down Karl Johans gate to the palaceChristian Krohg was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalistA building owned by Olav Thon, a billionaire and the country’s richest personThe Grand Hotel… and it was!In front of the Stortinget, the Norwegian ParliamentStrolling the promenadeLike fish, or seals, out of water!the National TheatreUniversity of Oslo
At the end of our walk through the core of Oslo, we came to the palace!
The Royal Palace, home of King Harald V and Queen SonjaFraternizing with the Palace Guard!
After walking about the Palace grounds, we ambled through various neighbourhoods towards the harbour.
Frogner House Apartments on Colbjørnsens gateVikaterrassen shopping mall on Ruseløkkveien Nobel Peace Center in the former Oslo Vestbanestasjon (Oslo West railway station) buildingAker Brygge pier is famous for dining and shoppingA wonderful view of the Oslo harbourNeeding to rest our feet, we took a break at Kafe CelsiusIt was a great place… good food too!A view of the harbour from the Fortress
WW II Patriots memorial
de kjempet de alt de gav oss alt pa dette steo ble norkse patrioter skutt under krigen 1940 1945
they fought they fell they gave us everything in this way Norwegian patriots were shot during the war 1940 1945
Memorial to Norwegian resistance fighter shot by the NazisAkershus FortressAkershus Fortress
After our lengthy walk through the city and the harbour, it was supper time and what else would one have for supper in Oslo the capital of Norway? Pizza, of course!
Mamma Pizza at 22 Dronningens gate (courtesy of Google Maps)
That’s it for today… hoping to go to the Viking Ship Museum!
I spent Tuesday and Wednesday with the client touring the hospital and having meetings with the folks at St. Olav’s Hospital, but we were, thankfully, free to do as we pleased in the evening!
While I was working, Elaine did her own touring of the town, but no pics, so I’ve borrowed some from public domain to document where she went!
Vår Frue Kirke (The Church of Our Lady) is one of Trondheim’s oldest buildings. It was devoted to the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages. The tower and the western part were erected in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the eastern part is identical to the medieval church which dates from the late 12th century.
Vår Frue Kirke
The Archbishop’s Palace in Trondheim is a castle and palace in the city of Trondheim, located just south of the Nidaros Cathedral. For hundreds of years, the castle was the seat, residence and administrative center of the Archbishop of Nidaros
Erkebispegården, the Archbishop’s Palace
What would a city tour without a bit of shopping?
Clothing and knick knacks!Shopping mall, theatre, coffee houses across the street from our hotel
Tuesday evening, we went for a long stroll around the downtown restaurant district and decided on going to Jonathan Grill, which had great reviews!
Brittania Hotel on Dronningens gate…… home of Jonathan Grill!Very interesting decor…… and great food!
On Wednesday evening, again we went for a nice long walk through the downtown, but ended up back at Den Gode Nabo pub!
The barkeep had me sample one of the local brews, it was interesting but I liked the Dahl’s better!Last night in Trondheim! Cheers!
Thursday morning, after a brief meeting at the hospital, we left for Oslo!
Knowing we would need some downtime to adjust to the 6 hour timezone difference, we allocated Monday to be a free day!
Elaine and I said “see you later” to my workmates and heading out to explore Trondheim. The city was founded in 997 as a trading post, and it served as the capital of Norway during the Viking Age until 1217.
the Radisson Blu Royal Garden Hotel atrium overlooking the Nidelva River
Trondheim is located on far enough North that, in November, sunrise is typically around 9AM and sunset is around 3PM. However, due to the surrounding hills, the sun really only appears above the hilltops for about 4 hours! It was a bit nippy as we headed out but it did warm up a little around Noon!
Heading towards the city centre on Kongens gateKing Olav Tryggvason sculpture in the main squareStiftsgården Royal Summer HouseThe view down Monkegata toward the harbourAt the foot of Monkegata, Den Siste Viking, the Last Viking statueFresh lobster at the harbourneeds descriptionGamle Bybro bridge over the NidelvaColourful warehouses line the Nidelvathe ‘must have’ photo in TrondheimElaine making new friends at the local university coffee bar!the Den Gode Nabo pub by the bridgeNidoros Domkirke …… the 11th Century cathedralEnjoying delightful dinner at an Italian restaurant, Frati on Kongens gate!
We had a wonderful day exploring Trondheim. Tomorrow is a work day and I’ll be spending my time at St Olav’s Hospital with our customer.
