Europe trip with Leo - Summer 2025 - Oslo

Summer of 2025. I had to go to Oslo for an IEA Wind Task 25 meeting in mid-May and was originally slated to attend Ackermann's Hybrid/Island Workshop in the Aland Islands, Finland the first week of June. So I figured I'd just stay in Europe the whole time rather than go back and forth to the US. Root scheduled his 60th birthday party in Scotland the second half of May. I told my old roommate Mette about the Aland Islands workshop and she invited me to her summer house there prior to the workshop. Then I got an invitation to give a plenary talk near Venice and I was told it was more important than the workshop. So it became a very convoluted trip: Oslo, the Netherlands, Scotland, Aland Islands, Venice. Leo decided to join part of the trip; Paul did not because he was going roller skating in San Diego. 

Oslo is SO civilized. You get off the plane, go into the airport, it goes right into a train, the train pops out in the center of the town, seen here. It's so easy and efficient!

Hannele insisted we go visit The Vigeland Park, known for its 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland of people's bodies:

We always have an IEA dinner. In Kyoto, it was a kaiseki meal, paired with sakes, with each dish describing a season or climate or weather. Our Oslo dinner was pizza. In fact they had sashimi pizza. One of the Asian guys and I were both cringing a bit but we ordered it anyway: 

We did run out to see the Munch museum on the last day:

They have multiple version of the Scream and they unveil each for a short period of time each hour:

Here's the color version:

The opera house is really cool. You can walk on the roof:

Some fun art on the outside:

After eating grocery store food in my room, and the sashimi pizza, I found Elias Mat & Sant, which was a very nice restaurant and had elk carpaccio, reindeer stew and pannacotta.