Disney's Into The Woods

Synopsis: Starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine, “Into the Woods” is a humorous and heartfelt musical that follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel—all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them.  [Source: Golden Village]

 

I never knew that this was an adaptation of an original Broadway musical! If I had not check up Wikipedia, I could have gave this a miss. The songs are really nice and it was a good effort at blending the various fairy tales into a single musical. A great show not to be miss. I wonder if there will be another Broadway revival.....

 

Rate: 8.5/10

Norway Day 7 part 3 - Oslo Opera House

21 Nov - The Oslo Opera House is an iconic building in the city of Oslo, where the roof of the building angles to ground level creating a large plaza inviting pedestrians to walk up and enjoy the panoramic views of Oslo.

 The Oslo Opera House at night

Enjoying the quietness of the night 

Oslo Central Train Station

 View from the top of The Oslo Opera House

 Panoramic view of Oslo city

Norway Day 7 part 2 - Akershus Fortress & Holmenkollen Jump Tower Ski Museum

21 Nov - With no time to waste after we are done with the island hopping, we headed straight to the Akershus Fortress which was near to the pier where we disembark from our boat.

Akershus Fortress entrance

Falling leaves signifying Autumn is approaching

One of Akershus Fortress backyard

Nice garden in the Akershus Fortress

 

After we are done touring the fortress, we moved on to our next destination, which was the Holmenkollen Jump Tower Ski Museum. Along the way, the city center are starting to put up decorations for Christmas, which was fast approaching.

Christmas decorations up!

View from the metro ride to the ski museum

Ski Museum Jump Tower spotted in the distance

Fairytail like hotel near the ski museum - Holmenkollen Park Hotel Rica

 View from the top of the Jump Tower

View from a Olympic Ski Slope

Lights beautifying the ski slope as darkness began to fall

Holmenkollen Jump Tower Ski Museum at night

Norway Day 7 part 1 - Island Hopping

21 Nov - Oslo will be the last leg of our holiday plan. With 1.5 days left before we departs for good, we tried to plan in as many activities as we can so that no time will be wasted. First stop will be doing island hopping for half a day.

On the way to the pier, bypassing a neighborhood park

Beautiful trees and weather

The pier to start our island hopping tour

The main island where we will be spending most of our time

Old canon from the past guarding the country against invasion

 Panoramic view of the sea

A canon battery

Nice field for playing soccer

Autumn where the leaves turned the ground orange red

Colorful buildings by the sea

Stand By Me Doraemon

 

Synopsis: In the suburbs of Tokyo sometime ago, there lived a clumsy boy about 10 years old. There appeared in front of him a boy named Sewashi, Nobita’s descendant of four generations later from the 22nd century,and Doraemon, a 22nd century cat-type caretaker robot who helps people with its secret gadgets. Sewashi claims that his family is suffering from the debts Nobita made even to his generation, so in order to change this disastrous future, he brought along Doraemon as Nobita’s caretaker to bring happiness to his future, although Doraemon is not happy about this. And so Sewashi installed an accomplishment program into Doraemon forcing him to take care of Nobita. Unless he makes Nobita happy, Doraemon can no longer go back to the 22ndcentury. This is how the life of Doraemon and Nobita begins. Will Doraemon succeed this mission and return to the 22ndcentury?  [Source: Golden Village]

Finally, an ending to the Doraemon series? Probably. It was nice to catch this childhood cartoon on a big screen, seeing the all too familiar characters again that has accompany me through the years. Initially, I am not accustomed to seeing Doraemon in 3D mode, but you will get used to it in a while. Overall, the movie is light hearted and not too bad an option to catch if you want to catch up on the old times.

Rate: 7/10

Norway Day 6 - The Bergen Railway

20 Nov - It was time to bid farewell to Bergen as we took on the Bergen Railway for our trip back to Oslo. The Bergen Railway is highest mainline railway line in the Northern Europe, crossing the Hardangervidda plateau at 1,237 metres (4,058 ft) above sea level, not to mention lots of beautiful scenery along the way.

Woke up early to catch our train to Oslo

The carriage and seat we were assigned to 

Green hills rolling by 

As the train ascend, the view give way to snow capped mountains

Lots of lakes along the way and the greens start giving way to brown and whites

Finally, snow covered ground and frozen lake at Finse, 1222m above sea level

After about 6 hours of train ride, we arrived at Oslo

The Oslo train station NSB clock tower 

Visiting the Frogner Park on a rainy evening. Pardon the grainy picture due to the lack of light

Interesting sculpture at the Frogner Park

Norway Day 5 part 2 - Bergen

19 Nov - How embarrassing. I forgot to switch the time clock in the camera to local time and ends up part of the Bergen photos for the day end up in the next day folder. Well, here are the beautiful descent from the railway to enjoy the Bergen city lights at night.

The start of the steep decent from the railway

Bergen city at night 

Early Christmas decoration in the Bergen city center 

Tranquility... with the railway station in the background