Z woke me at 4:30 to retrieve a lost sleep toy, and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I moved out into the elevator lobby and wrote travel notes in an overstuffed chair, then went down for breakfast alone shortly after they opened at 6:45. I went up again, woke N for her turn at food and the conference, and went back to sleep. I woke with a start at 9:15, showered, and went through the laborious task of waking the kids and getting them down to breakfast before it closed at ten.
We dallied in the room for a while, then walked the couple of blocks to the nearby Leprosy Museum, in one of the old white wooden buildings forming a former hospital complex. Inside, a woman who appeared to be a medical student took our admissions, handed us a leaflet, and briefly explained the setup. We were in a building which used to house patients in small cells ranged around a communal area. There were a number of paintings and photographs of sufferers, a reconstructed doctor's office and examining room (each as tiny as the cells which had barely enough space for two twin beds and a narrow corridor between them), and a passage to the adjoining church, a plain, simple structure. The kids were fascinated and asked many questions, some of which I had to defer to the attendant.
We joined N for lunch in the cafe (I learned from a sign outside that the buffet normally cost NOK 195 -- we didn't have official permission to take the kids in, but an informal okay from Jan Arne), eating a little less than usual because the only things that ever changed were the hot dishes, none of which were ever worthwhile.
More piano playing before N went up to pack and the kids to play in the room and I went to the afternoon session. They met me at the coffee break; it was sunny outside, and we decided we should walk around. This time we went south along Torgalmenningen (past a couple of really bad singers butchering some pop song on an outdoor stage) and up the stairs at the end to the neo-Gothic Johanneskirken, then around through a pedestrian zone and down some cobblestoned streets lined with nice wooden houses back into the downtown, along the north end of the octagonal lake, and back to the hotel.
We rested in the room for a while, then met a couple of the attendees (Fran and Mike -- he's active in our area of research, and I had met him briefly before but never really spoken to him) who had, on the basis of brief conversations during the breaks, asked us to have dinner with them. Together we walked straight up the street just south of the train station, past the lake, through the downtown pedestrian zone, and up onto the spine of the southern peninsula to a place Jan Arne (who was meeting us there) had picked out.
It was called Spiesekroken; refreshingly, it had no English menu posted outside (though they had some for us inside). It was a small place, delicately decorated in a modern pan-European style, with youthful and friendly staff, and an interesting menu. I had filet of horse (the first time I'd had an opportunity to eat horse in eighteen years) with a salsa of green onions, garlic, and peppers in oil, and potatoes gratinee; N had the daily special, trout steamed in what appeared to be Swiss chard (mangold?), and the kids shared grilled lamb (nicely sliced into small pieces) atop a ratatouille with chunks of feta cheese, and fried potatoes. It was all quite good. For dessert the kids got ice cream on the house; N had a ginger pear torte, and I had fresh figs with creme fraiche brulee.
After dinner we walked up the spine further; at the highest point was a small playground with a tire swing, which kept the kids occupied while we chatted. The sun was still up, there were patches of blue sky visible, and it was cool. We had a good view of the harbour, the surrounding hills were free of clouds (even the highest nearby mountain, with the cable car running up it), and the fjord.
Eventually, at nearly ten o'clock, we convinced the kids to head back to the hotel, as we had to get up early for the excursion the next day.