After spending the first few days of our trip in Copenhagen we were off to our next destination- Norway! And our first stop there was the capital city of Oslo.
After going back to the Copenhagen airport (via bus, to train, to shuttle) to pick up the car we were renting (getting an Opel Astra, unfortunately not stick-shift like I had requested, but otherwise it ended up being a great car), and after having to deal with the customer service lady who wanted to keep adding things to my booking to make my original request much more expensive, we were off!
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Our car for the next three weeks
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| On the road! |
First we had to cross the Oresund Bridge, the railroad and auto toll bridge crossing the Oresund strait that divides Denmark and Sweden- we were going into our second country! The bridge is almost 5 miles long- the longest combined road/rail bridge in Europe.
We drove about 5.5 hours that day, through Sweden and stopping in the town of Gothenborg for lunch (more about that town in a later post) before arriving in Oslo at our AirBnb for the evening. And we passed, of course, an awful lot of IKEAs and lots of beautiful landscape.
That evening we decided to stay in and relax so we would be ready for our full day in Oslo the next day. Luckily, next to our AirBnb there was a shopping center and we were able to buy a tent for our time in Norway, as well as some groceries and other supplies for our trip. And then we spent the evening watching netflix and eating pizza.
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| We got our tent and some other essential supplies- like cookies! |
The next morning we navigated the public transit system to get to our- you guessed it!- free walking tour! This is how I always recommend starting getting to know a new city. Here’s my warning before I get too in-depth with this blog post, we only had one day in Oslo and there is A LOT we didn’t get to see that I would want to see if I ever get the opportunity to go back.
But back to the day that we did have. We arrived the evening before, but a lot of things in Norway, entrance to museums and churches, close by 6pm so we wouldn’t have gotten to see those things anyways. Our walking tour started at 10am at the Tiger statue outside of Jernbanetorget, the Oslo central station. The tiger statue is in reference to the city’s nickname “tigerstaden’ or the city of tigers, thus named by author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson because of his perception of the city of Oslo being a cold and dangerous place (I’d have to agree about the cold!) To celebrate the 1000-year anniversary of the city some tiger statues were placed around Oslo.
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| Outside the main station of Oslo |
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| Our cute walking tour guide in Oslo |
Our first stop on the walking tour was the Oslo Opera House. This is a very new building, just opened in 2008. One of the most interesting aspects of this building is the angled white marble roof, which is open for the public to walk on and around to explore, or picnic on during a nice day (if those actually exist).
The Opera House is right on the water, and nearby is a sculpture floating in the fjord called She Lies, made by Monica Bonvicini
of stainless steel and glass. Because it is floating it can turn and change perspectives.The neighborhood that the Opera House overlooks is called Bjørvika. This neighborhood is being transformed from being a container port into a series of high rises referred to as ‘The Barcode Project’. This is where the Munch museum will be located after it is opened, replacing the former one. The Munch museum is one place that we didn’t get to during our day, and I would love to get there in the future.
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| Didn’t get to see this painting during our day in Oslo, hopefully in the future. |
The next stop on our walking tour was the oldest part of Oslo called Kvadraturn, the old market place when Oslo was called Christiania. In the center of the square is a statue of a glove, symbolizing when King Christian IV declared that this would be where the new town would be located after a fire destroyed part of Oslo in 1624.
The city’s oldest building is located here, as well as the old town hall, which is now a restaurant and museum.
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| Oslo’s city hall from 1641-1733 |
It is here we learned that in the past the colors of the buildings signified the stature of a family. White buildings were for the richest families (because the pigment cost the most), yellow was for the medium-class, and red buildings were for the poorer families.
Located behind the square is the Akershus Fortress, built around the 1290s by King Haakon V as a defensive post. It went through several sieges, especially against the Swedes, seeing its first battle in 1308. King Christian IV, who I mentioned about the square above, modernized the fortress and gave it the look of a renaissance castle. The fortress was never taken over by enemies, however during WWII it was surrendered without combat to the Nazis from 1940-1945. The fortress was also used as a prison, and it was the site of 8 executions of traitors during WWII.
The fortress is still a military area, but is open to the public (another thing I’ll have to come back to see). There are military museums located here, and you can also visit the crypt of past Norwegian nobility. And one of my favorite facts- part of the fortress was replicated at Epcot in Disney World, Florida!
After telling us about the fortress, our guide led us up a hill so that we could have a look out across Oslofjord.
The last stop on our walking tour (at least last for us because we lost our tour guide while we were there-haha) was the Oslo City Hall. Construction started in 1931, was paused during WWII, and was completed in 1950. The bell tour every hour plays a different song, they even played a tribute song to Bowie after his death and here is a clip of the bells playing Super Mario Brothers theme song.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqHnmBys1A&w=320&h=266]Outside of the City Hall are a series of statues, depicting people from all walks of life who live in Norway, like this working man.
As our guide told us, the outside is pretty bland (red brick and straight lines), but don’t forget it’s what is inside that counts- and that is completely true with the interior of the City Hall. Once inside, the main hall is decorated by Henrik Sorenson and Alf Rolfsen, two famous Norwegian artists. The frescoes show all kinds of scenes- fishing, forestry, industry- important parts of the Norwegian culture.
Other murals depict some of the history of Norway. Just look at these murals and you will understand why we lost track of time and didn’t meet back up with our guide and group again.
On December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, this is where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony takes place (the other Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm).
Since we were abandoned by our guide, we got to wander around the rest of the City Hall, including the second floor, where we were greeted by more murals and artwork.
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| View from inside Oslo City Hall |
Here was my favorite room, on the second floor, with murals by Norwegian artist Per Krohg covering every inch of the wall and ceiling, showing life during the different seasons in Norway, as well as historical scenes that affected Norwegian life, such as Nazi occupation.
After touring the City Hall we needed some fuel for the day, so we went to a Seven-Eleven for some lunch. Man, these convenient stores are all over Scandinavia, and our sandwiches were pretty good. We were all about saving money when we could because it is pretty expensive in Norway. So gas station sandwiches and grocery store supplies are what we often lived off of. After lunch we popped into a souvenir shop, where I got to test out what it at least looks like to be a stereotypical viking, and met my first troll!
Our destination was the Norwegian Folk Museum, established in 1894 by Hans Aall, a librarian and historian. Temporary exhibition buildings and historical buildings were re-erected and the museum opened in 1901, becoming the first open-air museum in the world.
At the museum, we were able to walk around 155 traditional houses from all over Norway (the original buildings, not just reconstructions) and a stave church dating from 1200.
This stave church was in Gol, Norway, but when the city decided to build a new church and demolish the old church in 1880, the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments bought the materials so they could move it here. It was then bought my King Oscar II, and here it has been since 1885; it is still partially the property of the monarchy.
While we were visiting the stave church there was a wedding that was about to take place, so we were able to see people in their traditional dress.
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| This was our first glimpse of a stave church, and we were excited to see it. The reactions of my travel buddies pretty much sums up their personalities : ) |
The open-air museum had tons of homes, barns and other buildings taken from old villages and moved here rather than be destroyed. Most of them were available to walk around in, like this school house!
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| 3 teachers visiting the school house |
It wasn’t the best weather while we were visiting (something we had to get used to during our three weeks of travel) but that didn’t stop us from thoroughly enjoying visiting all the villages, we were in heaven!
Many of the buildings were furnished with pieces from the same dates as the buildings themselves (some as early as the 13th century!) so that you could get a feel for what it would have looked like during those times.
There were also people working, explaining what life would have been during the times of the buildings, or giving demonstrations. You could buy food specialties or even take a carriage ride.
One of my favorites was going into a building and meeting this girl, who played for us some traditional folk music on her beautiful violin. And since we were the only ones there, she treated us to several songs.
But we’re not done at the Folkmuseum, there were more modern areas from Norway, such as this Standard Oil gas station dating from 1928, relocated from the town of Holmestrand. Also relocated from that town was this confectioner store.
We also visited this shop, were I got to learn more about the paint and pigments used to paint the buildings, such as the white, yellow or red buildings we learned about earlier during our walking tour.
The folk museum was awesome- we could’ve spent all day there, but we had limited time, only the one day in Oslo, so we had to move on. During our ferry ride over we made a new friend, a nice lawyer from Germany who was visiting Oslo before starting a tour of Norway, and he asked to join us at the folk museum, and he also asked us to join him at the Fram museum. This was not on our list of places to visit, we didn’t even know much about the museum, but we obliged- and I’m glad we did! This museum, opened in 1936, is all about Norwegian polar exploration, and especially three Norwegian explorers: Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen.
The museums main focus is of course the Fram ship. The interior of the ship is intact and you can go in a and visit it. The Fram is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Atlantic between 1893-1912 and sailed further north and south that any other wooden ship. It was very interesting to walk around and see what life would have been like on this ship.
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Another part of the museum explains the Gjøa, a ship in which Roald Amundsen and a crew of six traversed the Northwest Passage in a three-year journey from 1903-1906.
The museum also showcases stories of explorers, with artifacts and models of ships, as well as animals from the polar regions, like this polar bear.
There were short films, and also a part where you can walk through a recreation of what life would feel like in the Arctic, complete with shaky floors, icy (and it really was cold) walls and dead sailor mannequins, frozen to death. I do enjoy some silly fun.
After the museum we walked along the waters edge while we waited for the next ferry, enjoying the views for a few minutes before the rain rolled in again.
After taking a ferry back to the “mainland” we said goodbye to our new friend Ingram (who wanted to see things that we had already seen that day) and headed towards the royal palace.
The palace, containing 173 rooms, is the official residence of the Norwegian monarchy. Flocked by guards around the palace, you can wander the grounds and the gardens. It was painted yellow because the monarchy really wanted to be identified with the middle-class. You can take tours on the inside of this nineteenth-century built palace.
The rest of the evening we spent wandering around the streets of Oslo, admiring the beautiful houses, usually adorned with colorful flowers.
Though most everything was closed for the evening, there was one place we could still go visit- Frogner Park, the largest park in the city covering about 112 acres. It is also the most popular tourist attraction in Oslo because in it is a popular sculpture garden showcasing work by what is considered Norway’s greatest sculptor, Gustav Vigeland. Vigeland created about 600 figures from 1924 to 1943 and they line a main path through the park leading to the centerpiece, a huge monolith with 121 figures carved into a single block of stone. This is the largest sculpture park with sculptures by a single artist in the world. The sculptures show people, all nude, in different stages of life. Some of the sculptures were obviously troubled, while others showed kids at play, or families huddled together.
And that wraps up our one day in Oslo. Probably a city that merits more than a day, especially with all the museums, but we were anxious to get to the wild side of Norway- the fjords! Stay tuned!
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The Opera House is right on the water, and nearby is a sculpture floating in the fjord called She Lies, made by Monica Bonvicini of stainless steel and glass. Because it is floating it can turn and change perspectives.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqHnmBys1A&w=320&h=266]
Other murals depict some of the history of Norway. Just look at these murals and you will understand why we lost track of time and didn’t meet back up with our guide and group again. 
