Oslo, Norway Pt. 2

I’ve been recounting my adventures while not on the road. We arrived and started exploring Oslo. We now continue an adventure through a very cool city!

Oslo Marathon

It was a bright sunny day and we were eager to hit up some of the attractions afforded us by the Oslo Pass.  We discovered that this was the day of the Oslo Marathon! We were greeted with thousands of runners along the street and festivities throughout the city! It made for a festive mood with everyone cheering, live music and a general happiness everywhere we went. We got into it as well cheering on the racers and taking in our surroundings.

Slowly we made our way to the waterfront where we’d board a ferry en route to the Fram museum.

The Fram is a wooden ship noted for travelling the furthest North and South.  As a transportation geek, I was excited for this, however when I was sad to learn that the museum was closed for maintenance. Undeterred, we jumped on a bus to our next destination, the Viking Ship Museum.

Viking Ship Museum

The Viking Ship Museum was a stop we had wanted to make since our initial research into Oslo. Vikings have always fascinated me and these are some of the best preserved viking ships and artifacts (including tombs, treasures and other archaeological discoveries) in the world. These ships much like Egyptian pyramids, are for the dead and included a large number of burial treasures with them.

While I enjoyed all the history that this museum had, it was a bit smaller than I had expected. I imagined the museum to be a bit more elaborate, given the historical significance of the exhibits. Perhaps this goes hand in hand with a major theme of the museum being that preserving these artifacts continues to be an uphill battle.  These ships are made of wood and time and the environment take its toll. I  hope to bring more awareness to this particular issue in hopes that we can continue to preserve these treasures for future generations.

Oslo

Our next stop was Vigeland Park. We had planned to bus to Vigeland, but we got off early and strolled through some quiet Oslo neighborhoods and really enjoyed it!  We stopped at a small coffee shop for a cup of coffee and pastry before arriving at Vigeland.  These small bits of exploration turn into some very memorable moments.

Vigeland Park 

Vigeland park is a park with over 200 bronze cultures depicting different statues, mainly of people.  They line the pathways and is a very cool park to visit.  We spent a lot of time here simply enjoying the beauty of the park, but also the uniqueness of the sculptures.  For anyone visiting Oslo, I would highly recommend making it a point to visit this park.

In the center of the park is a large collection of different sculptures. Its a beautiful display of the human form and I really liked how you could see some of the emotion that was displayed in some of these sculptures.

Having to tear ourselves away from the park we decided to walk back to our Hotel. It was a few kilometers but we enjoyed exploring so much we strolled through more Oslo neighborhoods.  Oddly enough we stumbled upon the Royal Palace and some random street art in the process! Unfortunately because it was a Sunday the palace was closed to visitors so we simply got to admire it from the outside.

Dorvrehallen

For dinner we had searched up a small, seemingly local restaurant that served authentic Norwegian food called Dorvrehallen. we both had the “Flesk I Dupe” which was veggies, white gravy and thick cut bacon. We also shared desert which was warm apple cake and vanilla ice cream.  Dinner was extremely satisfying!

Norwegian Armed Forces Museum

The next day we had two major stops on our itinerary, the first being the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum. One of my few regrets on this trip was not taking more photos inside this museum.  As a boy I’ve always loved things to do with the military and was eager to visit. I didn’t know much about Norwegian military history, so I didn’t expect this museum to be that huge. Boy was I wrong! We spent several hours here, taking in all the history from the time of the vikings through to modern military involvement of the Norwegian military. The museum itself is very unassuming but once you spend time inside you’ll realize there is a rich history here.  I was very impressed!

Oslo Museum of Architecture

We walked to the Oslo Museum of Architecture. There were some great exhibits of Oslo specific architecture and an exhibit dedicated to Picasso as well. He had been involved in the design of some Norwegian government buildings so it was neat to see that connection.

We also stumbled upon a very cool exhibit on Corporeal space. It was designed in such a way that the linked rooms would require a human body to move and exert themselves creatively.

Afternoon/Evening of Food

It was the afternoon by the time we had left the museum of architecture. Throughout our time in Oslo, just outside our Hotel was a very small restaurant that ALWAYS seemed like it was packed, called Illegal Burger. We did some research and it turns out it was a highly rated and reviewed burger spot in Oslo. Upon learning this we made it a point to grab it on our way back to our Hotel. I had the Bacon Double Cheese burger and garlic fries.  It was good, but I think coming from North America it probably wasn’t the best burger I’ve ever had.

It was a lazy afternoon, and we ended taking a long nap waking up just in time for dinner. We loved Dorvrehallen so much that we decided to visit again for our last dinner in Oslo.  I had grilled halibut in sour cream sauce and my sister had roast veal with veggies.

This would be our last full day in Oslo.  I very much enjoyed this city and would love to return sometime in the future. Although it was the most expensive city on the trip, but aside from that, it is a beautiful and cultured place with a very good vibe that I very much loved!