Oslo, Norway

Tuesday 19 July

Happy birthday to another girlfriend from Brisbane, Karen Kolb, celebrating today.

Packed up and headed for Oslo, Norway today. We drove through some lovely forests and plenty of wheat fields and encountered some rain for a short period.

Before crossing the Swedish/Norwegian border we stopped to change some Euros for Norwegian Krones, of which one equates to 8 Euros. As with all border crossings encountered so far, the abandoned buildings remain but no-one is around to work them. There was a toll to pay but luckily we can do that online within the next few days.

Had trouble checking the tyres on the beast all trip, but as we crossed into Norway, the local Shell tossed up a new variant - the mobile air cylinder that you take to each wheel and pump up in turn!

Much to our chagrin, the house and barn colour schemes here are the same as Sweden – yellow and white for most houses, and red/brown barns. Apparently it doesn't get much better in Finland either.

Arrived at the Ekeberg camp site where you pay for your daily stay, plus extra for showers and power. You get a rechargeable swipe card to pay for everything so it makes it easier. The facilities are dated but very good anyway.  The camp is located on a hill top overlooking the city of Oslo.

One of the first things we saw driving in was a camper with an Aussie flag attached, so we had to go investigate. Denise and Antonio from Melbourne are travelling for 18 months and are about 6 months into it. We had a lovely afternoon tea and good chat including swapping useful information about where to go and what to see.

Wednesday 20 July

Lucky weather forecasters throughout the world often make mistakes as today was supposed to be rainy but turned out to be a gloriously sunny day.

We decided to do the 30 minute downhill walk into the city as we want to get the Oslo Card which provides free access to most attractions plus all public transport. 

The first thing we came upon was the Opera House opened in 2008, the new home of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Situated on the water front, it is meant to look like an ice-berg with much of the building in or under the sea. Visitors can walk up the sloping roof made of Italian marble, the only one of its kind.

A walk up one of the main streets lead us to the Christiania Torv, a fountain with a pointing hand said to be the spot where the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV proclaimed “Here the town will lie” after the city fire in 1624. He then went on to change the city name from Oslo to Christiania which it kept until 1924.

One thing about Oslo is that it's covered in statues. 

Everywhere you look there is a statue of something or someone. When we saw the Radhuset (town hall) 1950 from the outside we thought it the ugliest building we'd seen yet, even communist looking. We almost didn't go in but for the recommendation of an extremely helpful older gent working at the tourist information nearby. It was indeed magnificent inside with walls covered in painted scenes of Norwegian life throughout the ages, beautiful floor tiles and ceramic wall plaques and marble columns. 

This is also where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in December each year. Upstairs there is a beautiful banquet hall containing 4 magnificent paintings of recent royalty – King Haakon VII (grandfather), King Olav V (father), King Harold (current) and his wife Queen Sonja. Also upstairs is the “Munch Room” containing one of Edvard Munch's final paintings - “Life” - before his style turned dark (think “The Scream”).

In dire need of a good coffee we found a place next to the Radhuset, the Coffee Club, but not the chain we know in Oz, this one did seriously good coffee!! It's actually a vegetarian cafe so soy milk was a synch and the cook is a Hare Krishna so lentil bakes and vego pasta made of spaghetti length zucchini strips was the speciality of the day. The coffee and cake were out of this world anyway and we must return. At 12pm there was a 21 gun salute for the birthday of the Crown Prince Haakon.

Having bought our 3 day Oslo Pass, we were entitled to a free Hop on Hop off mini cruise in the fjord surrounding the town. The ship meandered back to the Opera House and then onto the island of Bygdoy which houses several museums.

The Fram Museum contains the polar ship Fram used for 3 Arctic expeditions, the first in 1893 by Fridtjof Nansen who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his humanitarian efforts to assist the starving population of Russia after World War II. You can actually climb aboard the Fram and see how the explorers lived plus there are many exhibits and the complete story of the highs and lows of each expedition. It was truly fascinating.

Next door is the Kon-Tiki Museum. In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl and his 5 man crew set off to prove that South Americans could have reached South Pacific Islands. Over 101 days they successfully sailed their balsa-wood raft 8000km from Peru to Polynesia. His documentary film went on to win the Oscar in 1951. Not satisfied with that, in 1970 he lead another expedition in a papyrus boat from Morocco to Barbados to prove that West Africans could have made it to the West Indies. This guy couldn't stop himself so 7 years later he steered a reed boat across the Indian Ocean to prove the ancient civilisations of the Indus Valley and Egypt had contact with each other. And then he reconstructed huge monoliths from Easter Island to prove it would have been possible for the ancients to raise these enormous statues into place. Another totally fascinating museum.

2.5km up the road was the Viking Ship Museum. On previous visits to Stockholm or Denmark, we had only seen partially recovered ships, but here there were 3 of the world's best preserved Viking ships from the 9^th century. They had been found in burial mounds on farmland and although robbed of jewellery and other precious objects, everything else was found. One ship contained the body of a noble woman and her slave girl, the other, two chieftain men. The bodies weren't actually on display but most of what was found with them was – tools, sleds, horse bridles, amazingly well preserved material from blankets and the women's dresses and heaps more. This was more then fascinating.

By this time it was quite late in the day so we caught the ferry back to the town hall and had a quick look at the Nobel Peace Centre. In our opinion this museum is really badly done and disappointing. The exhibits are hard to follow but there is a lot for kids to do. Ironic that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite thus making him wealthy from the exploits of destruction, but went on to dedicate his fortune to fund the Peace Prizes.

We had been given a Norwegian restaurant recommendation by the tourist info man so we wandered along the bustling waterfront to find it. Any conservationists out there, skip the next couple of lines. Bill wanted to try whale (much to Sylvi's horror). Before he was allowed, Sylvi checked with the waiter where the whales where caught, what type they were and if they were endangered. They are actually minke whales so not endangered and later research revealed only around 500 are caught each year. The taste is like venison with a slight fishy taste - sounds weird but Bill thought it was good.

Arriving back at our camp after 9pm after a truly educational and fun day.

Thursday 21 July

Another lovely day so we took advantage and did more outdoors exploring. A bus and a tram lead us to the Vigeland Sculpture park, Oslo's largest park named after sculptor Gustav Vigeland whose 212 sculptures depicting humanity in all its forms are permanently on display for free. Our favourite was the immense fountain of 6 giants carrying an enormous vessel as well as some of the 20 groups of figures which align the fountain's edge. Further up surrounding the monolith are also some very good depictions of the elderly in various poses, and as with all the statues, in the all together.

The return tram and another bus took us to a restaurant and look-out at Frognerseteren recommended to us by the tourist info man yet again. The view over Oslo, the fjord and surrounding areas is spectacular and the restaurant building is a traditional Scandinavian “dragon style” built at the end of the 19^th century. Here we tried our first prawns since leaving Oz. They looked beautiful and pink, medium size so we thought we'd give them a go. Little did we realise the roe is still trapped between their legs. Sylvi had never seen prawn roe before and it kinda spoilt things for her (they get stuck in your fingers as you peel). The prawns themselves were quite tasty. To get rid of the roe image, Sylvi had a huge piece of apple strudel and Bill a crème brule.

To walk this all off we headed downhill to the Holmenkollen National Arena, where the latest ski jump was completed in 2010 ahead of Oslo hosting the 2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. However the area has been used for Nordic activities including ski jumping since 1892. It has been rebuilt or remodelled 19 times. The annual races and ski-jumping events are held here as well as the cross-country skiing and marksmanship events of the Biathlon. It was an hour wait for an elevator ride to the top so we decided to give it a miss, but did go down to where the spectator seats commence for a look back up to this amazing construction. It gives you vertigo at this point, imagine riding the simulator which they have available here?! No way.

We were starting to flag but as tomorrow announces bucketing rain we decided to do one more thing in this fine weather and returned to Bygdoy Island for the Norsk Folkemuseum. In 1894 Hans Aall started collecting houses all around Norway and relocated them to this area so that generations might see how people lived back in the day. He amassed 150 buildings including a Stave Church from 1200. Totally amazing. This museum has many live displays of baking, weaving, blacksmithing and folk dancing throughout the day and employees in costume are there to answer your questions. It was very impressive but must be totally spectacular for Christmas when the markets are on.

Friday 22 July

Raining and cold so a museum day today. We headed straight for the Domkirke (cathedral) only to find it doesn't open until 4pm Fridays. Rats. So we continued up the shopping mall, admiring the beautiful buildings until we got to the Stortinget 1866 (Parliament Building) which is also magnificent, but the next tour wasn't for another hour and a half. Double rats.

We plan to see the Munch Museum today but apparently his famous “Scream” is housed in the National Gallery, so we headed there next and found his room quickly. Everyone was posing in front of the “Scream” with scream-like faces. As you can imagine, this room has it's own security guard and the painting is behind a glass shield. An alarm kept going off, probably because it was so hot inside the entire gallery with all the windows closed and no air-con in use. Some of Munch's other paintings were quite good and not so dark, including a self portrait, one of his sister and one called “The Madonna”. Other works included in the gallery were also very good and life-like. We are not expressionist, cubist or any other “ist” connoisseurs of art!!

On our way to our “favourite” Olso cafe near the Radhuset, we stopped to look at the Slottet 1848 (current Royal Palace) which is a grand brick and plaster building painted yellow (what else). There is a lovely statue of Queen Maud, the British princess who married the heir to the Danish throne who then became King (Haakon VII) and Queen of Norway in 1905. While at the Coffee Club we heard one cannon go off and we figured they must do that on Fridays at 12pm as a rule.

The Military Museum was next on the agenda. Housed in two large brick buildings from the 1860s the displays commenced from Viking days until the present. Although we found it interesting, it certainly wasn't as fascinating as the one we'd seen in Prague. All the while outside in the steady rain, current soldiers were parading in front of their families for their graduation ceremony.

While we were in the general area we decided to visit the Akershus Slott 1300 (medieval castle). As we've also seen in Sweden, these castles commence as a fortress to protect the city from invasion and then years later are turned into renaissance style castles. The larger rooms of the castle are still used today for government and private functions, the church is still used as a royal burial church and the royals since King Haakon VII are buried in the mausoleum. There are some beautiful pieces of furniture and tapestries and the 3 great Halls are all magnificent.

Back near the National Gallery at the deli on the corner for a spot of lunch. We were sitting outside and at one point we saw a black taxi go screaming up the road for no apparent reason. We still had 40 minutes to wait before the Domkirke (cathedral) opened at 4pm so we decided to get an ice-cream and walk to the Munch Museum. 


While waiting to be served inside the deli we heard what we initially thought was another cannon going off, but the entire room actually shook so maybe it was something else. The city is doing major works in the metro so we thought something might have exploded there. 



A couple of streets up we saw people running down towards us and away from what had just taken place. Everyone was on mobile phones, and then the emergency services started arriving. You think crazy thoughts when you're in the middle of something so unexpected. 


We now know that some crazy guy had set off a massive car bomb, just 4 blocks away from us, apparently targeting the Government.

At first we thought we'd just go onto the Munch Museum, but then reality dawned that the city would probably be shut down and transport possibly halted so we decided to do a big loop around the affected area and head for our bus stop. Many shop windows had imploded with the shock waves. Initially Twitter only mentioned an explosion but then Reuters started talking about a bomb at one of the government offices near the Prime Minister. 


We were lucky enough to catch our bus back to camp and spent the afternoon listening online to what had tragically taken place just four streets from where we were. They are saying a car bomb, so of course we're thinking that black taxi might have been involved but only time will tell.

Then news started to come through about a shooting massacre at an island near Oslo.  For much of the night we could hear helicopters and sirens coming from downtown. 


Saturday 23 July


The true extent of that horror became evident when we awoke the next day.  Seven dead in Oslo, and more than 80 dead on the island - apparently all the work of one mad man.

What a shocking way to end the wonderful time we've had in this city. The city of peace.

We had planned to move on from Oslo today anyway, and the events of yesterday make that the sensible thing to do.  We will stay in Norway for another 4-5 days, but head North to the countryside.


In the meantime, our thoughts are with the people of Norway at this dark time.


More Oslo Photos here.