Norway
Oslo
We don’t always love big cities but Oslo is an exception. Clean, on the water, beautiful buildings, wide sidewalks and walking streets, lots if art, green and welcoming. Easy to get around whether walking or taking the tram or buses. Lots of choices for restaurants, cafes and pubs with lots of outdoor seating options. The city was alive with the jazz festival. Venues sprinkled throughout.
Beautiful harbor with the crown jewel - the unique Opera house, where you can walk wide ramps that become the roof. Lots of parks for the kids to play and floating saunas dotting the water. We only had a day and a half. Saw lots, but could have easily spent another couple of days. Easy to have a drink in the sun at many sidewalk cafes to people watch. We, like many others, fell in love with the Norwegian football player after watching the World Cup. Saw his face plastered everywhere in Norway selling sunglasses.
2 days (would have liked more time)
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Day 1: Arrival, Opera House
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Day 2: Nobel Peace Prize Museum, City Hall, Vigeland Park
Missed:
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Grünerløkka & Vulkan - This is the hipster and creative area. Centered around Thorvald Meyers gate and Markveien.
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Island Hopping: taking a commuter ferry to Hovedøya Island. Explore its lush forests, beaches, and medieval monastery ruins.
Hotel: Hobo - Great location in the old town. Two room apartment. Large living area/kitchen with amazing natural light. Bedroom and bathroom cozy. Lots of low sloping ceilings so watch your head. Bonus - big TV with streaming services and a laundry machine and drying rack.
Day 1: Transfer to Oslo, Karl Johans gate, Aker Brygge, Opera House
We arranged for a taxi the night before our flight to take us to the airport in Svolvær. They do have Uber but only saw one car showing in the app during the day before, so felt more confident with a booked taxi thru Taxifix app for $40 more. Seemed like the only option, with the bus only once a day.
Svolvær was by far the biggest town we saw in the Lofoten Islands. Airport, however, was tiny. No need to arrive too early.
Bodo airport, where we connected to get our flight to Oslo, had the best deal for a large cup of coffee (cappuccino) and very good pistachio bun - $6.
Upon arrival in Oslo we took the Flytoget Airport Express train. Bought tickets on Entur app for $13 - 2 seniors. Learned on our return that there are different train companies with different prices and schedules at the same stations, so we got away with it this time, but had to buy a second ticket on our return trip where we learned this expensive lesson. The train is conveniently right in the airport outside of baggage claim. We took the train to Oslo S (sentrum) which takes - 20 minutes. Our hotel was about a 3 minute walk from the station.
We checked in, dropped off our bags and walked down the pedestrian promenade to the historic main street (our hotel was a block off of this walking street) Karl Johans gate, to see the Royal Palace and Parliament. This pedestrian street has lots of shops and restaurants with outdoor seating. Loved it! Wide street and sidewalks with beautiful architecture. The city felt similar to Vienna.
Pedestrian street ends at the Royal parliament.
From there we headed down to Aker Brygge on the waterfront. Lots of pubic seating and restaurants. Floating saunas galore …
… one of them escaped, as we learned they are actually sauna boats.
Made our way to the opera house. Wonderful design outside and inside. Fun to walk the huge ramps to the rooftop.
We were surprised to learn these tour boats were actually not designed to reflect the opera house design, though the resemblance is striking.
Seaport for dinner. Right on the water. Food was good but smaller portions than what we were getting at other places.
Tried to see the 83% eclipse from the opera rooftop. No luck, too cloudy. Instead enjoyed the beginnings of the sunset.
Hotel: Hobo. New hotel in a fantastic location. 5 min walk from Oslo central station and right off the pedestrian street. Funky hotel with a fantastic breakfast buffet. Small room, decent size bathroom.
Day 2: Nobel Peace Prize Museum, City Hall, Vigeland Park
Larry got in a morning trail run in a nearby park area. Steep paths, and nice views. Many statues everywhere in the city and green spaces.
After a very hearty breakfast buffet we walked over to the The Nobel Peace Prize museum. Check the schedule for the English tours (-35 minutes long). When we were there they offered 2 topics. You pay for admission to the museum which included the tours. Consider coming 30-45 minutes before your tour to walk around the exhibits of the area you will not tour. Tour was very good, adding to what you can read on the displays.
Five minute walk away is City Hall. They offer free English tours (-60 minutes) on certain days at certain times so check their website. Come early to get through security. The number of people joining the tour was unlimited. Took us -30 minutes. We were a bit late joining our tour due to the security line, but easily joined up.
Tour was excellent! Beautiful frescos throughout telling various stories which we would not have understood without her insights.
She told us the story of a bell removed from the bell tower, because it was not in tune with the other bells. It was placed in storage until an artist heard the story, and hung the bell on a cable across the harbor. The bell sounds beautiful when played by itself, so the story is about appreciating and celebrating uniqueness.
Also learned the story of the patron saint of Oslo, which was shown in many places, including the sewer manhole covers.
Took the tram to Vigeland Park - Giant Sculpture Park. Lots of naked sculptures. We learned on our City Hall tour that depiction of people naked was a way of showing all people the same, rather than showing different classes by their clothes. Beautiful park to walk around in.
Jazz festival in Oslo with performances all over the city. We happened to run into a complimentary offering.
Stopped in one of the many outdoor cafes for a final cheer. Perfect to people watch.
Dinner at Mamma Pizza. Very popular place. Even at 5pm there was a line to get in but it moved and we were able to snag a table outside. Line continued all night. Didn’t have the pizza (which gets great reviews) but had the pasta and salad. Decent size portions and very good.
