Oslo, Norway
June 2-5, 2006
In a long weekend of Pentecost Day me, my wife, and two friends of us spent nice spring weather in Oslo, capital of Norway. It was not a really well-planned and well-learned holiday, we just booked the tickets and hotels and flew there. It quite different with our normal vacations, where we searched information about nice and interesting places to see at our holiday destination.
Me and my wife flew to Oslo from Schiphol on Friday evening after office hour. It was a quick flight, about 1.5 hours, after a long wait during the check-in. We arrived quite late in Oslo Gardermoen airport. Before landing we saw beautiful scenery of sunset over hilly landscape of Norway. The airport itself is quite small but nicely designed, especially for cold winter weather. Most of the external doors are double and it has wooden floor.
We took express train from the airport to Oslo central station. The train was very modern, clean, and fast. We travelled through green hills and small villages and some tunnels before reaching the city. The Oslo station building was not very impressive. It was shabby and looked quite old. We waited for our friends there before taking the bus to our hotel. For first two nights we stayed at Radisson SAS Park Hotel. It was located in nice green area quite outside the city, about 20 minutes by bus.
We started pretty early on our first morning in Oslo, full of spirit to explore the city. After a nice and filling breakfast in the hotel we took the bus and alighted near the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace is the residence of the Norwegian Royal Family. It is a yellowish big building with a park at the back and a nice view to Karl Johans Gate at the front side. From the palace we walked through the Karl Johans Gate, the main avenue in Oslo that laid from the palace until the train central station. Along the way we passed the National Theater building, university building, nice park with fountain and statues, and the parliament building.
From Karl Johans Gate we walked to the City Hall building. It is a big red brick building with twin towers, a good landmark located by the waterfront of the Oslofjord. The front side of the City Hall building has U-shape and is decorated with wooden friezes about Norse mythology. The inside part of the building is mainly a big reception hall where the annual Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held. The walls are decorated with colorful paintings.
Oslo City Hall
Behind the City Hall we directly reached the Oslofjord with view of Akershus Fortress on the left side, modern harbour part Aker Brygge and Nobel Peace Center building on the right side. We had a wonderful bright shiny day on that morning to enjoy the scenery of the harbour.
Because of the perfect weather, we decided to visit Frogner Park and Vigeland Sculpture Park that is located inside the Frogner Park. We took the tram from the Aker Brygge that passed through shopping and residential streets of Oslo before reached the park. The Vigeland Park maybe the most famous park in Norway. It was designed by Gustav Vigeland, a Norwegian sculptor. There are 212 sculptures in bronze and granit that modelled by Vigeland himself. The theme of the sculptures is 'human life'. They were divided into several parts: the Bridge with mostly sculptures about children, the Fountain, the Monolith Plateau, and the Wheel of Life.
The Monolith in Vigeland Park
We already could see the Monolith from the bridge while we were enjoying the detail human interpretation in the statues. The most popular statue on the bridge is Sinnataggen, the 'Angry Boy'.
The Angry Boy in Vigeland Park
The Fountain is located more or less in the center of the park, very relaxing place thanks to the water fountain and nice wide green parks on both sides of the fountain. Some people were enjoying the sun on the green grass, also some were doing the sport and there was also a cheerleader group practicing there (who got some applauses from the tourists on difficult acrobatic movements).
The best part of the park is the Monolith Plateau. It is located higher than the other parts of the park. There are 36 granit statues arranged in 12 lines along rising circular stairs and the 17 m high monolith on the top of the circle. The circular shape somehow reminded me to Borobudur temple in Central Java that has similar circular shape.
A statue in the Monolith Plateau, Vigeland Park
The statues still have humanic theme, mostly showing adults in different poses. The monolith also carved with human shapes that intertwine with each other.
Walk further from the Monolith we saw a sundial that decorated with zodiac figures, and at the furthest part of the park stands the Wheel of Life, a sculpture of women, men, and children holding on each other as wheel.
More detail information about Vigeland (the person and the park) can be found here.
From the park we went back to Aker Brygge for a quick lunch. After lunch we took boat to visit Bygdøy, a peninsula on the west part of the city. There are several popular museums in Bygdøy. From the stop of the boat we walked through a street with nice wooden houses until we arrived at Viking Ship Museum. It is a small museum, showing three wooden Viking ships that were used for burial in the Viking era around 9th century. Two of the ships (Oseberg and Gokstad ships) were still in a good shape and we could see the detail of the boat design. The museum also displayed items that were found from the ships, for example the burial chamber, small boats, and several grave goods.
From the Viking Ship Museum we walked to different corner of the peninsula to visit Kon-Tiki Museum. This museum showed boats from Thor Heyerdahl expeditions, the Kon-Tiki raft and the papyrus boat Ra II. Ra II was located in the first room, where we also could follow the story of the expeditions, how the team designed and built the papyrus boats (Ra I and Ra II) as well as the expedition trip description crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Marocco to Barbados.
In the next room we could see the Kon-Tiki balsa raft, that was used by Heyerdahl and the crews crossing the Pacific from Peru to the Tuamotus archipelago. Besides these two main expeditions, we also could see some findings from Heyerdahl's later expeditions to the Easter Island, Polynesia, and Galapagos.
Personally I found the Kon-Tiki Museum was much more interesting to visit than the Viking Ship Museum.
There is another museum located in front of the Kon-Tiki Museum, the Fram Museum. It showed the Fram, a ship that was used by Amundsen to reach the South Pole. We did not enter this museum, just looked briefly the big ship from the entrance, before we took the boat back to the Aker Brygge.
Aker Brygge
The last trip on that first day was a short Oslofjord boat tour. We went with a boat circling the fjord with some explanations by the tour guide. We had a nice view of Oslo and the Bygdøy peninsula from the boat.
After a short rest in the hotel, we went out again for dinner. We aimed for a decent meal with reasonable price due to very expensive food price in Oslo. We visited the area near the train station and found a traditional Indian restaurant in a quite 'international' neigbourhood. They served quite authentic Indian food, curry and tandoori, complete with the traditional Roti Prata. After the dinner we back to the hotel to get our sleep.
The second day, again we started with nice breakfast from the hotel. It was the last breakfast in the Radisson hotel because we moved to KNA Scandic hotel that located nearer to the Oslo city center.
After got our room in the Scandic hotel, we went to the train station. We planned to go out from Oslo because we already visited most touristic places in Oslo on the first day. Unfortunately the train ticket price was quite expensive to visit some far places, so we decided to take local train to Kløfta, a village between Oslo and Gardermoen airport. With a very minimum knowledge about the place, we walked around the village, found nothing interesting at all, only in the end we arrived in a church on a small hill. The church had cemetery complex surrounding it, and we just sat on a bench enjoying the graves while eating our snacks. Quite an experience, had a picnic in cemetery!
From Kløfta we took the train back to Oslo and we stopped at Lillestrøm, a suburb of Oslo. It was bigger than Kløfta, and we spent a short time enjoying the peaceful riverside near the train station before we continued our trip back to Oslo.
In the evening we went to the area near the train station, again to find a place for dinner. We found a nice Vietnam restaurant that served quite real Vietnamese food. I found the pho was very good, more or less the same taste as the pho in Indonesia.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel via the Oslo Cathedral and through the long Karl Johans Gate until the National Theater.
Akershus Fortress
The last day, we started also with a nice breakfast from another hotel. We had a relax planning then because we only had about half day anyway before we need to go to the airport. After breakfast we walked to the Akershus Fortress. There is a castle inside the fortress, which was quite beautiful and had several rooms and things to see, for example royal mausoleum where King Haakon VII and King Olav V were buried with their wifes.
The fortress itself gave nice view to the Oslofjord as well as the city of Oslo.
From the Akershus at the seaside we took the tram continued by local train to visit a much higher place in Oslo, Holmenkollen hill where the ski jump arena is located. From there we could see the Oslofjord until far away in the horizon.
Holmenkollen Ski Jump
Back to the city of Oslo, we had lunch in a local restaurant. I had typical Scandinavian meatballs with mashed potato and peas. Actually it was the only time we ever had local food in Oslo. After lunch we picked our bags in the hotel and rushed away to get the train to the airport. In the airport we spent our last Norwegian Kroner on ice creams and a piece of bread. Then we flew back to Holland, enjoying the scene of the Oslofjord for the last time from the plane.
In a long weekend of Pentecost Day me, my wife, and two friends of us spent nice spring weather in Oslo, capital of Norway. It was not a really well-planned and well-learned holiday, we just booked the tickets and hotels and flew there. It quite different with our normal vacations, where we searched information about nice and interesting places to see at our holiday destination.
Me and my wife flew to Oslo from Schiphol on Friday evening after office hour. It was a quick flight, about 1.5 hours, after a long wait during the check-in. We arrived quite late in Oslo Gardermoen airport. Before landing we saw beautiful scenery of sunset over hilly landscape of Norway. The airport itself is quite small but nicely designed, especially for cold winter weather. Most of the external doors are double and it has wooden floor.
We took express train from the airport to Oslo central station. The train was very modern, clean, and fast. We travelled through green hills and small villages and some tunnels before reaching the city. The Oslo station building was not very impressive. It was shabby and looked quite old. We waited for our friends there before taking the bus to our hotel. For first two nights we stayed at Radisson SAS Park Hotel. It was located in nice green area quite outside the city, about 20 minutes by bus.
We started pretty early on our first morning in Oslo, full of spirit to explore the city. After a nice and filling breakfast in the hotel we took the bus and alighted near the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace is the residence of the Norwegian Royal Family. It is a yellowish big building with a park at the back and a nice view to Karl Johans Gate at the front side. From the palace we walked through the Karl Johans Gate, the main avenue in Oslo that laid from the palace until the train central station. Along the way we passed the National Theater building, university building, nice park with fountain and statues, and the parliament building.
From Karl Johans Gate we walked to the City Hall building. It is a big red brick building with twin towers, a good landmark located by the waterfront of the Oslofjord. The front side of the City Hall building has U-shape and is decorated with wooden friezes about Norse mythology. The inside part of the building is mainly a big reception hall where the annual Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held. The walls are decorated with colorful paintings.
Oslo City HallBehind the City Hall we directly reached the Oslofjord with view of Akershus Fortress on the left side, modern harbour part Aker Brygge and Nobel Peace Center building on the right side. We had a wonderful bright shiny day on that morning to enjoy the scenery of the harbour.
Because of the perfect weather, we decided to visit Frogner Park and Vigeland Sculpture Park that is located inside the Frogner Park. We took the tram from the Aker Brygge that passed through shopping and residential streets of Oslo before reached the park. The Vigeland Park maybe the most famous park in Norway. It was designed by Gustav Vigeland, a Norwegian sculptor. There are 212 sculptures in bronze and granit that modelled by Vigeland himself. The theme of the sculptures is 'human life'. They were divided into several parts: the Bridge with mostly sculptures about children, the Fountain, the Monolith Plateau, and the Wheel of Life.
The Monolith in Vigeland ParkWe already could see the Monolith from the bridge while we were enjoying the detail human interpretation in the statues. The most popular statue on the bridge is Sinnataggen, the 'Angry Boy'.
The Angry Boy in Vigeland ParkThe Fountain is located more or less in the center of the park, very relaxing place thanks to the water fountain and nice wide green parks on both sides of the fountain. Some people were enjoying the sun on the green grass, also some were doing the sport and there was also a cheerleader group practicing there (who got some applauses from the tourists on difficult acrobatic movements).
The best part of the park is the Monolith Plateau. It is located higher than the other parts of the park. There are 36 granit statues arranged in 12 lines along rising circular stairs and the 17 m high monolith on the top of the circle. The circular shape somehow reminded me to Borobudur temple in Central Java that has similar circular shape.
A statue in the Monolith Plateau, Vigeland ParkThe statues still have humanic theme, mostly showing adults in different poses. The monolith also carved with human shapes that intertwine with each other.
Walk further from the Monolith we saw a sundial that decorated with zodiac figures, and at the furthest part of the park stands the Wheel of Life, a sculpture of women, men, and children holding on each other as wheel.
More detail information about Vigeland (the person and the park) can be found here.
From the park we went back to Aker Brygge for a quick lunch. After lunch we took boat to visit Bygdøy, a peninsula on the west part of the city. There are several popular museums in Bygdøy. From the stop of the boat we walked through a street with nice wooden houses until we arrived at Viking Ship Museum. It is a small museum, showing three wooden Viking ships that were used for burial in the Viking era around 9th century. Two of the ships (Oseberg and Gokstad ships) were still in a good shape and we could see the detail of the boat design. The museum also displayed items that were found from the ships, for example the burial chamber, small boats, and several grave goods.
From the Viking Ship Museum we walked to different corner of the peninsula to visit Kon-Tiki Museum. This museum showed boats from Thor Heyerdahl expeditions, the Kon-Tiki raft and the papyrus boat Ra II. Ra II was located in the first room, where we also could follow the story of the expeditions, how the team designed and built the papyrus boats (Ra I and Ra II) as well as the expedition trip description crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Marocco to Barbados.
In the next room we could see the Kon-Tiki balsa raft, that was used by Heyerdahl and the crews crossing the Pacific from Peru to the Tuamotus archipelago. Besides these two main expeditions, we also could see some findings from Heyerdahl's later expeditions to the Easter Island, Polynesia, and Galapagos.
Personally I found the Kon-Tiki Museum was much more interesting to visit than the Viking Ship Museum.
There is another museum located in front of the Kon-Tiki Museum, the Fram Museum. It showed the Fram, a ship that was used by Amundsen to reach the South Pole. We did not enter this museum, just looked briefly the big ship from the entrance, before we took the boat back to the Aker Brygge.
Aker BryggeThe last trip on that first day was a short Oslofjord boat tour. We went with a boat circling the fjord with some explanations by the tour guide. We had a nice view of Oslo and the Bygdøy peninsula from the boat.
After a short rest in the hotel, we went out again for dinner. We aimed for a decent meal with reasonable price due to very expensive food price in Oslo. We visited the area near the train station and found a traditional Indian restaurant in a quite 'international' neigbourhood. They served quite authentic Indian food, curry and tandoori, complete with the traditional Roti Prata. After the dinner we back to the hotel to get our sleep.
The second day, again we started with nice breakfast from the hotel. It was the last breakfast in the Radisson hotel because we moved to KNA Scandic hotel that located nearer to the Oslo city center.
After got our room in the Scandic hotel, we went to the train station. We planned to go out from Oslo because we already visited most touristic places in Oslo on the first day. Unfortunately the train ticket price was quite expensive to visit some far places, so we decided to take local train to Kløfta, a village between Oslo and Gardermoen airport. With a very minimum knowledge about the place, we walked around the village, found nothing interesting at all, only in the end we arrived in a church on a small hill. The church had cemetery complex surrounding it, and we just sat on a bench enjoying the graves while eating our snacks. Quite an experience, had a picnic in cemetery!
From Kløfta we took the train back to Oslo and we stopped at Lillestrøm, a suburb of Oslo. It was bigger than Kløfta, and we spent a short time enjoying the peaceful riverside near the train station before we continued our trip back to Oslo.
In the evening we went to the area near the train station, again to find a place for dinner. We found a nice Vietnam restaurant that served quite real Vietnamese food. I found the pho was very good, more or less the same taste as the pho in Indonesia.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel via the Oslo Cathedral and through the long Karl Johans Gate until the National Theater.
Akershus FortressThe last day, we started also with a nice breakfast from another hotel. We had a relax planning then because we only had about half day anyway before we need to go to the airport. After breakfast we walked to the Akershus Fortress. There is a castle inside the fortress, which was quite beautiful and had several rooms and things to see, for example royal mausoleum where King Haakon VII and King Olav V were buried with their wifes.
The fortress itself gave nice view to the Oslofjord as well as the city of Oslo.
From the Akershus at the seaside we took the tram continued by local train to visit a much higher place in Oslo, Holmenkollen hill where the ski jump arena is located. From there we could see the Oslofjord until far away in the horizon.
Holmenkollen Ski JumpBack to the city of Oslo, we had lunch in a local restaurant. I had typical Scandinavian meatballs with mashed potato and peas. Actually it was the only time we ever had local food in Oslo. After lunch we picked our bags in the hotel and rushed away to get the train to the airport. In the airport we spent our last Norwegian Kroner on ice creams and a piece of bread. Then we flew back to Holland, enjoying the scene of the Oslofjord for the last time from the plane.
