We dropped our bags and went out exploring by noon. We are leaving on the DFDS Night Ferry to Copenhagen at 16:30 tomorrow.
Just twenty-eight hours to experience Oslo and taste Rudolph.
Will it be enough?
We stepped right outside to the main plaza in front of the Central Train Station, where we grabbed a seat at Bella Bambina Ristorante for a glass of wine and to split a Tomato, Basil and Onion Bruschetta. It was a good combo, especially after the chicken dinner.
It is cool out, even in the sun, the 66 degree temperature feels chilly. That is forty degrees colder than at home, less than 48 hours ago.
We sat in the square watching people go by and admiring the more modern (compared to other places in Europe) architecture. There is a statue of a tiger which attracts lots of kids, and the blue trams rumble by. The writing on the signs is almost German; I find it pretty easy to figure most of it out.
After finishing the wine, we stated up Karl Johan's Gate, the main street, to the university. We passed the old Oslo Domkirke, or Lutheran Cathedral, and poked around the tree shaded grounds a bit. The buildings are brick, but only about 250 years old.
The Parliment Building is unique, a yellowish color with a rounded front.
From here, we could look up at the Royal Palace, Karl Johan's Gate lined with pots of blue pansies. The flowers grow well here, and blue and purple seem to be the favorite colors.
We turned to head down to the waterfront, and passed by the National Theater, where a band was playing in the pavilion.
Right at the waterfront sits the Rådhuset, or City Hall with its art and confusing-to-read, but cool, astrological clock. They present the Nobel Peace Prize here, each December, and the Nobel Hall is just across the plaza.
So far my impression is that Oslo has a lot of statues, fountains, and art. It is a more modern city, with some older buildings, but nothing like, say, Paris or Rome. It is pretty in the way that Reykjavik, Iceland is, but not quite as "cute." Oslo is very clean, and so far the people are friendly.
Everybody greets you by saying, "Hi Hi."
Cute as it sounds.
As in Iceland, the people seem pretty hearty, strong and confident (Though the Icelanders are a breed of their own. I’d pick them any day in a fight.) A lot of the women (and men) are sterotypically (yes, I stereotype. This is my blog. Stop reading if you don’t like it...)
...A lot of the women are sterotypically blonde and blue-eyed. I wasted a lot of the day looking for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," before I realized she was in Sweden, not Norway.
At the waterfront we caught the Bygdøy ferry to the Bygdøy neighborhood, an area across the fjord of magnificent, tall white homes with black tile roofs. This is where many museums are located. Since we are short on time, we really wanted to see two places: the Norwegian Folk Museum and the Viking Ship Museum.
At the Norwegian Folk Museum we walked among many sod-roofed houses and barns, and saw one of the few remaining Stave Churches. They were built by people who built boats, so they have this kind of "in the boat" feeling. The Gol Stave Church was built around 1212 and relocated here. Inside it is dark, the room is narrow and short, and the ceiling is really high. There are painted frescoes up by the front alter area, and it smells of smoke and cedar inside.
I liked poking in and out of the various buildings and lodges. In one, I talked to a docent, who showed me the owners initials carved on the mantle. I picked them out on a side cupboard as well.
We walked through the cool neighborhood, admiring the houses, till we came to the Viking Ships Museum. It holds three preserved ships, the Oseberg ship from 834AD, the Gokstad from 950AD and the ruined Tune from 900AD. The ships were used as burial crypts for rick, important people. They were "set sail" to the afterlife, buried on board with their treasures. All three ships were discovered in the late 1800s, early 1900s by farmers.
Back on the ferry, back to the waterfront, and we walked along the Aker Brygge neighborhood, looking for seafood. This area as some really great looking apartments, and a lot of bars and restaurants. I was looking for a small sample of the local fish. We settled on the Louise Restaurant, where we sat outside under heaters. There were blankets on the chairs, but the locals were all in shirt-sleeves enjoying the warm, partly sunny day. I had a bowl of fresh, fjord-caught prawns with a garlic butter aioli. They were sweet, and paired well with a very dry Riesling. Gail had a glass of sauvignon blanc, and bread.
Across the harbor, the Akershus Fortress looks down upon the ships, and seagulls cried in the wind.
We walked back through town, taking different streets, and wandered through the stores in the train station. Many of the train stations in Europe also double as shopping malls.
Eventually we ended up for dinner at Engebret Café, the oldest continually operating café in Oslo, since 1857. They serve traditional food like whale, but I was here to try the reindeer.
My reindeer medallions came with a blackberry reduction gravy and fresh lingonberries.
Gail enjoyed smoked cod potato leek soup as we ate in the quiet, backstreet courtyard, under heaters. We looked out to a fountain in a very quiet park. The French Medauc wine really paired well with the meal, and I thought that food doesn't get much better than this.
Finally, about about 20:30 I felt the jet lag, the lack of sleep. About a day and a half without really sleeping...
These days in Oslo are over eighteen and a half hours of sun. The sun rises before four, and sets about 22:45.
We head back to our hotel to crash at 22:00. It is still light out and I feel guilty about wasting these few minutes of sunshine, but we are yawning and our legs are tired.
Besides, it is our first day of the trip.
You will have to excuse the photo quality today, they got worse as the day wore on.
Photos, Day 2
I slept well, but was up early to drink coffee and go explore while Gail slept in. I walked down to the waterfront and up onto the modern opera house. The building is really interesting, the roof is like huge ramps, and people just gather to sit on sunny days. So I sat and enjoyed the early morning calm and warmth.
Looking around, and then walking, I realized just how small Oslo really is. I mean, there are a few museums we could have stopped at if we had more time, and another neighborhood to walk through, but really these two, half-days will be enough time for us.
I went back to our hotel to get Gail up for breakfast, but she wanted to sleep in more, so I took my latest issue of Rolling Stone and went alone. It was a really good spread of food; bacon and eggs, yogurts and cereals, fruits, breads, tomatoes and olives, and sliced meats and cheeses. Even traditional smoked trout. Each food had a little tag by it, telling what part of Norway it was from, or who made it and how.
Finally around ten I went back and made Gail get up. We had two important things to do: first, go to Frogner Park, and second, pick up food and drink for the ferry trip.
We stopped into the little food and tobacco store on the corner to get tram tickets. You buy the tickets at the store, or sometimes at a self-service kiosk. If you buy directly from the driver, the cost doubles.
We found the stop for Tram #12 and made sure we were headed in the right direction. It took twenty minutes to reach the park.
Frogner Park is huge, and filled with sculptures by Gustav Vigeland.
They are all of people, whimsical and touching and full of the joy, grace, and sometimes weariness of life.
The official theme is “The Human Condition,” with the ending sculpture called “The Wheel Of Life.”
The Monolith is the most famous, a huge, obviously phallic totem on a platform, surrounded by 36 other groups of figures that, once again, represent the circle of life.
You can practically hear Elton John singing as you walk through here.
Anyway, there are officially 121 human figures on the totem, which took three carvers fourteen years to finish. As the figures rise towards the sky, they are “meant to represent man’s desire to become closer with the spiritual and divine."
Vigeland is the largest sculpture park in the world, by a single artist.
We really enjoyed walking around the park for a couple hours, enjoying the statues and people watching, the warm sun and scenery. I named several of the statues: "Teacher Getting Even" and "Give the Kid a Spanking" and so on. My favorite was "The Joy Of Life."
I think this was our single, favorite thing in Oslo.
I knew Norway was expensive, still I am surprised at the high prices. For example, the tickets on the tram to the park, just normal European public transportation that costs a euro elsewhere, was 120NK or about $15 USD. A single glass of wine is upwards of ten dollars, a bowl of fresh mussels about twenty five dollars or more. Even simple hotel rooms are well over $200 a night.
I looked on the website, and read that the food on the ferry would be very expensive. Really, we'd rather spend the same money eating well in Copenhagen where things are more "normal." So this leads to our second "must do" of the day, we had to find food (easy) and wine (hard) for the trip on our big, DFDS floating hotel room to Copenhagen.
It didn't take too long to find something to eat on the trip. We each got sandwiches, you know, the typical European ones that usually cost a couple euro. My ham and cheese with sun-dried tomatoes was about $6 and Gail got a tomato, cheese and basil for about the same price. A couple bananas, bottles of water; now where could we pick up some wine?
In Norway they sell wine only in a few, scattered, hard to find, wine and spirit stores. Just like in Iceland. Not at the grocery, not at any 7-11 type place, just in the specially store. This is a weird concept for a Californian. Fortunately we found a store at the main train station, and picked up a bottle of red French wine that had a screw cap.
Supplies in hand, we grabbed our packs and started walking down to the dock.