We left Trondheim and flew into Oslo early afternoon.
We set out to explore right away and just grabbed a quick sandwich near the beautiful Grand Hotel.
We walked along the famous Karl Johans Gate, passing the University and then walking around that a bit.
We then headed to the water and walked along the waterfront. We passed some sites on the way: the theatre, City Hall:
The one crazy thing about Norway in general we have found is how treacherous the sidewalks are! I don’t think they have to worry about liability I guess and everyone walks at their own risk? We often walked in the snow along the side of the icy sidewalks!
We made our way to the unique Opera House where we climbed to the roof to overlook the city. Too bad there’s a bunch of construction:(
The inside of the Opera House (I think I look like a Dr. Seuss character sitting there! I didn’t know he was taking photos!)
We walked back along Karl Johans Gate past all the shops.
We then found the Oslo Cathedral. There was a service going on, and despite not understanding a word, we sat through the end of it.
The parliament building was beautiful too, but it seemed squished into the middle of the city:
We headed back to our hotel where we relaxed bit before dinner.
Dinner was at a french restaurant called “Brasserie France”. (I forgot to take a pic (darn it) so pulled one off the internet as I didn’t want to forget the restaurant!). We had a lovely dinner, and they had the most amazing little dessert cart that went around. I pretty much took one of everything and polished it all off (definitely back to macros when I am home! lol).
The next day we headed up to the Royal Palace and walked the grounds. They are beautiful, but the gardens are only open in the spring/summer.
We decided we would visit the National Gallery and spent a few hours there. There are a few well known Norwegian artists there (Krohg, Werenskiold) in addition to Munch, the most famous Norwegian artist. “The Scream” was Munch’s masterpiece and we had some fun with that one!
A cool little spot in the gallery for those who want to watch soccer instead ?!?!?:
Instead of thinking about Munch’s famous dance of life:
We had a typical Norwegian lunch at Kaffistova, and were pretty exhausted after it. We wanted to keep going, but figured we should spend an hour or so recharging our batteries!
After a quick recharge, we headed out to Frogner Park – in one of the most exclusive and pricey neighbourhoods in Oslo which was simply stunning!
Love that you see people walking around carrying their cross country skies in the city!
Inside the park:
We headed in to the park and went to the famous area called “Vigeland Sculpture Park” which houses 212 statues by Gustav Vigeland. They were pretty cool.
The most famous one is called “Angry Boy”.
We enjoyed a leisurely walk back through this gorgeous area back to our hotel:
We headed out for our last dinner at a place called Baccus. It was in a lovely building and we had some great food.
Sad that this trip is ending, but what a trip it has been! Certainly a different adventure (but most of our trips are different from each other!).
We loved that we got to experience so many different things in this trip: organized tours, walking, a cruise, eating great food, chilling and relaxing, reading and napping, road tripping, seeing gorgeous scenery, and of course, seeing the incredible Northern Lights. Loved seeing some thin places: on top of the mountain in Tromso, early morning in Lofeten, and ship’s deck watching the Northern Lights. Lots of thin moments in there too:)
Definitely an incredible celebration for our 10 year anniversary!
