Our flights from Rhode Island to Oslo, Norway were in retrospect about as good as I suppose you can ask for. We spent an annoying amount of time sitting in planes not moving until we were moving. We spent an annoying amount of time in airports, especially in Stockholm, waiting in lines or sitting around. We had surprisingly limited success finding decent food especially in Stockholm. However, with all that said we got to Oslo when we expected to and our luggage arrived with us.
Our first afternoon we just settled into our sparsely furnished (it’s the style) hotel rooms and then went in search of food. There is a good sized shopping center, rather densely packed with all sorts of stores from an adequate grocery store, to several eateries, to shops selling higher end kitchen-ware. After sating our need for something tastier than poor airplane food we returned to the hotel and pretty much called it a day. Our first full day would start after we all caught up, hopefully, on sleep.
For my part that sleep was not all that good. This happens to me often it seems on first days of trips. But this was a seemingly bad case. I hoped I would keep busy enough throughout the day to be able to push back feeling low. I pretty much succeeded. We started our day with a good varied breakfast from the incredibly varied breakfast buffet here at Thon Hotel Storo. While some of the food may not be of premium quality, e.g., the scrambled eggs were more liquidy than they should’ve been and the fruit is nothing special, there was plenty that was more than good enough.We would leave the hotel a bit after 09:00 under clear blue, and warming quickly, skies. Our first goal was to get tickets for the public transit system. That didn’t work out as well as it should have. We went to a little shop, sells all sorts of things from SIM card that only Norwegians can use (we still haven’t found a SIM card so can’t really text or make voice calls; I have a data-only eSIM) to snacks and sundries to transit passes. Except that they were out of passes. How do you run out of day passes? I found an app that lets you purchase tickets and I did so but we have no real idea how you confirm the purchase. At every train station we have seen so far there doesn’t seem an obvious way to confirm your purchase. We think they must realy be on an honor system here because there is no obvious reason a person couldn’t just board a train and go wherever they want without paying.
Eventually we got ourselves to central Oslo (Oslo-S or Oslo Sentrum) where our first highlight of the day: a few hundred meters away snuggled up against the waterfront, part of the Oslofjord (the Oslofjord is not an actual fjord in the geological sense. In Norwegian a “fjord” can refer to all sorts of waterways), the Opera House. The building is remarkable. The standout feature is the exterior ramp that climbs up and around the building to reach the roof. From there you have decent, though not really jaw dropping, views of the waterfront.It’s worth the climb just because how often do you get to do something like that. Besides the views of waterfront buildings and big boats you can get a glimpse of some local beaches. More grassy and/or pebbly beaches than stretches of fine sandy beaches. Beaches nonetheless that people could stretch out on, soaking up sun, and enjoy perhaps jumping in the water. The interior of the opera house is spacious and rather interesting to look at. Perhaps we should have, as I think Dad wanted, settled down inside for a snack and coffee.
We left the opera house and strolled along the waterfront towards Astrup Fearnley Museum. It’s an easy stroll but not actually a particularly pretty one for much of it. You move away from the water for a time and though the views of an old extensive, no longer used as such, fortress are kind of always visible (it’s been redone to be used for different stuff now), it’s along a noisy busy road. Once you regain the waterfront you pass by all manner of boats including some interesting refurbished craft including an old mine sweeper. You come to a slew of restaurants and it gets lively. The Astrup Fearnley,among others, comes up and we found an interesting, if not large, lunch there at the cafe. We also learned a bit more about the people taking time at the local beach. All young, seemingly young adults, and pretty much all the women in bikinis and men in shorts, lounging about, chatting, listening to music, enjoying a sunny day with temperatures edging towards 80F. Some of those people were jumping off into what must be fairly deep water and climbing back out via the many ladders along the seawall. Surely that was a chilly dip.
After some trials and tribulations, eased somewhat by Dad’s total willingness to ask anyone for help, we found our way to the ferry dock to catch a boat to the island that is home for the Norsk Folke Museum. This is an open-air museum dedicated to the Norwegian culture. We particularly wanted to see the 12-century stave church. There are, I believe, actually well over 100 buildings in the complex but we were focused on the church. The Gol Stave Church was originally built in the latter half of the 12-century in Gol. The term, stave church, refers to the type of constructions using staves (wooden pilars) and lintels to provide the support for the structure. The church is really special to look at from the outside though you won’t see it in the photo too well. THe triangular and curved roofs stack wonderfully atop each other. They are crowned by spirals that curve out like the prow of a ship. Inside it is remarkably open but dark. Imagine yourself as a parishioner standing for well over four hours listening to a service presented in Latin. Keep in mind that the only person likely to know what is being said is the priest. If you are fortunate you are a man who can at least stand farther from the north-facing door that is letting chill air in. That chill breeze is being blocked by the women. Men and women are all standing but in segregated groups.
The Folke Museum is located on one of many islands in the area of the Oslo harbor. I believe this island is called Bygdøy. Our walk from the ferry dock to the museum and then farther to the dock by the Fram Museum took us through seemingly upscale neighborhoods. Big house, nice cars, clearly plenty of families with children. It didn’t feel like we were in a big city. We caught the ferry back to the mainland and after working our way through the increasing throngs of people found our way onto the packed train, it was rush hour after all, that would take us back to our hotel. A good day featuring some nice highlights over perhaps 7 miles of walking and nearly 8 hours of time. If I could say we ended our first day with a lovely dinner that would be great. I can’t say that. It’s probably not ideal to form an impression of a restaurant after just one meal but the food at Sumo was not well served and the staff were not as attentive as they should have been.
Photos
The sculpture is distinctive. It’s called Earth and Sun .
—June 14, 2023 at 10:48 AM.
Look at the sloping ramp that curls around the Oslo Opera House. You can climb the ramp to the roof of the building and see some nice, though perhaps not as awe-inspiring as some would hope, views of the Oslofjord.
—June 14, 2023 at 10:54 AM.
It’s a steady moderate climb up to the top of the Oslo Opera House. Mom is making progress. Photo by Jonathan.
—June 14, 2023 at 10:58 AM.
—June 14, 2023 at 1:55 PM.
Ken standing in front of this restored 12th-century stave church that was restored in 1885 and moved to the Norwegian Museum of Culture History. Photo by Jonathan.
—June 14, 2023 at 2:35 PM.
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