Friday 14th September 2018
As we knew the Oslo Marathon would be happening on Saturday our best option for visiting the city would be today. Whenever we visit a city, we nearly always elect to use the public transport systems available and as luck would have it again, immediately outside the campsite was the bus, number 32, which would take us to the metro connection at Røa in 6 minutes and into the city centre. Perfect!
We purchased the Oslo City Pass for 24 hours at a cost of NOK 395 each, which gave us free entry to most of the museums, free travel on all public transport and discounts on some other attractions, if we wanted. Downloading the pass made life so much simpler and we felt it would be worth the money, as our intention today was to have one of our long overdue ‘cultural’ days.
First visit of the day was the Munch Museum, so we took the metro to Tøyen on line 1 and followed the signs on exiting the station. A short walk brought us to the museum, which was much smaller than we had anticipated.
When visiting any of the art museums, we had to store our backpack in a combination locker and even had our other items scanned on entry into the main part of the museum, including a body scanner at this museum.
The museum was currently undergoing some refurbishment and one of its periodical exhibition changes, which meant that only one room was open on the day of our visit and there was no charge for visiting. Note to self – it’s always a good idea to check the website before visiting to see what’s being exhibited that day/week.
All the paintings on display in the gallery were by Edvard Munch but that isn’t always the case. The museum has no permanent documentary exhibition. The collection of his art is displayed through Masterpieces on the Move exhibitions.
Back on the underground we headed off to the National Gallery and an opportunity to see The Dance of Life, the permanent exhibition and a famous piece of artwork by Edvard Munch, as well as The Scream.
The museum was relatively small, set on only 2 floors and the rooms colour coded, which meant we had plenty of time to peruse the artwork and dodge the Japanese selfie mad tourists and revisit those areas later 😉
A new National Museum is currently under construction and is set to open in 2020 on a much grander scale.
A short walk from the museum was the Royal Palace or Det Kongelige Slott in Slottsparken. It was built between 1824 and 1848 and there is a change of guard every day at 13.30.
Next on our agenda was a city ferry trip to Bygdøy where we were excited to visit The Fram Museum, Kon-Tiki Museum and The Viking Ship Museum.
The hop on – hop off ferry leaves from the pier/ Rådhusbrygge in front of City Hall or Oslo Rådhus, a two towered building opened in 1950. I wouldn’t say it was one of the most attractive buildings ever but the City Hall bells certainly are as you are entertained by a selection of melodies on the hour.
After a stop at Dronningen we alighted at Bygdøynes directly in front of The Fram Museum.
The two interconnecting buildings exhibit the Polar ship Fram and Gjøa, the first ship through the Northwest Passage, as well as a widescreen theatre which offers a 12 minute introduction to polar history and some spectacular northern lights footage.
The boats, which you can board and the exhibits are fantastic and the information on display is equally brilliant. Make sure you leave plenty of time to enjoy all this museum has to offer.
Opposite this museum was the Kon-Tiki Museum, a long awaited place on our tick list. This showcase to the explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his many expeditions, as well as his companions on the crossing of the Pacific Ocean in 1947 on a balsa wood raft known as Kon-Tiki was everything you would expect.
The original raft was centre stage, whilst artefacts, digital information and displays added to the experience; a brilliant exhibit, well worth seeing.
In the same vicinity was the Norwegian Maritime Museum, although we didn’t visit due to time constraints.
Outside the 3 museums was the bus stop for the number 30 bus which is on the route to The Viking Ship Museum. If time allows you can always hop back on the ferry and back to Dronningen if you prefer. The 30 bus route will eventually lead back to the main part of the city too.
The Viking Museum resembled a church and housed the world’s best preserved Viking long ships along with other objects excavated from around the Oslo fjord.
The ships had previously sailed on the sea before they were put on the land to be grave ships and covered with burial mounds for their wealthy owners.
Many of the artefacts that were buried along with the deceased in these grave ships which had survived grave robbers and the ravages of time were also on display. It is fascinating to think that these superb vessels are over 1100 years old!
A short film in the area where the Tune Ship is located was also an added experience, Vikings Alive!
We decided to walk down to the ferry stop at Dronningen rather than take the bus and enjoyed sneaking a peak at some of the lavish mansions along the way on this suburban peninsula.
As we waited for our ferry back to Rådhusbrygge we enjoyed raising a toast to the newest Copper grandchild, Lucy, born that afternoon back in the UK, in a small bar next to the pier.
On arrival back in the city we were very much aware of the preparations popping up all around for tomorrow’s marathon and made our way towards the Stortinget or Parliament building before finding somewhere for a well deserved evening meal and a rest for our feet.
After our meal we headed to the nearest metro station at the National Theatre, only to discover that it ceased operations at 20.00 hours due to maintenance work.
Luckily the number 30 bus stop was a short distance from the station and we made our way back to camp.
Oslo is a compact city with great transport links and easy to explore. One day probably doesn’t do it justice but we can always return.