Blogs from Eastern Norway, Norway, Europe - page 3

Today was another random exploration day - there’s a neighbourhood (Toyen) with a lot of street art, so I headed up there to explore. There’s also another large sculpture park on the east side which I walked around a bit, but then the rain hit and I was in my Birks and didn’t want to muddy them up so I retreated to the tram and headed back into town. The little that I did see of Ekebergparken was pretty eclectic - it’s all different artists, so not like Vigeland. (Some were pretty kinky lol) Great view over Oslo too! Anyway, by the time I was back into town, it was only spitting rain so I just kind of roamed around the relatively pedestrian area in the centre - Nationaltheater, Parliament, City Hall, etc that whole bit. ... read more

This was turning out to be a long day. We were back on highway E6, in the direction of Oslo. The sun was still up in the sky and didn’t go down until after we reached our destination. Sunset was at 11:14 pm that evening and families with little kids and young adults were out on the street. The birds were still flying in the sky and mothers walking their babies in strollers, restaurants were open for business. It was amazing to see the energy around me, did Mr. Sun really do that?!! It sure did as it energized us too, a microcosm of its floating population! Even though we had had such a long day we put our bags away in the Airbnb and headed out to check out the excitement. Once again we were ... read more

Our second day in Oslo, well actually half a day, and I was on a mission to find and photograph some of the city's street art. The Visitors Centre yesterday had referred me to their website, where there was an interactive map with the location of various murals and details of the artist https://www.visitoslo.com/en/articles/urban-art-in-oslo So we set off towards Toyen, where the map showed quite a few murals were located. Along the way, we saw a few sculptures worthy of a photo, but unfortunately the urban art I was in pursuit of was difficult to locate and it didn't help when Google Maps decided not to co-operate either. Rather than wander around aimlessly, we headed back into town and made our way to the Opera House. Our guide from the City Discovery Tour yesterday had recommended ... read more

Oslo is wonderfully laid out for sightseeing. After breakfast, those of us interested in the museums, hopped the ferry to cross the harbor. The sun was shining and we were all excited to get our day started on the water. The ride over was perfect. There were already quite a few people out on boats and we even saw an 80ish year old woman and her friends out rowing. Water is life in Norway. The ferry dropped us off right in front of the Fram museum. The Kon Tiki and the Maritime museum were just steps away. We started with the Fram which is dedicated to polar exploration. Again, I wasn't sure I would find it interesting but I should really learn to keep my mouth shut. Ha! Right. Anyway, it was amazing to realize that ... read more

Today was my last day in Oslo. I started the day by going out of the downtown area to see the Munch Museum. Edvard Munch is Norway’s most famous artist, best known for The Scream. The emoji that Apple uses for the word “scream” is derived from Munch’s painting. ?Afterward I had lunch in the museum cafe and then came back to town so I could go on the tour of Norway’s (relatively) new opera house. It is an architectural wonder with a long sloping roof made of white marble that runs right down to the water. And it’s constructed so that people can walk all the way to the top. Inside there are three performance spaces and we got to go into the main hall. We also got to go back stage and we saw ... read more