Exploring Oslo

Oslo is the most expensive city I have ever visited. Yes, you read that correctly. The. Most. Expensive. City. I. Have. Ever. Visited. If you are going to be there for a few days, you might want to pick up a few things at the Duty Free before you leave the airport.

The first tip: do NOT rent a car. Take the incredibly efficient and FAST train from the airport to the city center. FLYTOGET is the rail link between OSL (Oslo Lufthaven – Oslo International Airport) and downtown. The super-modern trains leave many times an hour (I think every 20 minutes) and takes 20 minutes to get to your stop. The train station is at the end of the airport terminal – you don’t even have to leave the airport. Tickets can be purchased at the station or you can download the app and book your ticket on the spot. Cost of the ticket (at time of posting) was NOK $180 (roughly $30). Now those of you living in Toronto are flinching. $30! What!? For an airport train? This is an incredible deal. Why, you ask?

Oslo is the most expensive city I have ever been in. Seriously, take the train. It is faster and way less stressful. (A client told me he took a cab in from the Oslo airport, the bill? Canadian $250! Take the train.)

We stayed at the Hotel Continental. I love this hotel and highly recommend it. It is family-owned (the fourth generation now) and is conveniently located right downtown. In fact, if you take the train, book your ticket for the next stop after Sentra Station and get off at Nation Theatre. It’s the same price and the hotel is literally across the street. The staff is super-friendly and the rooms are gorgeous, spacious and well-appointed. Oh, and they have a fantastic breakfast that is usually included with most stays. The hotel is walking distance to a lot of sights as well as the fabulous harbour.

Second tip: buy the Oslo card. The card is sold for 24, 48 or 72-hour periods and is good for all museums, attractions, and transportation: trains (note, not the FLYTOGET train), buses and ferries. Buy the card. It eliminates the “oh, do I want to pay xxx (again, NOK$) to see this place?” and frees you up to just go in.

We picked up our Oslo Card at our first stop, the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. My favourite place in the Nobel Peace Prize Museum is the Nobel Field – a colour-changing room of 1,000 fibre optic lights. On closer inspection, you discover that it is an incredibly cool interactive room with screens of all past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. The lights glow and randomly flash up one or another recipient. You can walk up and touch the screen to learn more about the winners. The screens are in random order, so if you’re looking for a specific winner, he or she may take a little time to find.

If this has put you in the mood to see where the award is handed out, about one block away is the City Hall or Oslo Rådhus 1. The City Hall is free to enter daily between 9 am and 4 pm (July & August to 6 pm) and June to August there are free tours three times a day. The City Hall is a mixture of city council, office administration, art gallery and studio.

Nearly all the walls have murals and some of the rooms have a stunning view of the harbour. One of my favourite murals is by Per Krogh and is found in the East Gallery. It is a mural called “The City and Country” (or as I call it, “City Bees/Country Bees”). The East Gallery is completed covered wall-to-ceiling in murals which took Per Krogh approximately 10 years to complete.

In the Munch Room, where civil marriage ceremonies are performed, one can see Edvard Munch’s painting  “Life”. The 1910 painting appropriately enough smiles down on the couples in the room who are starting their life together. The city purchased the piece in 1939 after it was returned from Germany (during Germany’s purge of “degenerative art”).

The Great Hall on the main floor is where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded every year. On either side of this room are large murals showing Norway, “The Nation at Work and Play”.

National Gallery: get your art fix! There are Picassos from his early days to the cubist paintings for which he is most famous, as well as one of Rodin’s “Thinkers”. The main reason you want to go to the National Gallery is to see the works of one of Oslo’s favourite sons, Edvard Munch. The Munch exhibit is where to see the newly-returned “The Scream” – which is considered a modern icon and has been referred to as “the Mona Lisa of our time”. There are other Munch paintings including “The Tree of Life” (which was the favourite of the guard in the room), the (also stolen and returned) “Madonna”, and my favourite, the Munch self-portrait which could be a portrait of a rock star (think early Iggy Pop).

Can’t get enough Munch? There is also a Munch Museum in Oslo. The museum is dedicated to the works of Munch, thought of as a pioneer of expressionism. The museum houses a second painting of “The Scream” and a version of “The Scream” in pastel. In total, there were four versions of “The Scream” produced – two paintings, which both live in Oslo, and two pastels – the last pastel lives in New York with owner Leon Black.

Take the Bygdøyfergene (ferry) to Bygdøy peninsula. Not only is it a short, pretty little getaway that affords you a great view of the harbour, it is also home to a series of great museums.

The Viking Museum: first on our list. If you’re lucky, you may get a short time alone with the Viking ships. The ships are the best-preserved Viking ships in the world. The three ships are in various states of preservation and are very impressive to see. There are also carriages, sleds and artifacts from several Viking burial mounds that were discovered at various sites.

The Kon-Tiki Museum: when you see the balsa raft that Thor Heyerdahl spent 101 days in 1947 sailing from Peru to Polynesia, you are going to think “you have got to be kidding me, he must have been crazy”. The trip was undertaken to prove Thor’s theory of South American migration to Polynesia. The museum tells the story of the expedition. Once you find out that Thor couldn’t swim and that he and his crew of friends had no sailing experience, you realize that they really must have been crazy.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, in 1969 and 1970 Thor was at it again, on a papyrus raft called Ra on an expedition across the Atlantic.

(Cocktail friends – you have to see this if only because if was the start of the Tiki cocktail craze).

There must be something in the Norwegian blood for exploring. The next stop highlights the adventures of famous Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen (North Pole, Greenland) and Roald Amundsen (South Pole, Northwest Passage) who shared use of the ship that is the showcase of the museum.

Polar Ship Fram: if ships were musicians, this one would be a rock star! The strongest wooden ship ever built, it holds the record for travelling the furthest north as well as the furthest south on the planet. This is the ship that went to the Artic and to Antartica! You can board the ship and see where the various crew (and dogs) lived and how they survived (spoiler, not all the dogs survived). There are interesting timelines and multimedia presentations on the various floors. You can try your luck at pulling a 300 kg sled as well as trying to survive the cold in a polar simulator.

In the connected building next door is the new wing housing the ship Gjøa as well as Artic and Northwest Passage exhibits.

There is also a Norwegian Maritime Museum (the national museum for shipbuilding, shipping, fishing and marine archaeology); a Norwegian Folk Museum (one of the world’s oldest open air museums with over 155 traditional houses from around Norway including a Stave Church from 1200); and a Holocaust Center on Bygdøy as well as some pretty impressive looking homes!

While you are still at the harbour, pop in and see the architecturally-stunning Astrup Fearnley Museet (Museum of Contemporary Art) which is a privately owned museum located on the Oslo fjord. Housing both temporary and permanent collections, you can view conversation-starting pieces by Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer and Jeff Koons.

It doesn’t seem to matter where you start out, you will end up at the harbour. Why? The harbour is the spot to be. There are lots of restaurants, bars and shops situated on the harbour promenade. There are also lots of people out enjoying their city, the harbour view and the boats coming and going. This is a great place to go for a stroll and to people watch.

The Akershus Castle and Fortress sit across the fjord from the Astrup Fearnely Museet. The medieval castle, construction of which was started in 1299 by King Håkon V, has a stunning location. King Christian IV of Denmark agreed and modernized the castle and turned it into a royal residence in the late 1500s/early 1600s (side note, he also renamed the city Christiania in his honour in 1624 – it’s good to be King!). The city was called Kristiania from 1877 to 1925 after which time the original name was returned, but I digress). Not only is Akershus a Castle and a Fortress, it is also a barracks, and the grounds house the Resistance Museum. How’s that for multi-tasking?!

Ibsen fans will want to make sure they check out the Ibsen Museum (formerly Ibsen’s private home, near the Royal Palace) as well the National Theatre (conveniently near our hotel), where many of Ibsen’s plays premiered. Note to theatre fans, Oslo also hosts an International Ibsen Festival.

If you get the time, go see the Vigeland Sculpture Park. I went on my first trip to Oslo and was quite sad not to be able to show it to Pete. Oh well, it’s an excuse to go back! I enjoyed my second visit to Oslo as much as my first and I can’t wait for my next trip!

I love Oslo. If you like to walk, it is a great walking town and it’s also very easy to get around using public transportation. There is an amazingly fun vibe to the city. To me, it has a little bit of a Toronto feel, I’m not sure why. Maybe the reason is because I feel very comfortable and safe there, or maybe it’s because Oslo has a very cool harbourfront area. It may also be because a lot of streets seem to be under construction!

Follow the tradition of the great Norwegian explorers and make the trip to explore Oslo!