Exploring Oslo

Our first full day in Norway and we dive right into figuring out the fabulous public transport system. Just outside Alida’s little street of 10 or so houses, you can catch a variety of trams and buses which lead you all over town. We catch the #17 tram to downtown Oslo, and inevitably find ourselves making our first stop in Oslo at a bookstore, Norli, drawn in by the Harry Potter display in the window – clearly the whole world is waiting for July 21.

The Norli Bookstore in Oslo.

This store has an excellent English-language section and we pick up a Caesar-era historical novel called Emperor of the Gods for Tenzin, a book by one of Karma’s favorite author’s, Gwyneth Rees, who can’t be found in the USA, and a copy of King Harald’s Saga and the prose Edda for jen, just to brush up on Norse history/literature.

With our backpack a bit heavier, we continue walking past the wide boulevard, fountains and displays of Karl Johan’s Gate (the main drag) and come to the harbor, where we stop outside the Nobel Peace Prize museum. We explore the neighborhood for an hour or so, visiting a giant outdoor exhibit of nature photos that fills the square, as trams and ferrys meet and Kobi plays in a little park with a knot garden and a waterfall.


We think the exhibit is called Spirit of the Wild -- it's making the rounds in the big cities of the world.

Mark and gorilla in the rain.

Jen loves this knot garden, with a whimsical design created with annuals instead of the usual perennials.

Kobi behind the waterfall. It rains on and off here, so it's a good thing we brought Kobi's raincoat.

Look! A really small car!

We catch a ferry to visit two museums for the afternoon. First we come to the Viking Ship museum where three reconstructed boats and Viking artifacts are housed. We learn that the Vikings peaked in the years 800 to 1050. One of the boats was salvaged because it had been used as a burial vessel – they are huge and remarkably intact.

The reconstructed Viking boats can be viewed from the ground or from a small balcony.

The Norske Folk Museum is an open – air re-enactment museum of early, medieval and later Norwegian history. There are lots of re-located buildings, and people wandering around in costume. We chat with a young woman in a house that was moved from Finland, and she tells us about the discrimination against the Finns by the Norwegians.

At the top of the hill, we come to one of the oldest existing Stave Church. Maggie loves this stuff, and tries to figure out if this era is before or after Constantine. “Don’t you wish you had your own portable Andy and Elizabeth?” she asks? Sure we do!

A wooden stave church from the 12th or 13th century. Christianity became the official religion of Norway in about the year 1000 when King Olaf (the saint) converted.

A considerably lightened photo of the altar in the Stave Church.

Ok, it's not exactly historic, but we thought this was the prettiest fire escape we'd ever seen.

Here's a country-style house-barn combo with a green roof. Very eco-friendly!

The kids love the on-site playground, which has the kind of equipment which was banned in the US sometime in the 1980’s – merry-go-rounds anyone? There are some risky modern pieces too, like a giant tilted wheel, about 8 feet across, that begins to rotate when kids walk on the edge, and a log-rolling piece that none of them can stay up on. Pretty soon, our kids have made friends with all the other kids running around – and we have to drag them away at closing.

We take the public bus all the way back to Alida’s and have a lovely dinner. The kids plug into skype and introduce Katja to Pearse and Helen Pinch across the sea.



Alida's house in Oslo. Anyone up for a midnight bike ride?