Norway in a Nutshell - Oslo

Leave the first response June 19, 2009 / Posted in Travel

Oslo

Having ended up at Scandinavia for work, I decided to take this opportunity to explore Norway, Olso further. Oslo is the capital of Norway. I have to admit, it is not the most beautiful looking city but it is a starting point for my Norwegian Adventure - Norway in a Nutshell.

“Norway in a nutshell” is organised by the local train company to allow visitors to explore major cities/places in Norway in as little as one day. The trip can start in Oslo (the capital) and end up in Bergen or the other way around. You can also get a return ticket. Since I have a few days to spend I decided not to do it in one day. The trip allows you to stay for number of days in the major places. Mostly the price you pay covers all the transportation costs (see below)

I spent a whole day exploring Oslo and then caught an overnight train at midnight and arrived in Bergen at 6am. You can chose to have a sit down ticket but I wanted to reserve my energy by taking the sleeping berth carriage. I stayed overnight in Bergen and then caught a train to Voss. Once I got to Voss, I caught a bus to Gudvangen and then started my boat trip to explore the beautiful, majestic and magnificent fjords for a good 2 hours. I then arrived at Flam which I ended up staying overnight. In the morning, I caught a train from Flam to Myrdal to witness another beautiful nature scenery and a majestic waterfall. Then from Myrdal I caught a train back to Oslo.

The trips provides constant amazing sceneries (as you can see in the pictures of my Norway trip).

Anyhow, I explored Oslo by visiting:

Norwegian Parliament (built in mid 1800) - which is decorated by the local artist
Explored the park of the Royal Palace (where Norwegian King and his family reside)
Also passed the Oslo University
Aker Brygge - an interesting steel constructed building (used to be an old ship building ground) full of restaurants/cafes and shops
Oslo City Hall (Radhuset) - a really odd looking building maybe because it’s built in 1950s
Statue of Franklin D. Rosevelt overlooking the water - Eleanor Rosevelt flew all the way to dedicate this statue to him
Akershus Castle and Fortress - it has a beautiful harbour view and the surroundings are simply lovely

I took a leisurely pace by visiting couple museums, had a long lunch in a nice cafe, absorb the city life before making my way back to the central station for my overnight train ride to Bergen.

: Oslo

: A building near Arkhesus Castle

: Nowegian Parliament

: Oslo National Theatre

: Radhuset - city town hall

: Norwegian Royal Palace

: Franklin D Roosevelt statue - Eleanor Roosevel flew all the way to dedicate this statue to him

: Aker Brydge - steel constructed building used to be an old ship building grounds

: Young artist assocition house - this house used to host a deaded executioner,his fee depended on the type of execution style he required to perform