NEAR THE TRAIN STATION AND KARL JOHANS GATE
Map: Oslo Hotels & Restaurants
EATING IN THE SHADOW OF THE FORTRESS
HARBORSIDE DINING IN AKER BRYGGE
TRENDY DINING AT THE BOTTOM OF GRÜNERLØKKA
EATING CHEAP AND SPICY IN GRØNLAND
NEAR THE SKI JUMP, HIGH ON THE MOUNTAIN
BY OVERNIGHT BOAT TO COPENHAGEN
While Oslo is the smallest of the Scandinavian capitals, this brisk little city offers more sightseeing thrills than you might expect. As an added bonus, you’ll be inspired by a city that simply has its act together.
Sights of the Viking spirit—past and present—tell an exciting story. Prowl through the remains of ancient Viking ships, and marvel at more peaceful but equally gutsy modern boats (the Kon-Tiki, Ra, Fram, and Gjøa). Dive into the traditional folk culture at the Norwegian open-air folk museum, and get stirred up by the country’s heroic spirit at the Norwegian Resistance Museum.
For a look at modern Oslo, tour the striking City Hall, take a peek at sculptor Gustav Vigeland’s people-pillars, climb the exhilarating Holmenkollen Ski Jump, walk all over the Opera House, and then celebrate the world’s greatest peacemakers at the Nobel Peace Center.
Situated at the head of a 60-mile-long fjord, surrounded by forests, and populated by more than a half-million people, Oslo is Norway’s cultural hub. For 300 years (1624-1924), the city was called Christiania, after Danish King Christian IV. With independence, it reverted to the Old Norse name of Oslo. As an important port facing the Continent, Oslo has been one of Norway’s main cities for a thousand years and the de facto capital since around 1300. Still, Oslo has always been small by European standards; in 1800, Oslo had 10,000 people, while cities such as Paris and London had 50 times as many.
But Oslo experienced a growth spurt with the Industrial Age, and in 50 years (from 1850 to 1900) its population exploded from about 10,000 to about 250,000. Logically, most of “old Oslo” dates from this period when the city’s many churches and grand buildings were made of stone in the Historicism styles (neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque) of the late 19th century.
And Oslo’s old industrial quarter, with its evocative brick factories and warehouses, is a trendy bohemian-chic zone that comes with as much of an edge as you’ll find in otherwise wholesome Norway. The entire city—full of rich Norwegians—is expensive.
Today the city sprawls out from its historic core to encompass nearly a million people in its metropolitan area, about one in five Norwegians. Oslo’s port hums with international shipping and a sizeable cruise industry. Its waterfront, once traffic-congested and slummy, has already undergone a huge change, and the extreme urban makeover is just starting. The vision: a five-mile people-friendly and traffic-free promenade stretching from east to west the entire length of its waterfront. Cars and trucks now travel in underground tunnels, upscale condos and restaurants are taking over, and the neighborhood has a splashy Opera House. Oslo seems to be constantly improving its infrastructure and redeveloping slummy old quarters along the waterfront into cutting-edge residential zones. The metropolis feels as if it’s rushing to prepare for an Olympics-like deadline. But it isn’t—it just wants to be the best city it can be.
You’ll see a mix of grand Neoclassical facades, plain 1960s-style modernism, and a sprouting Nordic Manhattan-type skyline of skyscrapers nicknamed “the bar code buildings” for their sleek yet distinct boxiness.
But overall, the feel of this major capital is green and pastoral—spread out, dotted with parks and lakes, and surrounded by hills and forests. For the visitor, Oslo is an all-you-can-see smörgåsbord of historic sights, trees, art, and Nordic fun.
Oslo offers an exciting slate of sightseeing thrills. Ideally, spend two days, and leave on the night boat to Copenhagen or on the scenic “Norway in a Nutshell” train to Bergen the third morning. Spend the two days like this:
Day 1: Take my self-guided “Welcome to Oslo” walk. Tour the Akershus Fortress and the Norwegian Resistance Museum. Catch the City Hall tour. Spend the afternoon at the National Gallery and at the Holmenkollen Ski Jump and museum.
Day 2: Ferry across the harbor to Bygdøy and tour the Fram, Kon-Tiki, and Viking Ship museums. Spend the afternoon at the Norwegian Folk Museum. Finish the day at Vigeland Park, enjoying Gustav Vigeland’s statues.
Keep in mind that the National Gallery and the Vigeland Museum (at Vigeland Park) are closed on Monday.
Oslo is easy to manage. Its sights cluster around the main boulevard, Karl Johans Gate (with the Royal Palace at one end and the train station at the other), and in the Bygdøy (big-doy) district, a 10-minute ferry ride across the harbor. The city’s other main sight, Vigeland Park (with Gustav Vigeland’s statues), is about a mile behind the palace.
The monumental, homogenous city center contains most of the sights, but head out of the core to see the more colorful neighborhoods. Choose from Majorstuen and Frogner (chic boutiques, trendy restaurants), Grünerløkka (bohemian cafés, hipsters), and Grønland (multiethnic immigrants’ zone).
The city’s shiny new Oslo Visitor Center is in the Østbanehallen, the traditional-looking building right next to the central train station. Standing in the square (Jernbanetorget) by the tiger statue and facing the train station, you’ll find the TI’s entrance in the red-painted section between the station and Østbanehallen. You can also enter the TI from inside the train station (May-Sept daily 9:00-18:00, Oct-April daily 9:00-16:00, tel. 81 53 05 55, www.visitoslo.com).
At the TI, pick up these freebies: an Oslo map, the helpful public-transit map, the annual Oslo Guide (with plenty of details on sightseeing, shopping, and eating), and the You Are Here Oslo map and visitors guide (a young people’s guide that’s full of fun and offbeat ideas). For entertainment ideas and more, the free What’s On in Oslo monthly has the most accurate record of museum hours and an extensive listing of happenings every day, such as special events, tours, and concerts. If you like to bike, ask about the public bike-rental system (100 kr/24 hours; you can rent a card from TI to release simple one-speed bikes from racks around town).
If you’re traveling on, pick up the Bergen Guide and information for the rest of Norway, including the useful, annual Fjord Norway Travel Guide. Consider buying the Oslo Pass (described next), unless you get the Oslo Package, which includes your hotel accommodation and an Oslo Pass (described under “Sleeping in Oslo,” here).
Use It, a hardworking information center, is officially geared for those under age 26 but is generally happy to offer anyone its solid, money-saving, experience-enhancing advice (Mon-Fri 11:00-17:00, Sat 12:00-17:00, longer hours July-early Aug, closed Sun; Møllergata 3, look for Ungdomsinformasjonen sign, tel. 24 14 98 20, www.use-it.no). They can help find you the cheapest beds in town (no booking fee) and they offer these free services: Wi-Fi and Internet access, phone use, and luggage storage. Their free You Are Here Oslo guide—with practical info, maps, ideas on eating cheap, good nightspots, tips on picking up a Norwegian, the best beaches, and so on—is a must for young travelers and worthwhile for anyone curious about probing the Oslo scene.
Oslo Pass: This pass covers the city’s public transit, ferry boats, and entry to nearly every major sight—all described in a useful handbook (320 kr/24 hours, 470 kr/48 hours, 590 kr/72 hours; big discounts for kids ages 4-15 and seniors age 67 and over, www.visitoslo.com). Do the math before buying; add up the individual costs of the sights you want to see to determine whether an Oslo Pass will save you money. (Here are some sample charges: one 24-hour transit pass-90 kr, Nobel Peace Center-90 kr, three boat museums at Bygdøy-270 kr, National Gallery-50 kr. These costs, which total 500 kr, justify buying a 48-hour pass.) Students with an ISIC card may be better off without the Oslo Pass. The TI’s Oslo Package (see “Sleeping in Oslo,” later) includes an Oslo Pass with your discounted hotel room.
The central train station (Oslo Sentralstasjon, or “Oslo S” for short) is slick and helpful. You’ll find free Wi-Fi, an Internet café, ATMs, and two Forex exchange desks. The station is plugged into a lively modern shopping mall called Byporten (Mon-Fri 10:00-21:00, Sat 10:00-20:00, closed Sun). You’ll also find a cheap Bit sandwich shop with seating, a Joker supermarket (Mon-Fri 6:00-23:00, Sat 8:00-23:00, Sun 9:00-23:00), and a Vinmonopolet liquor store (Oslo’s most central place to buy wine or liquor—which is sold only at Vinmonopolet stores, Mon-Thu 10:00-18:00, Fri 9:00-18:00, Sat 9:00-15:00, closed Sun). The new TI is in the Østbanehallen, right next to the train station.
For tickets and train info, you can go to the station’s ticket office located between tracks 8 and 9 (Mon-Fri 6:30-23:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00—opens at 7:45 on summer weekends) or to the helpful train office at the National Theater railway and T-bane station, which can have shorter lines (Mon-Fri 7:30-17:00, closed Sat-Sun; Ruseløkkveien, southwest of National Theater). At either ticket office, you can buy domestic and Norway in a Nutshell tickets, and pick up leaflets on the Flåm and Bergen Railway, but only the station office sells international tickets. The TI also sells domestic train tickets (same price, likely friendlier and faster).
Oslo Lufthavn, also called Gardermoen, is about 30 miles north of the city center and has a helpful 24-hour information center (airport code: OSL, tel. 91 50 64 00, www.osl.no).
Flytoget is the speedy train that zips travelers between the airport and the central train station in 20-25 minutes (170 kr, less for students and seniors, 4/hour, runs roughly 5:00-24:00, not covered by rail passes, simply swipe your credit card through card reader at gate before boarding, then swipe it again when you get off—or buy ticket from machine or at ticket counter, where you’ll pay a 30-kr surcharge; tel. 81 50 07 77, www.flytoget.no). Note that Flytoget trains alternate between those that go only to the central train station, and others that also continue on through Oslo, stopping at the National Theater station (which is closer to some recommended hotels and uses the same ticket).
Local trains are nearly half the cost of Flytoget trains and nearly as fast (90 kr, roughly 2/hour, 25 minutes, covered by rail passes, some also serve National Theater station). You’ll save about 30 kr on this trip with an Oslo Pass because the pass covers transportation within Oslo; you only need to pay the fare for the stretch between the airport and the edge of town.
To reach the Flytoget and local train counters at the airport: After you leave customs, exit right and walk all the way to the far corner; you’ll see two separate ticket counters (one for Flytoget, NSB for the cheaper local trains) and separate TV screens showing the timetables for Flytoget and the “lokal-InterCity-fjerntog” trains.
Flybus airport buses stop directly outside the arrival hall and make several downtown stops, including the central train station (150 kr one-way, 3/hour, 40 minutes, tel. 67 98 04 80).
Taxis run to and from the airport (895-kr fixed rate until 17:00, 1,095-kr rate after 17:00, confirm price before you commit). Oslo Taxi is the most reliable (tel. 02323). I prefer the slick and faster Flytoget train, but the taxi can be a good value for families and those with lots of luggage.
If you arrive at the Rygge or Sandefjord airports, catch a Flybus airport bus to downtown Oslo. If you’re going from Oslo to either airport, note that buses depart Oslo’s central bus terminal (next to the train station) about three hours before all flight departures.
Rygge Airport: Ryanair and Norwegian use this airport near the city of Moss, 40 miles south of Oslo (160 kr for Flybus ticket—buy from driver, www.rygge-ekspressen.no; airport code: RYG, tel. 69 23 00 00, www.en.ryg.no).
Sandefjord Airport Torp: Ryanair, WizzAir, and other discount airlines use this airport, 70 miles south of Oslo (250 kr for Flybus ticket from driver, www.torpekspressen.no; airport code: TRF, tel. 33 42 70 00, www.torp.no).
For details on arriving in Oslo by cruise ship, see the end of this chapter.
Pickpocket Alert: They’re a problem in Oslo, particularly in crowds on the street and in subways and buses. To call the police, dial 112.
Street People and Drug Addicts: Oslo’s street population loiters around the train station. While a bit unnerving to some travelers, locals consider this rough-looking bunch harmless. The police have pretty much corralled them to the square called Christian Frederiks Plass, south of the station.
Money: Banks in Norway don’t change money. Use ATMs or Forex exchange offices (outlets near City Hall at Fridtjof Nansens Plass 6, at train station, and at Egertorget at the crest of Karl Johans Gate; hours vary by location but generally Mon-Fri 9:00-18:00, Sat 9:00-17:00, closed Sun).
Internet Access: @rctic Internet Café is pricey but central, located in the train station’s main hall and above track 13 (60 kr/hour, daily 8:00-23:00).
Post Office: It’s in the train station.
Pharmacy: Jernbanetorgets Vitus Apotek is open 24 hours daily (across from train station on Jernbanetorget, tel. 23 35 81 00).
Laundry: Selva Laundry is on the corner of Wessels Gate and Ullevålsveien at Ullevålsveien 15, a half-mile north of the train station (daily self-serve 8:00-21:00, full-serve 10:00-19:00, walk or catch bus #37 from station, tel. 41 64 08 33).
Bike Rental: Viking Biking, run by Americans Curtis and Ben, rents bikes (125 kr/8 hours, 200 kr/24 hours, includes helmet, map, rain poncho, and lock, daily 9:30-18:00, Nedre Slottsgate 4, tel. 41 26 64 96, www.vikingbikingoslo.com; see “Tours in Oslo,” later, for their guided bike tours).
Or use the public bike-rental system to grab basic city bikes out of locked racks at various points throughout town (100 kr/24 hours; get card at TI).
Movies: The domed Colosseum Kino in Majorstuen, one of northern Europe’s largest movie houses with 1,500 seats, is a fun place to catch a big-time spectacle. Built in 1928, this high-tech, four-screen theater shows first-run films in their original language (Fridtjof Nansens Vei 6, a short walk west from Marjorstuen T-bane station, www.oslokino.no).
Updates to This Book: For updates to this book, check www.ricksteves.com/update.
By Public Transit: Commit yourself to taking advantage of Oslo’s excellent transit system, made up of buses, trams, ferries, and a subway (Tunnelbane, or T-bane for short; see “Sightseeing by Public Transit” sidebar). Use the TI’s free public transit map to navigate. The system runs like clockwork, with schedules clearly posted and followed. Many stops have handy electronic reader boards showing the time remaining before the next tram arrives (usually less than 10 minutes). Ruter, the public-transit information center, faces the train station under the glass tower; Mon-Fri 7:00-20:00, Sat-Sun 8:00-18:00, tel. 177 or 81 50 01 76, www.ruter.no).
Individual tickets work on buses, trams, ferries, and the T-bane for one hour (30 kr if bought at machines, transit office, Narvesen kiosks, convenience stores such as 7-Eleven or Deli de Luca, or via smartphone app—or 50 kr if bought on board). Other options include the 24-hour ticket (90 kr; buy at machines, transit office, or via smartphone app; good for unlimited rides in 24-hour period) and the Oslo Pass (gives free run of entire system; described earlier). Validate your ticket or smartcard by holding it next to the card reader when you board.
By Taxi: Taxis come with a 150-kr drop charge that covers you for three or four kilometers—about two miles (more on evenings and weekends). Taxis can be a good value if you’re with a group. If you use a minibus taxi, you are welcome to negotiate an hourly rate. To get a taxi, wave one down, find a taxi stand, or call 02323.
A fascinating world of idyllic islands sprinkled with charming vacation cabins is minutes away from the Oslo harborfront. For locals, the fjord is a handy vacation getaway. Tourists can get a glimpse of this island world by public ferry or tour boat. Cheap ferries regularly connect the nearby islands with downtown (free with Oslo Pass).
Several tour boats leave regularly from pier 3 in front of City Hall. Båtservice has a relaxing and scenic 1.5-hour hop-on, hop-off service, with recorded multilanguage commentary. It departs from the City Hall dock (185 kr, daily at 9:45, 11:15, 12:45, and 14:15; departs 30 minutes later from Opera House and one hour later from Bygdøy; tel. 23 35 68 90, www.boatsightseeing.com). They won’t scream if you bring something to munch. They also offer two-hour fjord tours with lame live commentary (269 kr, 3-4/day late March-Sept) and a “Summer Evening on the Fjord” dinner cruise on a sailing ship (395 kr; joyride without narration that includes a “shrimp buffet”—just shrimp, bread, and butter; daily mid-June-Aug 19:00-22:00).
Båtservice, which runs the harbor cruises, also offers four-hour bus tours of Oslo, with stops at the ski jump, Bygdøy museums, and Vigeland Park (390 kr, 2/day mid-May-mid-Sept, departs next to City Hall, longer tours also available, tel. 23 35 68 90, www.boatsightseeing.com). HMK also does daily city bus tours (220 kr/2 hours, 350 kr/4 hours, departs next to City Hall, tel. 22 78 94 00, www.hmk.no).
Open Top Sightseeing runs hop-on, hop-off bus tours (260 kr/all day, 19 stops, www.opentopsightseeing.no; every 30 minutes, leaves from City Hall, English headphone commentary, buy ticket from driver). While the tours help you get your bearings, most of Oslo’s sightseeing is concentrated in a few discrete zones that are well-connected by the excellent public-transportation network—making pricey bus tours a lesser value. And if you hit the timing wrong, you may wait up to an hour at popular stops (such as Vigeland Park) for a chance to hop back on.
Viking Biking gives several different guided tours in English, including a three-hour Oslo Highlights Tour (250 kr, May-Sept daily at 13:00, Nedre Slottsgate 4, tel. 41 26 64 96, www.vikingbikingoslo.com). They also rent bikes; see “Helpful Hints,” earlier.
Oslo Guideservice offers 1.5-hour historic “Oslo Promenade” walks from June through August (150 kr, free with Oslo Pass; Mon, Wed, and Fri at 17:30; leaves from sea side of City Hall, confirm departures at TI, tel. 22 42 70 20, www.guideservice.no).
You can hire a private guide through Oslo Guideservice (2,000 kr/2 hours, tel. 22 42 70 20, www.guideservice.no); my guide Aksel had a passion for both history and his hometown of Oslo. Or try Oslo Guidebureau (prices start at 1,950 kr/3 hours, tel. 22 42 28 18, www.osloguide.no, mail@guideservice.no).
Tram #12, which becomes tram #11 halfway through its loop (at Majorstuen), circles the city from the train station, lacing together many of Oslo’s main sights. Apart from the practical value of being able to hop on and off as you sightsee your way around town (trams come by at least every 10 minutes), this 40-minute trip gives you a fine look at parts of the city you wouldn’t otherwise see.
The route starts at the main train station, at the traffic-island tram stop located immediately in front of the transit office tower. The route makes almost a complete circle and finishes at Stortorvet (the cathedral square), dropping you off a three-minute walk from where you began the tour.
Starting out, you want tram #12 as it leaves from the second set of tracks, going toward Majorstuen. Confirm with your driver that the particular tram #12 you’re boarding becomes tram #11 and finishes at Stortorvet; some of these may turn into tram #19 instead, which takes a different route. If yours becomes #19, simply hop out at Majorstuen and wait for the next #11. If #11 is canceled because of construction, leave #12 at Majorstuen and catch #19 through the center back to the train station, or hop on the T-bane (which zips every few minutes from Majorstuen to the National Theater—closest to the harbor and City Hall—and then to the station). Here’s what you’ll see and ideas on where you might want to hop out:
From the station, you’ll go through the old grid streets of 16th-century Christiania, King Christian IV’s planned Renaissance town. After the city’s 17th fire, in 1624, the king finally got fed up. He decreed that only brick and stone buildings would be permitted in the city center, with wide streets to serve as fire breaks.
You’ll turn a corner at the fortress (Christiana Torv stop; get off here for the fortress and Norwegian Resistance Museum), then head for City Hall (Rådhus stop). Next comes the harbor and upscale Aker Brygge waterfront neighborhood (jump off at the Aker Brygge stop for the harbor and restaurant row). Passing the harbor, you’ll see on the left a few old shipyard buildings that still survive. Then the tram goes uphill, past the House of Oslo (a mall of 20 shops highlighting Scandinavian interior design; Vikatorvet stop) and into a district of ugly 1960s buildings (when elegance was replaced by “functionality”). The tram then heads onto the street Norwegians renamed Henrik Ibsens Gate in 2006 to commemorate the centenary of Ibsen’s death, honoring the man they claim is the greatest playwright since Shakespeare.
After Henrik Ibsens Gate, the tram follows Frognerveien through the chic Frogner neighborhood. Behind the fine old facades are fancy shops and spendy condos. Here and there you’ll see 19th-century mansions built by aristocratic families who wanted to live near the Royal Palace; today, many of these house foreign embassies. Turning the corner, you roll along the edge of Frogner Park (which includes Vigeland Park, featuring Gustav Vigeland’s sculptures), stopping at its grand gate (hop out at the Vigelandsparken stop).
Ahead on the left, a statue of 1930s ice queen Sonja Henie marks the arena where she learned to skate. Turning onto Bogstadveien, the tram usually becomes #11 at the Majorstuen stop. Bogstadveien is lined with trendy shops, restaurants, and cafés—it’s a fun place to stroll and window-shop. (You could get out here and walk along this street all the way to the Royal Palace park and the top of Karl Johans Gate.) The tram veers left before the palace, passing the National Historical Museum and stopping at the National Gallery (Tullinløkka stop). As you trundle along, you may notice that lots of roads are ripped up for construction. It’s too cold to fix the streets in winter, so, when possible, the work is done in summer. Jump out at Stortorvet (a big square filled with flower stalls and fronted by the cathedral and the big GlasMagasinet department store). From here, you’re a three-minute walk from the station, where this tour began.
(See “Welcome to Oslo Walk” map, here.)
This self-guided stroll, worth ▲▲, covers the heart of Oslo—the zone where most tourists find themselves walking—from the train station, up the main drag, and past City Hall to the harborfront. It takes a brisk 30 minutes if done nonstop.
Train Station: Start at the plaza just outside the main entrance of Oslo’s central train station (Oslo Sentralstasjon). The statue of the tiger prowling around out front alludes to the town’s nickname of Tigerstaden (“Tiger Town”) and commemorates the 1,000th birthday of Oslo’s founding, celebrated in the year 2000. In the 1800s, Oslo was considered an urban tiger, leaving its mark on the soul of simple country folk who ventured into the wild and crazy New York City of Norway. (These days, the presence of so many beggars, or tigger, has prompted the nickname “Tiggerstaden.”)
With your back to the train station, look for the glass Ruter tower that marks the public transit office; from here, trams zip to City Hall (harbor, boat to Bygdøy), and the underground subway (T-bane, or Tunnelbane—look for the T sign to your right) goes to Vigeland Park (statues) and Holmenkollen. Tram #12—featured in the self-guided tram tour described earlier—leaves from directly across the street.
The green building behind the Ruter tower is a shopping mall called Byporten (literally, “City Gate,” see big sign on rooftop), built to greet those arriving from the airport on the shuttle train. Oslo’s 37-floor pointed-glass skyscraper, the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, looms behind that. Its 34th-floor SkyBar welcomes the public with air-conditioned views and pricey drinks (Mon-Sat 17:00-24:00, closed Sun). The tower was built with reflective glass so that, from a distance, it almost disappears. The area behind the Radisson—the lively and colorful “Little Karachi,” centered along a street called Grønland—is where most of Oslo’s immigrant population settled. It’s become a vibrant nightspot, offering a fun contrast to the predictable homogeneity of Norwegian cuisine and culture.
Oslo allows hard-drug addicts and prostitutes to mix and mingle in the station area. (While it’s illegal to buy sex in Norway, those who sell it are not breaking the law.) Troubled young people come here from small towns in the countryside for anonymity and community. The two cameras near the top of the Ruter tower monitor drug deals. Signs warn that this is a “monitored area,” but victimless crimes proceed while violence is minimized. (Watch your purse and wallet here.)
• Note that you are near the Opera House if you’d like to side-trip there now. Otherwise, turn your attention to Norway’s main drag, called...
Karl Johans Gate: This grand boulevard leads directly from the train station to the Royal Palace. The street is named for the French general Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who was given a Swedish name, established the current Swedish dynasty, and ruled as a popular king (1818-1844) during the period after Sweden took Norway from Denmark.
Walk three blocks up Karl Johans Gate. This stretch is referred to as “Desolation Row” by locals because it has no soul, just shops greedily looking to devour tourists’ money. If you visit in the snowy winter, you’ll walk on bare concrete: Most of downtown Oslo’s pedestrian streets are heated.
• Hook right around the curved old brick structure of an old market and walk to the...
Oslo Cathedral (Domkirke): This Lutheran church (daily 10:00-16:00) is the third cathedral Oslo has had, built in 1697 after the second one burned down. It’s where Norway commemorates its royal marriages and deaths. Seventy-seven deaths were mourned here following the tragic shootings and bombing of July 2011 (see sidebar, here). In the grass in front of the cathedral, you may see a semipermanent memorial to the victims, consisting of a row of stones shaped like a heart.
Look for the cathedral’s cornerstone (right of entrance), a thousand-year-old carving from Oslo’s first and long-gone cathedral showing how the forces of good and evil tug at each of us. Look high up on the tower. The tiny square windows midway up the copper cupola were once the lookout quarters of the fire watchman.
Step inside beneath the red, blue, and gold seal of Oslo and under an equally colorful ceiling (late Art Deco from the 1930s). The box above on the right is for the royal family. The fine Baroque pulpit and altarpiece date from 1700. The chandeliers are from the previous cathedral (which burned in the 17th century). The colorful windows in the choir (leading up to the altar) were made in 1910 by Emanuel Vigeland (Gustav’s less famous brother).
Leaving the church, stroll around to the right, behind the church. The courtyard is lined by a circa-1850 circular row of stalls from an old market. Rusty meat hooks now decorate the lamps of a peaceful café, which has quaint tables around a fountain. The atmospheric Café Bacchus, at the far left end of the arcade, serves food outside and in a classy café downstairs (light 150-200-kr meals, Mon-Fri 11:00-22:00, Sat 12:00-22:00, closed Sun, hamburgers, salads, good cakes, coffee, tel. 22 33 34 30).
• The big square that faces the cathedral is called...
Stortorvet: In the 17th century, when Oslo’s wall was located about here, this was the point where farmers were allowed to enter and sell their goods. Today it’s still lively as a flower and produce market (Mon-Fri). The statue shows Christian IV, the Danish king who ruled Norway around 1600, dramatically gesturing that-a-way. He named the city, rather immodestly, Christiania. (Oslo took back its old Norse name only in 1925.) Christian was serious about Norway. During his 60-year reign, he visited it 30 times (more than all other royal visits combined during 300 years of Danish rule). The big GlasMagasinet department store is a landmark on this square.
• Return to Karl Johans Gate, and continue up the boulevard past street musicians, cafés, shops, and hordes of people. If you’re here early in the morning (Mon-Fri) you may see a commotion at #14 (in the first block, on the left, look for the big 2 sign). This is the studio of a TV station (channel 2) where the Norwegian version of the Today show is shot, and as on Rockefeller Plaza, locals gather here, clamoring to get their mugs on TV.
At the next corner, Kongens Gate leads left, past the 17th-century grid-plan town to the fortress. But we’ll continue hiking straight up to the crest of the hill, enjoying some of the street musicians along the way. Pause at the wide spot in the street just before Akersgata to appreciate the...
Crest of Karl Johans Gate: Look back at the train station. A thousand years ago, the original (pre-1624) Oslo was located at the foot of the wooded hill behind the station (described later). Now look ahead to the Royal Palace in the distance, which was built in the 1830s “with nature and God behind it and the people at its feet.” If the flag flies atop the palace, the king is in the country. Karl Johans Gate, a parade ground laid out in about 1850 from here to the palace, is now the axis of modern Oslo. Each May 17, Norway’s Constitution Day, an annual children’s parade turns this street into a sea of marching student bands and costumed young flag-wavers, while the royal family watches from the palace balcony. Since 1814, Norway has preferred peace. Rather than celebrating its military on the national holiday, it celebrates its children.
King Harald V and Queen Sonja moved back into the palace in 2001, after extensive (and costly) renovations. To quell the controversy caused by this expense, the public is now allowed inside to visit each summer with a pricey one-hour guided tour (95 kr, 3 English tours/day late June-mid-Aug, fills fast—buy tickets in advance online or at many convenience stores, such as the Narvesen kiosk near the palace, or by calling 81 53 31 33, www.kongehuset.no).
In the middle of the small square, the T sign marks a stop of the T-bane (Oslo’s subway). W. B. Samson’s bakery is a good place for a quick, affordable lunch, with a handy cafeteria line (WC in back); duck inside if just to be tempted by the pastries. Two traditional favorites are kanelboller (cinnamon rolls) and skolebrød (“school bread,” with an egg-and-cream filling). From here, the street called Akersgata kicks off a worthwhile stroll past the site of the July 2011 bombing, the national cemetery, and through a park-like river gorge to the trendy Grünerløkka quarter (an hour-long walk, described on here).
People-watching is great along Karl Johans Gate, but remember that if it’s summer, half of the city’s regular population is gone—vacationing in their cabins or farther away—and the city center is filled mostly with visitors.
Hike two blocks down Karl Johans Gate, past the big brick Parliament building (on the left). On your right, seated in the square, is a statue of the 19th-century painter Christian Krohg. Continue down Karl Johans Gate. If you’d like to get a city view (and perhaps some refreshment), enter the glass doors at #27 and take the elevator to the eighth-floor roof-top bar, Etoile.
A few doors farther down Karl Johans Gate, just past the Freia shop (Norway’s oldest and best chocolate), the venerable Grand Hotel (Oslo’s celebrity hotel—Nobel Peace Prize winners sleep here) overlooks the boulevard.
• Ask the waiter at the Grand Café—part of the Grand Hotel—if you can pop inside for a little sightseeing (he’ll generally let you).
Grand Café: This historic café was for many years the meeting place of Oslo’s intellectual and creative elite (the playwright Henrik Ibsen was a regular here). Notice the photos and knickknacks on the wall. At the back of the café, a mural shows Norway’s literary and artistic clientele—from a century ago—enjoying this fine hangout. On the far left, find Ibsen, coming in as he did every day at 13:00. Edvard Munch is on the right, leaning against the window, looking pretty drugged. Names are on the sill beneath the mural.
• For a cheap bite with prime boulevard seating, continue past the corner to Deli de Luca, a convenience store with a super selection of takeaway food and a great people-watching perch. Across the street, a little park faces Norway’s...
Parliament Building (Stortinget): Norway’s Parliament meets here (along with anyone participating in a peaceful protest outside). Built in 1866, the building seems to counter the Royal Palace at the other end of Karl Johans Gate. If the flag’s flying, Parliament’s in session. Today the king is a figurehead, and Norway is run by a unicameral parliament and a prime minister. Guided tours of the Stortinget are offered for those interested in Norwegian government (free, 45 minutes; mid-June-Aug Mon-Fri at 10:00 and 13:00 in English, at 11:30 in Norwegian; line up at gate in front of the main entrance off Karl Johans Gate, tel. 23 31 35 96, www.stortinget.no).
• Cross over into the park and stroll toward the palace, past the fountain. Pause at the...
Statue of Wergeland: The poet Henrik Wergeland helped inspire the national resurgence of Norway during the 19th century. Norway won its independence from Denmark in 1814, but within a year it lost its freedom to Sweden. For nearly a century, until Norway won independence in 1905, Norwegian culture and national spirit was stoked by artistic and literary patriots like Wergeland. In the winter, the pool here is frozen and covered with children happily ice-skating. Across the street behind Wergeland stands the National Theater and statues of Norway’s favorite playwrights: Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Across Karl Johans Gate, the pale yellow building is the first university building in Norway, dating from 1854. A block behind that is the National Gallery, with Norway’s best collection of paintings (self-guided tour on here).
Take a moment here to do a 360-degree spin to notice how quiet and orderly everything is. Many communities suffer from a “free rider” problem—which occurs when someone does something that would mess things up for all if everyone did it. (The transgressor believes his actions are OK because most people toe the line.) Norwegian society, with its heightened sense of social responsibility, doesn’t experience this phenomenon.
• Facing the theater, follow Roald Amundsens Gate left, to the towering brick...
City Hall (Rådhuset): Built mostly in the 1930s with contributions from Norway’s leading artists, City Hall is full of great art and is worth touring (see here). The mayor has his office here (at the base of one of the two 200-foot towers), and every December 10, this building is where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented. For the best exterior art, circle the courtyard clockwise, studying the colorful woodcuts in the arcade. Each shows a scene from Norwegian mythology, well-explained in English: Thor with his billy-goat chariot, Ask and Embla (a kind of Norse Adam and Eve), Odin on his eight-legged horse guided by ravens, the swan maidens shedding their swan disguises, and so on. Circle to the right around City Hall, until you reach the front. The statues (especially the six laborers on the other side of the building, facing the harbor, who seem to guard the facade) celebrate the nobility of the working class. Norway, a social democracy, believes in giving respect to the workers who built their society and made it what it is, and these laborers are viewed as heroes.
• Walk to the...
Harbor: A decade ago, you would have dodged several lanes of busy traffic to get to Oslo’s harborfront. But today, most cars cross underneath the city in tunnels. In addition, the city has made its town center relatively quiet and pedestrian-friendly by levying a traffic-discouraging 35-kr toll for every car entering town. (This system, like a similar one in London, subsidizes public transit and the city’s infrastructure.)
At the water’s edge, find the shiny metal plaque (just left of center) listing the contents of a sealed time capsule planted in 2000 out in the harbor in the little Kavringen lighthouse straight ahead (to be opened in 1,000 years). Go to the end of the stubby pier (on the right). This is the ceremonial “enter the city” point for momentous occasions. One such instance was in 1905, when Norway gained its independence from Sweden and a Danish prince sailed in from Copenhagen to become the first modern king of Norway. Another milestone event occurred at the end of World War II, when the king returned to Norway after the country was liberated from the Nazis.
• Stand at the harbor and give it a sweeping counterclockwise look.
Harborfront Spin-Tour: Oslofjord is a huge playground, with 40 city-owned, park-like islands. Big white cruise ships—a large part of the local tourist economy—dock just under the Akershus Fortress on the left. Just past the fort’s impressive 13th-century ramparts, a statue of FDR grabs the shade. He’s here in gratitude for the safe refuge the US gave to members of the royal family (including the young prince who is now Norway’s king) during World War II—while the king and his government-in-exile waged Norway’s fight against the Nazis from London.
Enjoy the grand view of City Hall. The yellow building farther to the left was the old West Train Station; today it houses the Nobel Peace Center, which celebrates the work of Nobel Peace Prize winners (see here). The next pier is the launchpad for harbor boat tours and the shuttle boat to the Bygdøy museums. A fisherman often moors his boat here, selling shrimp from the back.
At the other end of the harbor, shipyard buildings (this was the former heart of Norway’s once-important shipbuilding industry) have been transformed into Aker Brygge—Oslo’s thriving restaurant/shopping/nightclub zone (see “Eating in Oslo”).
Just past the end of Aker Brygge is a new housing development—dubbed Norway’s most expensive real estate—called Tjuvholmen. It’s anchored by the Astrup Fearnley Museum, an international modern art museum complex designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano (most famous for Paris’ Pompidou Center; www.afmuseet.no). This zone is just one more reminder of Oslo’s bold march toward becoming a city that is at once futuristic and people-friendly.
An ambitious urban renewal project called Fjord City (Fjordbyen)—which kicked off years ago with Aker Brygge, and led to the construction of Oslo’s dramatic Opera House (see here)—is making remarkable progress in turning the formerly industrial waterfront into a flourishing people zone.
• From here, you can stroll out Aker Brygge and through Tjuvholmen to a tiny public beach at the far end, tour City Hall, visit the Nobel Peace Center, hike up to Akershus Fortress, take a harbor cruise (see “Tours in Oslo,” earlier), or catch a boat across the harbor to the museums at Bygdøy (from pier 3). The sights just mentioned are described in detail in the following section.
▲Nobel Peace Center (Nobels Fredssenter)
▲▲Norwegian Resistance Museum (Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum)
Armed Forces Museum (Forsvarsmuseet)
▲▲▲National Gallery (Nasjonalgalleriet)
Map: National Gallery—Upper Floor
National Historical Museum (Historisk Museum)
Oslo City Museum (Oslo Bymuseum)
Map: Oslo’s Bygdøy Neighborhood
▲▲▲Norwegian Folk Museum (Norsk Folkemuseum)
▲▲Viking Ship Museum (Vikingskiphuset)
▲▲Kon-Tiki Museum (Kon-Tiki Museet)
▲Norwegian Maritime Museum (Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum)
▲Norwegian Holocaust Center (HL-Senteret)
GRÜNERLØKKA AND GRØNLAND DISTRICTS
▲Up Akers River and Down Grünerløkka Walk
Map: Grünerløkka/Grønland Area
▲▲Holmenkollen Ski Jump and Ski Museum
▲Ekeberg Sculpture Park and Ruins of Medieval Oslo
▲Edvard Munch Museum (Munch Museet)
In 1931, Oslo tore down a slum and began constructing its richly decorated City Hall. It was finally finished—after a WWII delay—in 1950 to celebrate the city’s 900th birthday. Norway’s leading artists all contributed to the building, which was an avant-garde thrill in its day. City halls, rather than churches, are the dominant buildings in Scandinavian capitals. The prominence of this building on the harborfront makes sense in this most humanistic, yet least churchgoing, northern end of the Continent. Up here, people pay high taxes, have high expectations, and are generally satisfied with what their governments do with their money.
Cost and Hours: Free, daily 9:00-18:00, free 50-minute guided tours daily at 10:00, 12:00, and 14:00 in summer, tours run Wed only in winter, free and fine WC, enter on Karl Johans Gate side, tel. 23 46 12 00.
Visiting City Hall: At Oslo’s City Hall, the six statues facing the waterfront—dating from a period of Labor Party rule in Norway—celebrate the nobility of the working class. The art implies a classless society, showing everyone working together. The theme continues inside, with 20,000 square feet of bold and colorful Socialist Realist murals showing town folk, country folk, and people from all walks of life working harmoniously for a better society. The huge murals take you on a voyage through the collective psyche of Norway, from its simple rural beginnings through the scar tissue of the Nazi occupation and beyond. Filled with significance and symbolism—and well-described in English—the murals become even more meaningful with the excellent guided tours.
The main hall feels like a temple to good government, with its altar-like mural celebrating “work, play, and civic administration.” The mural emphasizes Oslo’s youth participating in community life—and rebuilding the country after Nazi occupation. Across the bottom, the slum that once cluttered up Oslo’s harborfront is being cleared out to make way for this building. Above that, scenes show Norway’s pride in its innovative health care and education systems. Left of center, near the top, Mother Norway rests on a church—reminding viewers that the Lutheran Church of Norway (the official state religion) provides a foundation for this society. On the right, four forms represent the arts; they illustrate how creativity springs from children. And in the center, the figure of Charity is surrounded by Culture, Philosophy, and Family.
The “Mural of the Occupation” lines the left side of the hall. It tells the story of Norway’s WWII experience. Looking left to right, you’ll see the following: The German blitzkrieg overwhelms the country. Men head for the mountains to organize a resistance movement. Women huddle around the water well, traditionally where news is passed, while Quislings (traitors named after the Norwegian fascist who ruled the country as a Nazi puppet) listen in. While Germans bomb and occupy Norway, a family gathers in their living room. As a boy clenches his fist (showing determination) and a child holds the beloved Norwegian flag, the Gestapo steps in. Columns lie on the ground, symbolizing how Germans shut down the culture by closing newspapers and the university. Two resistance soldiers are executed. A cell of resistance fighters (wearing masks and using nicknames, so if tortured they can’t reveal their compatriots’ identities) plan a sabotage mission. Finally, prisoners are freed, the war is over, and Norway celebrates its happiest day: May 17, 1945—the first Constitution Day after five years under Nazi control.
While gazing at these murals, keep in mind that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in this central hall each December (though the general Nobel Prize ceremony occurs in Stockholm’s City Hall). You can see videos of the ceremony and acceptance speeches in the adjacent Nobel Peace Center (see next).
Eating: Fans of the explorer Fridtjof Nansen might enjoy a coffee or beer across the street at Fridtjof, an atmospheric bar filled with memorabilia from Nansen’s Arctic explorations. A model of his ship, the Fram, hangs from the ceiling, and 1894 photos and his own drawings are upstairs (Mon-Sat 12:00 until late, Sun 14:00-22:00, Nansens Plass 7, near Forex, tel. 93 25 22 30).
This thoughtful and thought-provoking museum, housed in the former West Train Station (Vestbanen), poses the question, “What is the opposite of conflict?” It celebrates the 800-some past and present Nobel Peace Prize winners with engaging audio and video exhibits and high-tech gadgetry (all with good English explanations). Allow time for reading about past prizewinners and listening to acceptance speeches by recipients from President Carter to Mother Theresa. Check out the astonishing interactive book detailing the life and work of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who initiated the prizes—perhaps to assuage his conscience.
Cost and Hours: 90 kr; mid-May-Aug daily 10:00-18:00; Sept-mid-May Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, closed Mon; included English guided tours at 12:00 and 15:00, fewer in winter; Brynjulfs Bulls Plass 1, tel. 48 30 10 00, www.nobelpeacecenter.org.
Opened in 2008, Oslo’s striking Opera House is still the talk of the town and a huge hit. The building rises from the water on the city’s eastern harbor, across the highway from the train station (use the sky-bridge). Its boxy, low-slung, glass center holds a state-of-the-art 1,400-seat main theater with a 99-piece orchestra “in the pit,” which can rise to put the orchestra “on the pedestal.” The season is split between opera and ballet.
Information-packed, 50-minute tours explain what makes this one of the greenest buildings in Europe and why Norwegian taxpayers helped foot the half-billion dollar cost for this project—to make high culture (ballet and opera) accessible to the younger generation and a strata of society who normally wouldn’t care. You’ll see a workshop employing 50 people who hand-make costumes, and learn how the foundation of 700 pylons set 40 or 50 meters deep support the jigsaw puzzle of wood, glass, and 36,000 individual pieces of marble. The construction masterfully integrates land and water, inside and outside, nature and culture.
The jutting white marble planes of the Opera House’s roof double as a public plaza. When visiting, you feel a need to walk all over it. The Opera House is part of a larger harbor-redevelopment plan that includes rerouting traffic into tunnels and turning a once-derelict industrial zone into an urban park.
Cost and Hours: Foyer and café/restaurant open Mon-Fri 10:00-23:00, Sat 11:00-23:00, Sun 12:00-22:00.
Tours: In summer, the Opera House offers sporadic foyer concerts (50 kr, generally at 13:00) and fascinating 50-minute guided tours of the stage, backstage area, and architecture (100 kr, usually 3 tours/day in English—generally at 11:00, 12:00, and 14:00, reserve by email at omvisninger@operaen.no or online at www.operaen.no, tel. 21 42 21 00).
Getting There: The easiest way to get to the Opera House is from the train station. Just follow signs for Exit South/Utgang Syd (standing in the main hall with the tracks to your back, it’s to the left). Exiting the station, proceed straight ahead onto the pedestrian bridge (marked Velkommen til Operaen), which takes you effortlessly above traffic congestion to your goal.
Oslo’s harborfront was dominated by the Aker Brygge shipyard until it closed in 1986. Today this is the first finished part of a project (called Fjordbyen, or Fjord City) that will turn the central stretch of Oslo’s harborfront into a people-friendly park and culture zone. Aker Brygge is a stretch of trendy yacht-club style restaurants facing a fine promenade—just the place to join in on a Nordic paseo on a balmy summer’s eve.
The far end of Aker Brygge is marked by a big black anchor (from the German warship Blücher, sunk by Norwegian forces near Drøbak during the Nazi invasion on April 9, 1940). From there a bridge crosses over into Tjuvholmen (named for the place they hung thieves back in the 17th century). This is a planned and future-esque community, with the trendiest and costliest apartments in town, lots of galleries, elegant shops and cafés, and the striking Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art nearby. As you stroll through Tjuvholmen, admire how each building has its own personality.
Eating: Dining here is a great idea in the evening. Choose from many restaurants, or take advantage of the generous public benches, lounge chairs, and picnic tables that allow people who can’t afford a fancy restaurant meal to enjoy the best seats of all (grocery stores are a block away from the harborfront views).
This park-like complex of sights scattered over Oslo’s fortified old center is still a military base. (The Royal Guard is present because the castle is a royal mausoleum.) But the public is welcome, and as you dodge patrol guards and vans filled with soldiers, you’ll see the castle, a prison, war memorials, the Norwegian Resistance Museum, the Armed Forces Museum, and cannon-strewn ramparts affording fine harbor views and picnic perches. There’s an unimpressive changing of the guard daily at 13:30 (at the parade ground, deep in the castle complex). The park is generally open daily 6:00-21:00, but because the military is in charge here, times can change without warning. Expect bumpy cobblestone lanes and steep hills. To get here from the harbor, follow the stairs (which lead past the FDR statue) to the park.
Fortress Visitors Center: Located immediately inside the gate, the information center has an exhibit tracing the story of Oslo’s fortifications from medieval times through the environmental struggles of today. Stop here to pick up the fortress trail and site map, quickly browse through the museum, and consider catching a tour (see next; museum entry free, mid-June-mid-Aug Mon-Fri 10:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, shorter hours off-season, tel. 23 09 39 17, www.mil.no/felles/ak).
The 50-kr hour-long English walking tours of the grounds help you make sense of the most historic piece of real estate in Oslo (mid-June-mid-Aug 3/day, fewer off-season; depart from Fortress Visitors Center, call center at tel. 23 09 39 17 in advance to confirm times).
The first fortress here was built by Norwegians in 1299. It was rebuilt much stronger by the Danes in 1640 so the Danish king (Christian IV) would have a suitable and safe place to stay during his many visits. When Oslo was rebuilt in the 17th century, many of the stones from the first Oslo cathedral were reused here, in the fortress walls.
Although it’s one of Oslo’s oldest buildings, the castle overlooking the harbor is mediocre by European standards; the big, empty rooms recall Norway’s medieval poverty. From the old kitchen, where the ticket desk and gift shop are located, you’ll follow a one-way circuit of rooms open to the public. Descend through a secret passage to the dungeon, crypt, and royal tomb. Emerge behind the altar in the chapel, then walk through echoing rooms including the Daredevil’s Tower, Hall of Christian IV (with portraits of Danish kings of Norway on the walls), and Hall of Olav I. There are terrific harbor views (often filled with a giant cruise ship) from the rampart just outside.
Cost and Hours: 70 kr, includes audioguide with 45-minute tour and ghost story options; May-Aug Mon-Sat 10:00-16:00, Sun 12:30-16:00; Sept-April Sat-Sun 12:00-17:00 only, closed Mon-Fri; tel. 22 41 25 21.
This fascinating museum tells the story of Norway’s WWII experience: appeasement, Nazi invasion (they made Akershus their headquarters), resistance, liberation, and, finally, the return of the king.
Cost and Hours: 50 kr; June-Aug Mon-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun 11:00-17:00; Sept-May Mon-Fri 10:00-16:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-16:00; next to castle, overlooking harbor, tel. 23 09 31 38, www.forsvaretsmuseer.no.
Visiting the Museum: It’s a one-way, chronological, can’t-get-lost route. As you enter the museum, you’re transported back to 1940, greeted by an angry commotion of rifles aimed at you. A German notice proclaiming “You will submit or die” is bayonetted onto a gun in the middle.
You’ll see propaganda posters attempting to get Norwegians to join the Nazi party, and the German ultimatum to which the king gave an emphatic “No.” Various displays show secret radios, transmitters, underground newspapers, crude but effective homemade weapons, and the German machine that located clandestine radio stations. Exhibits explain how the country coped with 350,000 occupying troops; how airdrops equipped a home force of 40,000 so they were ready to coordinate with the Allies when liberation was imminent; and the happy day when the resistance army came out of the forest, and peace and freedom returned to Norway.
The museum is particularly poignant because many of the patriots featured inside were executed by the Germans right outside the museum’s front door; a stone memorial marks the spot. (At war’s end, the traitor Vidkun Quisling was also executed at the fortress, but at a different location.) With good English descriptions, this is an inspirational look at how the national spirit can endure total occupation by a malevolent force. (Note: Copenhagen’s Resistance Museum burned down and neutral Sweden didn’t have a resistance.)
Across the fortress parade ground, a too-spacious museum traces Norwegian military history from Viking days to post-World War II. The early stuff is sketchy, but the WWII story is compelling.
Cost and Hours: Free, May-Aug Mon-Fri 10:00-16:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, shorter hours off-season, tel. 23 09 35 82.
In the mid-1600s, the ruling Danes had the original Oslo leveled and built a more modern grid-planned city. They built with stone so it wouldn’t burn, and located it just below the castle so it was easier to control and defend. They named it Christiania, after their king. The checkerboard zone between the castle and the cathedral today marks that original Christiania town. While Oslo didn’t do a good job of protecting it through the 20th century, bits of Christiania’s original Dutch Renaissance-style buildings survive. (Norwegian builders, accustomed to working with wood, lacked skill with stone, so the Danes imported Dutch builders.) The main square, Christiania Torv, is marked by a modern fountain called “The Glove.” The sculpture of Christian IV’s glove points as if to indicate, “This is where we’ll build my city.” The old City Hall, now the Gamle Raadhus restaurant, survives. If you explore this district you’ll see several 17th-century buildings.
While there are many schools of painting and sculpture displayed in Norway’s National Gallery, focus on what’s uniquely Norwegian. Paintings come and go in this museum (pesky curators may have even removed some of the ones listed in the self-guided tour on the next page), but you’re sure to see plenty that showcase the harsh beauty of Norway’s landscape and people. A thoughtful visit here gives those heading into the mountains and fjord country a chance to pack along a little of Norway’s cultural soul. Tuck these images carefully away with your goat cheese—they’ll sweeten your explorations.
The gallery also has several Picassos, a noteworthy Impressionist collection, a Van Gogh self-portrait, and some Vigeland statues. Its many raving examples of Edvard Munch’s work, including one of his famous Scream paintings, make a trip to the Munch Museum unnecessary for most (see here). It has about 50 Munch paintings in its collection, but only about a third are on display. Be prepared for changes, but don’t worry—no matter what the curators decide to show, you won’t have to scream for Munch’s masterpieces.
Cost and Hours: 50 kr, free on Sun, Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Thu until 19:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, closed Mon, chewing gum prohibited, Universitets Gata 13, tel. 22 20 04 04, www.nasjonalmuseet.no. Pick up the guidebooklet to help navigate the collection.
Eating: The richly ornamented French Salon café offers an elegant break.
Self-Guided Tour: This easy-to-handle museum gives an effortless tour back in time and through Norway’s most beautiful valleys, mountains, and fjords, with the help of its Romantic painters (especially Johan Christian Dahl).
• Go up the stairs into Room 24 and turn left into Room 13.
Landscape painting has always played an important role in Norwegian art, perhaps because Norway provides such an awesome and varied landscape to inspire artists. The style reached its peak during the Romantic period in the mid-1800s, which stressed the beauty of unspoiled nature. (This passion for landscapes sets Norway apart from Denmark and Sweden.) After 400 years of Danish rule, the soul of the country was almost snuffed out. But with semi-independence and a constitution in the early 1800s, there was a national resurgence. Romantic paintings featuring the power of Norway’s natural wonders and the toughness of its salt-of-the-earth folk came into vogue.
Johan Christian Dahl—View from Stalheim (1842): This painting epitomizes the Norwegian closeness to nature. It shows a view very similar to the one that 21st-century travelers enjoy on their Norway in a Nutshell excursion (see here): mountains, rivers, and farms clinging to hillsides. Painted in 1842, it’s quintessential Romantic style. Nature rules—the background is as detailed as the foreground, and you are sucked in.
Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857) is considered the father of Norwegian Romanticism. Romantics such as Dahl (and Turner, Beethoven, and Lord Byron) put emotion over rationality. They reveled in the power of nature—death and pessimism ripple through their work, though in this scene a double rainbow and a splash of sunlight give hope of a better day. The birch tree—standing boldly front and center—is a standard symbol for the politically downtrodden Norwegian people: hardy, weathered, but defiantly sprouting new branches. In the mid-19th century, Norwegians were awakening to their national identity. Throughout Europe, nationalism and Romanticism went hand in hand.
Find the farm buildings huddled near the cliff’s edge, smoke rising from chimneys, and the woman in traditional dress tending her herd of goats, pausing for a moment to revel in the glory of nature. It reminds us that these farmers are hardworking, independent, small landowners. There was no feudalism in medieval Norway. People were poor...but they owned their own land. You can almost taste goat cheese.
• Look at the other works in Rooms 13 and 12. Dahl’s paintings and those by his Norwegian contemporaries, showing heavy clouds and glaciers, repeat these same themes—drama over rationalism, nature pounding humanity. Human figures are melancholy. Norwegians, so close to nature, are fascinated by those plush, magic hours of dawn and twilight. The dusk makes us wonder: What will the future bring?
In particular, focus on the painting to the left of the door in Room 13.
Dahl—Hellefossen near Hokksund (1838): Another typical Dahl setting: romantic nature and an idealized scene. A fisherman checks on wooden baskets designed to catch salmon migrating up the river. In the background, a water-powered sawmill slices trees into lumber. Note another Dahl birch tree at the left, a subtle celebration of the Norwegian people and their labor.
• Now continue into Room 12. On the right is...
Thomas Fearnley—Labro Falls at Kongsberg (1837): Man cannot control nature or his destiny. The landscape in this painting is devoid of people—the only sign of humanity is the jumble of sawn logs in the foreground. A wary eagle perched on one log seems to be saying, “While you can cut these trees, they’ll always be mine.”
• Continue to the end of Room 12, and turn left into Room 14.
Adolph Tidemand and Hans Gude—The Bridal Voyage (1848): This famous painting shows the ultimate Norwegian scene: a wedding party with everyone decked out in traditional garb, heading for the stave church on the quintessential fjord (Hardanger). It’s a studio work (not real) and a collaboration: Hans Gude painted the landscape, and Adolph Tidemand painted the people. Study their wedding finery. This work trumpets the greatness of both the landscape and Norwegian culture.
• Also in Room 14, on the opposite wall, is an example of...
At the end of the 19th century, Norwegian painters traded the emotions of Romanticism for more slice-of-life detail. This was the end of the Romantic period and the beginning of Realism. With the advent of photography, painters went beyond simple realism and into extreme realism.
Eilif Peterssen—Christian II (1875): The Danish king signs the execution order for the man who’d killed the king’s beloved mistress. With camera-like precision, the painter captures the whole story of murder, anguish, anger, and bitter revenge in the king’s set jaw and steely eyes.
• Go through Room 15 and into Room 16. Take time to browse the paintings.
Death, disease, and suffering were themes seen again and again in art from the late 1800s. The most serious disease during this period was tuberculosis (which killed Munch’s mother and sister).
Christian Krohg—A Sick Girl (1880): Christian Krohg (1852-1925) is known as Edvard Munch’s inspiration, but to Norwegians, he’s famous in his own right for his artistry and giant personality. This extremely realistic painting shows a child dying of tuberculosis, as so many did in Norway in the 19th century. The girl looks directly at you. You can almost feel the cloth, with its many shades of white.
• And just to the right of this painting, find...
Krohg—Albertine to See the Police Surgeon (c. 1885-1887): Krohg had a sharp interest in social justice. In this painting, Albertine, a sweet girl from the countryside, has fallen into the world of prostitution in the big city. She’s the new kid on the Red Light block in the 1880s, as Oslo’s prostitutes are pulled into the police clinic for their regular checkup. Note her traditional dress and the disdain she gets from the more experienced girls. Krohg has buried his subject in this scene. His technique requires the viewer to find her, and that search helps humanize the prostitute.
• In Room 16 you may also find...
Carl Sundt-Hansen—Burial at Sea (1890): While Monet and the Impressionists were busy abandoning the realistic style, Norwegian artists continued to embrace it. In this painting, you’re invited to participate. A dead man’s funeral is attended by an ethnically diverse group of sailors and passengers, but only one is a woman—the widow. Your presence completes the half-circle at the on-deck ceremony. Notice how each person in the painting has his or her own way of confronting death. Their faces speak volumes about the life of toil here. A common thread in Norwegian art is the cycle—the tough cycle—of life. There’s also an interest in everyday experiences. Burial at Sea may not always be on display. If it’s not here, you may instead see a similar canvas, Erik Werenskiold’s A Peasant Burial (1885).
• Continue through Room 17 and into Room 18.
Landscape painters were often fascinated by the phenomena of nature, and the artwork in this room takes us back to this ideal from the Romantic Age. Painters were challenged by capturing atmospheric conditions at a specific moment, since it meant making quick sketches outdoors, before the weather changed yet again.
Harald Sohlberg—Winter Night in the Mountains (1914): Harald Sohlberg was inspired by this image while skiing in the mountains in the winter of 1899. Over the years, he attempted to re-create the scene that inspired this remark: “The mountains in winter reduce one to silence. One is overwhelmed, as in a mighty, vaulted church, only a thousand times more so.”
• Follow the crowds into Room 19, the Munch room.
Room 19 is filled with works by Norway’s single most famous painter, Edvard Munch (see sidebar). Norway’s long, dark winters and social isolation have produced many gloomy artists, but none gloomier than Munch. He infused his work with emotion and expression at the expense of realism. After viewing the paintings in general, take a look at these in particular (listed in clockwise order).
Edvard Munch—Self Portrait with a Cigarette (1895): In this self-portrait, Munch is spooked, haunted—an artist working, immersed in an oppressive world. Indefinable shadows inhabit the background. His hand shakes as he considers his uncertain future. (Ironic, considering he created his masterpieces during this depressed period.) After eight months in a Danish clinic, he found peace—and lost his painting power. Afterward, Munch never again painted another strong example of what we love most about his art.
Munch—Madonna (1894-1895): Munch had a tortured relationship with women. He never married. He dreaded and struggled with love, writing that he feared if he loved too much, he’d lose his painting talent. This painting is a mystery: Is she standing or lying? Is that a red halo or some devilish accessory? Munch wrote that he would strive to capture his subjects at their holiest moment. His alternative name for this work: Woman Making Love. What’s more holy than a woman at the moment of conception?
Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”) is Norway’s most famous and influential painter. His life was rich, complex, and sad. His father was a doctor who had a nervous breakdown. His mother and sister both died of tuberculosis. He knew suffering. And he gave us the enduring symbol of 20th-century pain, The Scream.
He was also Norway’s most forward-thinking painter, a man who traveled extensively through Europe, soaking up the colors of the Post-Impressionists and the curves of Art Nouveau. He helped pioneer a new style—Expressionism—using lurid colors and wavy lines to “express” inner turmoil and the angst of the modern world.
After a nervous breakdown in late 1908, followed by eight months of rehab in a clinic, Munch emerged less troubled—but a less powerful painter. His late works were as a colorist: big, bright, less tormented...and less noticed.
Munch—The Scream (1893): Munch’s most famous work shows a man screaming, capturing the fright many feel as the human “race” does just that. The figure seems isolated from the people on the bridge—locked up in himself, unable to stifle his scream. Munch made four versions of this scene, which has become the textbook example of Expressionism. On one, he graffitied: “This painting is the work of a madman.” He explained that the painting “shows today’s society, reverberating within me...making me want to scream.” He’s sharing his internal angst. In fact, this Expressionist masterpiece is a breakthrough painting; it’s angst personified.
Munch—Dance of Life (1899-1900): In this scene of five dancing couples, we glimpse Munch’s notion of femininity. To him, women were a complex mix of Madonna and whore. We see Munch’s take on the cycle of women’s lives: She’s a virgin (discarding the sweet flower of youth), a whore (a jaded temptress in red), and a widow (having destroyed the man, she is finally alone, aging, in black). With the phallic moon rising on the lake, Munch demonizes women as they turn men into green-faced, lusty monsters.
Munch—Puberty (1894-1895): One of the artist’s most important non-Scream canvases reveals his ambivalence about women (see also his Madonna, earlier). This adolescent girl, grappling with her emerging sexuality, covers her nudity self-consciously. The looming shadow behind her—frighteningly too big and amorphous—threatens to take over the scene. The shadow’s significance is open to interpretation—is it phallic, female genitalia, death, an embodiment of sexual anxiety...or Munch himself?
Munch—The Sick Child (1896): The death of Munch’s sister in 1877 due to tuberculosis likely inspired this painting. The girl’s face melts into the pillow. She’s becoming two-dimensional, halfway between life and death. Everything else is peripheral, even her despairing mother saying good-bye. You can see how Munch scraped and repainted the face until he got it right.
• Our tour is over, but there’s more to see in this fine collection. Take a break from Nordic gloom and doom by visiting Rooms 15 and 23, with works by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists...even Munch got into the spirit with his Parisian painting, titled Rue Lafayette. You’ll see lesser-known, but still beautiful, paintings by non-Norwegian big names such as Picasso, Modigliani, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne.
Directly behind the National Gallery and just below the palace is a fine Art Nouveau building offering an easy (if underwhelming) peek at Norway’s history.
Cost and Hours: 50 kr, mid-May-mid-Sept Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, mid-Sept-mid-May Tue-Sun 11:00-16:00, closed Mon year-round; Frederiks Gate 2, tel. 22 85 99 12, www.khm.uio.no.
Visiting the Museum: The ground floor offers a walk through the local history from prehistoric times. It includes the country’s top collection of Viking artifacts, displayed in low-tech, old-school exhibits with barely a word of English to give it meaning. There’s also some medieval church art. The museum’s highlight is upstairs: an exhibit (well-described in English) about life in the Arctic for the Sami people (previously known to outsiders as Laplanders). In this overview of the past, a few Egyptian mummies and Norwegian coins through the ages are tossed in for good measure.
Within Oslo’s vast Frogner Park is Vigeland Park, containing a lifetime of work by Norway’s greatest sculptor, Gustav Vigeland (see sidebar). In 1921, he made a deal with the city. In return for a great studio and state support, he’d spend his creative life beautifying Oslo with this sculpture garden. From 1924 to 1943 he worked on-site, designing 192 bronze and granite statue groupings—600 figures in all, each nude and unique. Vigeland even planned the landscaping. Today the park is loved and respected by the people of Oslo (no police, no fences—and no graffiti). The Frognerbadet swimming pool is nearby in Frogner Park.
Cost and Hours: The garden is always open and free. The park is safe (cameras monitor for safety) and lit in the evening.
Getting There: Tram #12—which leaves from the central train station, Rådhusplassen in front of City Hall, Aker Brygge, and other points in town—drops you off right at the park gate (Vigelandsparken stop). Tram #19 (with stops along Karl Johans Gate) takes you to Majorstuen, a 10-minute walk to the gate (or you can change at Majorstuen to tram #12 and ride it one stop to Vigelandsparken).
Visiting the Park: Vigeland Park is more than great art: It’s a city at play. Appreciate its urban Norwegian ambience. The park is huge, but this visit is a snap. Here’s a quick, four-stop, straight-line, gate-to-monolith tour:
Enter the Park from Kirkeveien: For an illustrated guide and fine souvenir, pick up the 75-kr book in the Visitors Center (Besøkssenter) on your right as you enter. The modern cafeteria has sandwiches (indoor/outdoor seating, daily 9:00-20:30, shorter hours Sun and off-season), plus books, gifts, and WCs. Look at the statue of Gustav Vigeland (hammer and chisel in hand, drenched in pigeon poop) and consider his messed-up life. He lived with his many models. His marriages failed. His children entangled his artistic agenda. He didn’t age gracefully. He didn’t name his statues, and refused to explain their meanings. While those who know his life story can read it clearly in the granite and bronze, I’d forget Gustav’s troubles and see his art as observations on the bittersweet cycle of life in general—from a man who must have had a passion for living.
Bridge: The 300-foot-long bridge is bounded by four granite columns: Three show a man fighting a lizard, the fourth shows a woman submitting to the lizard’s embrace. Hmmm. (Vigeland was familiar with medieval mythology, where dragons represent man’s primal—and sinful—nature.) But enough lizard love; the 58 bronze statues along the bridge are a general study of the human body. Many deal with relationships between people. In the middle, on the right, find the circular statue of a man and woman going round and round—perhaps the eternal attraction and love between the sexes. But directly opposite, another circle feels like a prison—man against the world, with no refuge. From the man escaping, look down at the children’s playground: eight bronze infants circling a head-down fetus.
On your left, see the famous Sinnataggen, the hot-headed little boy. It’s said Vigeland gave him chocolate and then took it away to get this reaction. The statues capture the joys of life (and, on a sunny day, so do the Norwegians filling the park around you).
Fountain: Continue through a rose garden to the earliest sculpture unit in the park. Six giants hold a fountain, symbolically toiling with the burden of life, as water—the source of life—cascades steadily around them. Twenty tree-of-life groups surround the fountain. Four clumps of trees (on each corner) show humanity’s relationship to nature and the seasons of life: childhood, young love, adulthood, and winter.
Take a quick swing through life, starting on the right with youth. In the branches you’ll see a swarm of children (Vigeland called them “geniuses”): A boy sits in a tree, boys actively climb while most girls stand by quietly, and a girl glides through the branches wide-eyed and ready for life...and love. Circle clockwise to the next stage: love scenes. In the third corner, life becomes more complicated: a sad woman in an animal-like tree, a lonely child, a couple plummeting downward (perhaps falling out of love), and finally an angry man driving away babies. The fourth corner completes the cycle, as death melts into the branches of the tree of life and you realize new geniuses will bloom.
The 60 bronze reliefs circling the basin develop the theme further, showing man mixing with nature and geniuses giving the carousel of life yet another spin. Speaking of another spin, circle again and follow these reliefs.
The sidewalk surrounding the basin is a maze—life’s long and winding road with twists, dead ends, frustrations, and, ultimately, a way out. If you have about an hour to spare, enter the labyrinth (on the side nearest the park’s entrance gate, there’s a single break in the black border) and follow the white granite path until (on the monolith side) you finally get out. (Tracing this path occupies older kids, affording parents a peaceful break in the park.) Or you can go straight up the steps to the monolith.
Monolith: The centerpiece of the park—a teeming monolith of life surrounded by 36 granite groups—continues Vigeland’s cycle-of-life motif. The figures are hunched and clearly earthbound, while Vigeland explores a lifetime of human relationships. At the center, 121 figures carved out of a single block of stone rocket skyward. Three stone carvers worked daily for 14 years, cutting Vigeland’s full-size plaster model into the final 180-ton, 50-foot-tall erection.
Circle the plaza, once to trace the stages of life in the 36 statue groups, and a second time to enjoy how Norwegian kids relate to the art. The statues—both young and old—seem to speak to children.
Vigeland lived barely long enough to see his monolith raised. Covered with bodies, it seems to pick up speed as it spirals skyward. Some people seem to naturally rise. Others struggle not to fall. Some help others. Although the granite groups around the monolith are easy to understand, Vigeland left the meaning of the monolith itself open. Like life, it can be interpreted many different ways.
From this summit of the park, look a hundred yards farther, where four children and three adults are intertwined and spinning in the Wheel of Life. Now, look back at the entrance. If the main gate is at 12 o’clock, the studio where Vigeland lived and worked—now the Vigeland Museum—is at 2 o’clock (see the green copper tower poking above the trees). His ashes sit in the top of the tower in clear view of the monolith. If you liked the park, visit the Vigeland Museum (described next), a delightful five-minute walk away, for an intimate look at the art and how it was made.
Filled with original plaster casts and well-described exhibits on his work, this palatial city-provided studio was Gustav Vigeland’s home and workplace. The high south-facing windows provided just the right light.
Vigeland, who had a deeply religious upbringing, saw his art as an expression of his soul. He once said, “The road between feeling and execution should be as short as possible.” Here, immersed in his work, Vigeland supervised his craftsmen like a father, from 1924 until his death in 1943.
Cost and Hours: 60 kr; May-Aug Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, Sept-April Tue-Sun 12:00-16:00, closed Mon year-round; bus #20 or tram #12 to Frogner Plass, Nobels Gate 32, tel. 23 49 37 00, www.vigeland.museum.no.
This hard-to-be-thrilled-about little museum tells the story of Oslo. For a quick overview of the city, watch the 15-minute English video.
Cost and Hours: Free, Tue-Sun 11:00-16:00, closed Mon, borrow English description sheet, located in Frogner Park at Frogner Manor Farm across street from Vigeland Museum, tel. 23 28 41 70, www.oslomuseum.no.
This thought-provoking and exciting cluster of sights is on a park-like peninsula just across the harbor from downtown. It provides a busy and rewarding half-day (at a minimum) of sightseeing. Here, within a short walk, are six major sights (listed in order of importance):
• Norwegian Folk Museum, an open-air park with traditional log buildings from all corners of the country.
• Viking Ship Museum, showing off the best-preserved Viking longboats in existence.
• Fram Museum, showcasing the modern Viking spirit with the Fram, the ship of Arctic-exploration fame, and the Gjøa, the first ship to sail through the Northwest Passage.
• Kon-Tiki Museum, starring the Kon-Tiki and the Ra II, in which Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl proved that early civilizations—with their existing technologies—could have crossed the oceans.
• Norwegian Maritime Museum, interesting mostly to old salts, has a wonderfully scenic movie of Norway.
• Norwegian Holocaust Center, a high-tech look at the Holocaust in Norway and contemporary racism.
Getting There: Sailing from downtown to Bygdøy is fun, and it gets you in a seafaring mood. Ride the Bygdøy ferry—marked Public Ferry Bygdøy Museums—from pier 3 in front of City Hall (50 kr one-way; covered by Oslo Pass; mid-May-Aug daily 8:55-20:55, usually 3/hour; fewer sailings April and Sept; doesn’t run Oct-March). Boats generally leave from downtown and from the museum dock at :05, :25, and :45 past each hour. In summer, avoid the nearby (much more expensive) tour boats. For a less memorable approach, you can take bus #30 (from train station or National Theater, direction: Bygdøy).
Getting Around Bygdøy: The Norwegian Folk and Viking Ship museums are a 10-minute walk from the ferry’s first stop (Dronningen). The other boating museums (Fram, Kon-Tiki, and Maritime) are at the second ferry stop (Bygdøynes). The Holocaust Center is off Fredriksborgveien, about halfway between these two museum clusters. All Bygdøy sights are within a pleasant (when sunny) 15-minute walk of each other. The walk gives you a picturesque taste of small-town Norway.
City bus #30 connects the sights four times hourly in this order: Norwegian Folk Museum, Viking Ship Museum, Kon-Tiki Museum, Norwegian Holocaust Center. (For the Holocaust Center, you’ll use the Bygdøyhus stop a long block away; tell the bus driver you want the stop for the “HL-Senteret.”) The bus turns around at its final stop (Huk), then passes the sights in reverse order on its way back to the city center. Note that after 17:00, bus and boat departures are sparse. If returning to Oslo by ferry, get to the dock a little early—otherwise the boat is likely to be full, and you’ll have to wait for the next sailing.
Eating at Bygdøy: Lunch options near the Kon-Tiki are a sandwich bar (relaxing picnic spots along the grassy shoreline) and a cafeteria (with tables overlooking the harbor). The Norwegian Folk Museum has a decent cafeteria inside and a fun little farmers’ market stall across the street from the entrance. The Holocaust Center has a small café on its second floor.
Beach at Bygdøy: A popular beach is located at Huk, on the southwest tip of the peninsula.
Brought from all corners of Norway, 150 buildings have been reassembled here on 35 acres. While Stockholm’s Skansen was the first museum of this kind to open to the public (see here), this museum is a bit older, started in 1882 as the king’s private collection (and the inspiration for Skansen).
Cost and Hours: 110 kr, daily mid-May-mid-Sept 10:00-18:00, off-season park open Mon-Fri 11:00-15:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-16:00 but most historical buildings closed, free lockers, Museumsveien 10, bus #30 stops immediately in front, tel. 22 12 37 00, www.norskfolkemuseum.no.
Visiting the Museum: Think of the visit in three parts: the park sprinkled with old buildings, the re-created old town, and the folk-art museum. In peak season, the park is lively, with craftspeople doing their traditional things, barnyard animals roaming about, and costumed guides all around. (They’re paid to happily answer your questions—so ask many.) The evocative Gol stave church, at the top of a hill at the park’s edge, is a must-see (built in 1212 in Hallingdal and painstakingly reconstructed here; for more on stave churches, see here). Across the park, the old town comes complete with apartments from various generations (including some reconstructions of people’s actual homes) and offers an intimate look at lifestyles here in 1905, 1930, 1950, 1979, and even a modern-day Norwegian-Pakistani apartment.
The museum beautifully presents woody, colorfully painted folk art (ground floor), exquisite-in-a-peasant-kind-of-way folk costumes (upstairs), and temporary exhibits. Everything is thoughtfully explained in English. Don’t miss the best Sami culture exhibit I’ve seen in Scandinavia (across the courtyard in the green building, behind the toy exhibit).
Upon arrival, pick up the site map and review the list of the day’s activities, concerts, and guided tours. In summer, there are two guided tours in English per day; the Telemark Farm hosts a small daily fiddle-and-dance show; and a folk music-and-dance show is held each Sunday. The folk museum is most lively June through mid-August, when buildings are open and staffed. Otherwise, the indoor museum is fine, but the park is just a walk past lots of locked-up log cabins. If you don’t take a tour, pick up a guidebook and ask questions of the informative attendants stationed in buildings throughout the park.
In this impressive museum, you’ll gaze with admiration at two finely crafted, majestic oak Viking ships dating from the 9th and 10th centuries, and the scant remains of a third vessel. Along with the two well-preserved ships, you’ll see the bones of Vikings buried with these vessels and remarkable artifacts that may cause you to consider these notorious raiders in a different light. Over a thousand years ago, three things drove Vikings on their far-flung raids: hard economic times in their bleak homeland, the lure of prosperous and vulnerable communities to the south, and a mastery of the sea. There was a time when most frightened Europeans closed every prayer with, “And deliver us from the Vikings, Amen.” Gazing up at the prow of one of these sleek, time-stained vessels, you can almost hear the screams and smell the armpits of those redheads on the rampage.
Cost and Hours: 80 kr, daily May-Sept 9:00-18:00, Oct-April 10:00-16:00, Huk Aveny 35, tel. 22 13 52 80, www.khm.uio.no.
Visiting the Museum: Focus on the two well-preserved ships, starting with the Oseberg, from A.D. 834. With its ornate carving and impressive rudder, it was likely a royal pleasure craft. It seems designed for sailing on calm inland waters during festivals, but not in the open ocean.
The Gokstad, from A.D. 950, is a practical working boat, capable of sailing the high seas. A ship like this brought settlers to the west of France (Normandy was named for the Norsemen). And in such a vessel, explorers such as Eric the Red hopscotched from Norway to Iceland to Greenland and on to what they called Vinland—today’s Newfoundland in Canada. Imagine 30 men hauling on long oars out at sea for weeks and months at a time. In 1892, a replica of this ship sailed from Norway to America in 44 days to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus not discovering America.
The ships tend to steal the show, but don’t miss the hall displaying jewelry and personal items excavated along with the ships. The ships and related artifacts survived so well because they were buried in clay as part of a gravesite. Many of the finest items were not actually Viking art, but goodies they brought home after raiding more advanced (but less tough) people. Still, there are lots of actual Viking items, such as metal and leather goods, that give insight into their culture. Highlights are the cart and sleighs, ornately carved with scenes from Viking sagas.
The museum doesn’t offer tours, but it’s easy to eavesdrop on the many guides leading big groups through the museum. Everything is well-described in English. You probably don’t need the little museum guidebook—it repeats exactly what’s already posted on the exhibits.
This museum holds the 125-foot, steam- and sail-powered ship that took modern-day Vikings Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen deep into the Arctic and Antarctic, farther north and south than any vessel had gone before. For three years, the Fram—specially designed to survive the crushing pressures of a frozen-over sea—drifted, trapped in the Arctic ice. The museum was recently enlarged to include Amundsen’s Gjøa, the first ship to sail through the Northwest Passage.
Cost and Hours: 100 kr; June-Aug daily 9:00-18:00; May and Sept daily 10:00-17:00; Oct and March-April daily 10:00-16:00; Nov-Feb Mon-Fri 10:00-15:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-16:00; Bygdøynesveien 36, tel. 23 28 29 50, www.frammuseum.no.
Visiting the Museum: Read the ground-floor displays, check out the videos below the bow of the ship, then climb the steps to the third-floor gangway to explore the Fram’s claustrophobic but fascinating interior. Also featured are a tent like the one Amundsen used, reconstructed shelves from his Arctic kitchen, models of the Fram and the motorized sled they used to traverse the ice and snow, and a “polar simulator” plunging visitors to a 15° Fahrenheit environment. A “Northern Lights Show,” best viewed from the Fram’s main deck, is presented every 20 minutes.
Next, take the underground passageway to the adjacent A-frame building that displays the Gjøa, the motor- and sail-powered ship that Amundsen and a crew of six used from 1903 to 1906 to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage. Exhibits describe their ordeal as well as other Arctic adventures, such as Amundsen’s 1926 airship (zeppelin) expedition from Oslo over the North Pole to Alaska. And pop into the 100-seat cinema for a film about the polar regions (every 15 minutes).
Next to the Fram is a museum housing the Kon-Tiki and the Ra II, the ships built by Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002). In 1947, Heyerdahl and five crewmates constructed the Kon-Tiki raft out of balsa wood, using only pre-modern tools and techniques. They set sail from Peru on the tiny craft, surviving for 101 days on fish, coconuts, and sweet potatoes (which were native to Peru). About 4,300 miles later, they arrived in Polynesia. The point was to show that early South Americans could have settled Polynesia. (While Heyerdahl proved they could have, anthropologists doubt they did.) The Kon-Tiki story became a bestselling book and award-winning documentary (and helped spawn the “Tiki” culture craze in the US). In 1970, Heyerdahl’s Ra II made a similar 3,000-mile journey from Morocco to Barbados to prove that Africans could have populated America. Both ships are well-displayed and described in English. Short clips from Kon-Tiki, the Oscar-winning 1950 documentary film, play in a small theater at the end of the exhibit.
Cost and Hours: 90 kr, daily June-Aug 9:30-18:00, March-May and Sept-Oct 10:00-17:00, Nov-Feb 10:00-16:00, Bygdøynesveien 36, tel. 23 08 67 67, www.kon-tiki.no.
If you like the sea, this museum is a salt lick, providing a wide-ranging look at Norway’s maritime heritage. The collection was recently updated, with new exhibits such as “The Ship” (“Skipet”), tracing 2,000 years of maritime development, and “At Sea” (“Til Sjøs”), exploring what life is like on the ocean, from Viking days to the present. Don’t miss the movie The Ocean: A Way of Life, included with your admission. It’s a breathtaking widescreen film swooping you scenically over Norway’s dramatic sea and fishing townscapes from here all the way to North Cape in a comfy theater (20 minutes, shown at the top and bottom of the hour, follow Supervideografen signs). And if you appreciate maritime art, the collection in the gallery should float your boat.
Cost and Hours: 80 kr, kids under 6 free; mid-May-Aug daily 10:00-17:00; Sept-mid-May Tue-Fri 10:00-15:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-16:00, closed Mon; Bygdøynesveien 37, tel. 24 11 41 50, www.marmuseum.no.
Located in the stately former home of Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, this museum and study center offers a high-tech look at the racist ideologies that fueled the Holocaust. To show the Holocaust in a Norwegian context, the first floor displays historical documents about the rise of anti-Semitism and personal effects from Holocaust victims. Downstairs, the names of 760 Norwegian Jews killed by the Nazis are listed in a bright, white room. The Innocent Questions glass-and-neon sculpture outside shows an old-fashioned punch card, reminding viewers of how the Norwegian puppet government collected seemingly innocuous information before deporting its Jews. The Contemporary Reflections video is a reminder that racism and genocide continue today.
Cost and Hours: 50 kr, ask for free English audioguide or tablet, June-Aug daily 10:00-18:00, Sept-May Mon-Fri 10:00-16:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-16:00, Huk Aveny 56—take bus #30 to the Bygdøyhus stop, follow signs to HL-Senteret, tel. 22 84 21 00, www.hlsenteret.no.
The Grünerløkka district is trendy, and workaday Grønland is emerging as a fun spot. The Akers Rivers bisects Grünerløkka. You can connect the dots by taking the self-guided “Up Akers River and Down Grünerløkka Walk.” For a longer hike, start with my “Nydalen to Grünerløkka Walk,” which intersects the Akers/Grünerløkka Walk. Everything is described in this section.
This river, though only about five miles long, powered Oslo’s early industry: flour mills in the 1300s, sawmills in the 1500s, and Norway’s Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. A walk along the river not only spans Oslo’s history, but also shows the contrast the city offers. The bottom of the river (where this walk doesn’t go)—bordered by the high-rise Oslo Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel and the “Little Pakistan” neighborhood of Grønland—has its share of drunks and drugs, reflecting a new urban reality in Oslo. Farther up, the river valley becomes a park as it winds past decent-size waterfalls and red-brick factories. The source of the river (and Oslo’s drinking water) is the pristine Lake Maridal, situated at the edge of the Nordmarka wilderness. The idyllic recreation scenes along Lake Maridal are a favorite for nature-loving Norwegians.
The Grünerløkka district is the largest planned urban area in Oslo. It was built in the latter half of the 1800s to house the legions of workers employed at the factories powered by the Akers River. The first buildings were modeled on similar places built in Berlin. (German visitors observe that there’s now more turn-of-the-20th-century Berlin here than in present-day Berlin.) While slummy in the 1980s, today it’s trendy. Locals sometimes refer to it as “Oslo’s Greenwich Village.” Although that’s a stretch, it is a bustling area with lots of cafés, good spots for a fun meal, and few tourists.
Getting There: Grünerløkka can be reached from the center of town by a short ride on tram #11, #12, or #13, or by taking the short but interesting walk described next.
While every tourist explores the harborfront and main drag of Oslo, few venture into this neighborhood that evokes the Industrial Revolution. Once housing poor workers, it now attracts hip professionals. A hike up the Akers River, finishing in the stylish Grünerløkka district, shines a truly different light on Oslo. Allow about an hour at a brisk pace, including a fair bit of up and down. Navigate with the TI’s free city map and the map in this chapter. This walk is best during daylight hours.
Norway likes to think of itself as a quiet, peaceful nation on the edge of Europe—after all, its legislators award the Nobel Peace Prize. So the events of July 22, 2011—when an anti-immigration fanatic named Anders Behring Breivik set off a car bomb in Oslo, killing eight, and then traveled to a Labor Party summer camp where he shot and killed 69 young people and counselors—have had a profound effect on the country’s psyche.
Unlike the US, Britain, or Spain, Norway had escaped 21st-century terrorism until Breivik’s attack. When the public found out that the man behind the bombing and gunfire was a native Norwegian—dressed in a policeman’s uniform—who hunted down his victims in cold blood, it became a national nightmare.
Though Norwegians are often characterized as stoic, there was a huge outpouring of grief. Bouquets flooded the square in front of Oslo Cathedral. Permanent memorials will eventually be built at the sites of the tragedies.
Breivik, who was arrested after the shootings, was described by police as a gun-loving fundamentalist obsessed with what he saw as the “threat” of multiculturalism and immigration to Norwegian values. His targets were the Norwegian government and politically active youths—some only 14 years old—and their counselors at an island summer camp sponsored by Norway’s center-left party.
It’s true that Norway has a big and growing immigrant community. More than 11 percent of today’s Norwegians are not ethnic Norwegians, and a quarter of Oslo’s residents are immigrants. These “new Norwegians” have provided a much-needed and generally appreciated labor force, filling jobs that wealthy Norwegians would rather not do.
Horrified by Breivik’s actions, many Norwegians went out of their way to make immigrants feel welcome after the attack. But there is some resentment in a country that is disinclined to be a melting pot. There have been scuffles between Norwegian gangs and immigrant groups. Another source of friction is the tough love Norwegians feel they get from their government compared to the easy ride offered to needy immigrants: “They even get pocket money in jail!” The country recently strengthened its immigration laws in 2014.
Norway seems determined not to let the July 22 massacre poison its peaceful soul. Calls for police to start carrying weapons or to reinstate the death penalty were quickly rejected. “Breivik wanted to change Norway,” an Oslo resident told me. “We’re determined to keep Norway the way it was.”
Begin the walk by leaving Karl Johans Gate at the top of the hill, and head up Akersgata—Oslo’s “Fleet Street” (lined with major newspaper companies). After two blocks, at Apotekergata, you may see the side street blocked off and construction work to the right. They’re rebuilding after the horrific bombing of July 2011 (see sidebar); the car bomb went off just a block to the right of here, on Grubbegata. Four buildings in the area suffered structural damage in the bombing. Continuing up Akersgata, the street name becomes Ullevålsveien as it passes those buildings. Norwegians are planning to build a memorial here in the near future.
Continuing past this somber site, you’ll approach the massive brick Trefoldighets Church and St. Olav’s Church before reaching the Vår Frelsers (Our Savior’s) Cemetery. Enter the cemetery across from the Baby Shop store (where Ullevålsveien meets Wessels Gate).
Stop at the big metal map just inside the gate to chart your course through the cemetery: Go through the light-green Æreslunden section—with the biggest plots and highest elevation—and out the opposite end (#13 on the metal map) onto Akersveien. En route, check out some of the tombstones of the illuminati and literati buried in the honorary Æreslunden section. They include Munch, Ibsen, Bjørnson, and many of the painters whose works you can see in the National Gallery (all marked on a map posted at the entrance). Exiting on the far side of the cemetery, walk left 100 yards up Akersveien to the church.
The Romanesque Gamle Aker Church (from the 1100s), the oldest building in Oslo, is worth a look inside (free, generally Mon-Thu 14:00-16:00, Fri 12:00-14:00). The church, which fell into ruins and has been impressively rebuilt, is pretty bare except for a pulpit and baptismal font from the 1700s.
From the church, backtrack 20 yards, head left at the playground, and go downhill on the steep Telthusbakken Road toward the huge, gray former grain silos (now student housing). The cute lane is lined with colorful old wooden houses: The people who constructed these homes were too poor to meet the no-wood fire-safety building codes within the city limits, so they built in what used to be suburbs. At the bottom of Telthusbakken, cross the busy Maridalsveien and walk directly through the park to the Akers River. The lively Grünerløkka district is straight across the river from here, but if you have 20 minutes and a little energy, detour upstream first and hook back down. Don’t cross the river yet.
Walk along the riverside bike lane upstream through the river gorge park. Just above the first waterfall, cross Åmotbrua, the big white springy suspension footbridge from 1852 (moved here in 1958). Keep hiking uphill along the river. At the base of the next big waterfall, cross over again to the large brick buildings, hiking up the stairs to the Beyer Bridge (above the falls) and Fabrikkjentene, a statue of four women laborers. They’re pondering the textile factory where they and 700 others toiled long and hard. This gorge was once lined with the water mills that powered Oslo through its 19th-century Industrial Age boom.
Look back (on the side you just left) at the city’s two biggest former textile factories. Once you could tell what color the fabric was being dyed each day by the color of the river. Just beyond them, between the two old factories, is a small white building housing the Labor Museum (Arbeidermuseet, free; late June-mid-Aug Tue-Sun 11:00-16:00, closed Mon; off-season Sat-Sun 11:00-16:00, closed Mon-Fri; borrow English handout). Inside you’ll see old photos that humanize the life of laborers there, and an 1899 photo exhibit by Edvard Munch’s sister, Inger Munch.
The tiny red house just over and below the bridge—the Honse-Lovisas Hus cultural center—makes a good rest-stop (Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, closed Mon, coffee and wafels). Cross over to the red-brick Ringnes Brewery and follow Thorvald Meyers Gate downhill directly into the heart of Grünerløkka. The main square, called Olaf Ryes Plass, is a happening place to grab a meal or drink (see “Eating,” later). Trams take you from here back to the center.
• To continue exploring, you could keep going straight and continue walking until you reach a T-intersection with a busy road (Trondheimsveien). From there (passing the recommended Südøst Asian Crossover Restaurant) you can catch a tram back to the center, or drop down to the riverside path and follow it downstream to Vaterlands bridge in the Grønland district. From here the train station is a five-minute walk down Stenersgata.
For a longer hike than the “Up Akers River and Down Grünerløkka Walk” described previously, consider this 30-minute walk, downhill and through peaceful riverside parks all the way (see map on here). This walk intersects the Akers River/Grünerløkka Walk at its halfway (and highest altitude) point, Beyer Bridge, where you can choose to finish the downhill ramble following its route—either doing the first half in reverse order (visiting the Gamle Aker Church and the Vår Frelsers Cemetery on your way into the city center), or picking up the last half of the walk (through the heart of Grünerløkka and on to Grønland). Walking at a brisk pace, it’ll take you 30 minutes to get from the Nydalen T-bane stop to the top of the Akers River/Grünerløkka Walk. Allow an hour from the top all the way back into town. If you follow these easy directions, I promise you won’t get lost.
Ride the T-bane to Nydalen, where you’ll be high above the city, surrounded by modern apartments and university buildings. From the T-bane stop, walk to the Akers River and head downhill...like the water that powered the Industrial Revolution in Oslo. From here it’s all downhill and along the river. Stay on the right side of the river until the second street with cars, where you’ll cross the bridge to the left side of the river.
From the top, after about 15 minutes, you’ll hit the first street with cars. Don’t cross it: Stay right and follow the lane under an overpass and you’ll once again hear the babbling sounds of the brook. Continue along the Akers River. Across the river you’ll see the fine brickwork of Lilleborg, a huge former soap factory. Started in 1712, it was the last factory in use here (until 1997) and, ironically, infamous as a source of pollution.
Notice the lights along the path, a reminder that in the winter it gets dark early, before 16:00.
At the next big road with cars (Griffenfeldts Gate), cross the river. Pause on the bridge and consider that from 1624, wooden pipes laid from here (just upstream from the river-based industry) ran all the way to the center, providing drinking water to Oslo. This remained Oslo’s water source until 1879, when encroaching industry forced its relocation upstream to higher ground.
Soon you’ll arrive at Beyer Bridge, with the statue of four female factory workers on it. Across the bridge, between what used to be the city’s two biggest textile factories, stands the little Labor Museum.
At Beyer Bridge, you hit the Akers River/Grünerløkka Walk” (described previously) and need to decide which leg of the walk you’d like to take (or you could head left a block or so and hop on any tram heading downhill). And, as mentioned earlier, you could walk through the core of Grünerløkka to the suburb of...
With the Industrial Revolution, Oslo’s population exploded. The city grew from an estimated 10,000 in 1850 to 250,000 in 1900. The T-bane’s Grønland stop deposits you in the center of what was the first suburb to accommodate workers of Industrial Age Oslo. If you look down side streets, you’ll see fine 19th-century facades from this period. While the suburb is down-and-dirty like working-class and immigrant neighborhoods in other cities, Grønland is starting to emerge as a trendy place for eating out and after-dark fun. Locals know you’ll get double the food and lots more beer for the kroner here (see “Eating in Oslo,” later). If you’d enjoy a whiff of Istanbul, make a point to wander through the underground commercial zone at the Grønland station (easy to visit even if you’re not riding the T-bane).
The site of one of the world’s oldest ski jumps (from 1892), Holmenkollen has hosted many championships, including the 1952 Winter Olympics. To win the privilege of hosting the 2011 World Ski Jump Championship, Oslo built a bigger jump to match modern ones built elsewhere. This futuristic, cantilevered, Olympic-standard ski jump has a tilted elevator that you can ride to the top (on a sunny day, you may have to wait your turn for the elevator). Stand right at the starting gate, just like an athlete, and get a feel for this daredevil sport. The jump empties into a 30,000-seat amphitheater, and if you go when it’s clear, you’ll see one of the best possible views of Oslo. While the view is exciting from the top, even more exciting is watching thrill-seekers rocket down the course on a zip-line from the same lofty perch (600 kr per trip).
As you ponder the jump, consider how modern athletes continually push the boundaries of their sport. The first champion here in 1892 jumped 21 meters (nearly 69 feet). In 1930 it took a 50-meter jump to win. In 1962 it was 80 meters, and in 1980 the champ cracked 100 meters. And, most recently, a jump of 140 meters (459 feet) took first place.
The ski museum, a must for skiers, traces the evolution of the sport, from 4,000-year-old rock paintings to crude 1,500-year-old wooden sticks to the slick and quickly evolving skis of modern times, including a fun exhibit showing the royal family on skis. You’ll see gear from Roald Amundsen’s famous trek to the South Pole, including the stuffed remains of Obersten (the Colonel), one of his sled dogs.
Cost and Hours: 120-kr ticket includes museum and viewing platform at top of jump; daily June-Aug 9:00-20:00, May and Sept 10:00-17:00, Oct-April 10:00-16:00; tel. 22 92 32 64, www.holmenkollen.com or www.skiforeningen.no.
Simulator: To cap your Holmenkollen experience, step into the simulator and fly down the ski jump and ski in a virtual downhill race. My legs were exhausted after the five-minute terror. This simulator (or should I say stimulator?) costs 60 kr. It’s located at the lower level of the complex, near the entry of the ski museum. Outside, have fun watching a candid video of those shrieking inside.
Getting There: T-bane line #1 gets you out of the city, through the hills, forests, and mansions that surround Oslo, and to the jump (direction: Frognerseteren). From the Holmenkollen station, you’ll hike steeply up the road 15 minutes to the ski jump. (Getting back is just 5 minutes. Note T-bane departure times before you leave.)
Nearby: For an easy downhill jaunt through the Norwegian forest, with a woodsy coffee or meal break in the middle, stay on the T-bane past Holmenkollen to the end of the line (Frognerseteren) and walk 10 minutes downhill to the recommended Frognerseteren Hovedrestaurant, a fine traditional eatery with a sod roof, reindeer meat on the griddle, and a city view (see here). Continue on the same road another 20 minutes downhill to the ski jump, and then to the Holmenkollen T-bane stop. The Holmenkollen Restaurant, described on here, is just a few steps above the T-bane stop and offers a similar view and better food and prices, but without the pewter-and-antlers folk theme.
The buzz in Oslo is its modern sculpture park (opened in 2013), with striking art sprinkled through a forest with grand city views. There’s lots of climbing. The park has a long story, from evidence of the Stone Age people who chose to live here 7,000 years ago to the memory of its days as a Nazi military cemetery in World War II.
Getting There: The park, always open and free, is a 10-minute tram ride southeast of the center (catch tram #18 or #19 from station, platform E). From the Ekebergparken tram stop, climb uphill to the visitors center with its small museum (30 kr), where you can join a guided walk in English (150 kr, 90 minutes, Mon-Sat at 13:00, Sun at 14:00), or just pick up a map and start your hike.
Background: Ekeberg Park is the big project and gift to the city from real estate tycoon Christian Ringnes (grandson of Norwegian brewery tycoons, who—like Coors in Denver and Carlsberg in Copenhagen—have lots of money for grand city projects). Norwegians tend to be skeptical of any fat cat giving something to the city. What’s the real motive? They note that the park’s popularity will bring lots more business to the fancy Ringnes-owned restaurant within the park. But critics are getting over that, and today the people of Oslo are embracing this lovely 63-acre mix of forest and contemporary art. Art collector Ringnes loves women and wanted to the park to be a celebration of femininity. While that vision was considered a bit ill-advised and scaled back, the park is plenty feminine and organic.
Nearby: The faint medieval remains of Oslo (free, always open) are immediately below Ekeberg Park. While a bit obscure for most, history buffs can spend a few minutes wandering a park with the ruins of the 11th-century town—back when it was 3,000 people huddled around a big stone cathedral, seat of the Norwegian bishop. The arcade of a 13th-century Dominican monastery still stands (office of today’s Lutheran bishop). To get there, hop off at the St. Halvards Plass stop on your way to the Ekebergparken tram stop (note when the next tram is due). The ruins are across the street from the bus stop.
The only Norwegian painter to have had a serious impact on European art, Munch (pronounced “moonk”) is a surprise to many who visit this fine museum, located one mile east of Oslo’s center. The emotional, disturbing, and powerfully Expressionistic work of this strange and perplexing man is arranged chronologically. You’ll see an extensive collection of paintings, drawings, lithographs, and photographs. (Note that Oslo’s centrally located National Gallery, which also displays many of Munch’s most popular works, is a better alternative for those who just want to see a dozen great Munch paintings, including “The Scream,” without leaving the city center.)
The Munch Museum was in the news in August of 2004, when two Munch paintings, Madonna and a version of his famous Scream, were brazenly stolen right off the walls in broad daylight. Two men in black hoods simply entered through the museum café, waved guns at the stunned guards and tourists, ripped the paintings off the wall, and sped off in a black Audi station wagon. Happily, in 2006, the thieves were caught and the stolen paintings recovered. Today they are on display again, behind glass and with heightened security.
Cost and Hours: 95 kr; mid-June-Sept daily 10:00-17:00; Oct-mid-June Wed-Mon 11:00-17:00, closed Tue; 25-kr audioguide, guided tours in English daily July-Aug at 13:00, T-bane or bus #60 to Tøyen, Tøyengata 53, tel. 23 49 35 00, www.munch.museum.no. For more on Munch, see here.
Oslo is surrounded by a vast forest dotted with idyllic little lakes, huts, joggers, bikers, and sun-worshippers. Mountain-biking possibilities are endless (as you’ll discover if you go exploring without a good map). Consider taking your bike on the T-bane (free outside of rush hour, otherwise half the normal adult fare) to the end of line #1 (Frognerseteren, 30 minutes from National Theater) to gain the most altitude possible. Then follow the gravelly roads (mostly downhill but with some climbing) past several dreamy lakes to Sognsvann at the end of T-bane line #6. Farther east, from Maridalsvannet, a bike path follows the Akers River all the way back into town. (The TI has details.) While Oslo isn’t much on bike rentals, you can rent quality bikes at Viking Biking (see here).
For plenty of trees and none of the exercise, ride T-bane line #6 to its last stop, Sognsvann (with a beach towel rather than a bike), and join the lakeside scene. A pleasant trail leads around the lake.
On a hot day it seems the busy ferry scene at Oslo’s harborfront is primarily designed to get locals out of their offices and onto the cool, green islands across the harbor so they can take a dip in the fjord, enjoy a little beach time, or simply stroll and enjoy views of the city. The larger Hovedøya offers good beaches, the ruins of a Cistercian monastery from 1147, some old cannons from the early 1800s, a marina, and a café. Little Gressholmen has good swimming, easy wandering to a pair of connected islands, and Gressholmen Kro, a rustic café dating to the 1930s.
Getting to the Islands: Take bus #60 to Vippetangen and catch ferry #92 or #93 to Hovedøya or ferry #93 to Gressholmen (both covered by city transit passes). Ferry #92 takes you directly to Hovedøya in five minutes, while ferry #93 takes a slightly longer, scenic route past several islands (including Gressholmen) on its way to Hovedøya. For schedules and fare info, check www.ruter.no.
Beach at Bygdøy: Remember there’s also a beach at Huk on the Bygdøy peninsula; take the direct boat from pier 3 in front of City Hall or bus #30.
This giant amusement complex just out of town offers a world of family fun. It’s sort of a combination Norwegian Disneyland/Viking Knott’s Berry Farm, with more than 50 rides, plenty of entertainment, and restaurants.
Cost and Hours: Admission is based on your height: under 95 centimeters (3 feet)—free, under 1.2 meters (4 feet)—315 kr, over 1.2 meters (4 feet)—389 kr. Daily July-mid-Aug 10:30-19:00, shorter hours April-June and mid-Aug-Sept, closed in winter, tel. 64 97 66 99, www.tusenfryd.no.
Getting There: Bus #541 takes fun-seekers to the park from behind Oslo’s train station (50 kr, 2/hour, 20-minute ride).
Oslo offers a variety of water play. Located near Vigeland Park, the Frognerbadet has three outdoor pools, a waterslide, high dives, a cafeteria, and lots of young families (100 kr, students-70 kr, mid-May-late Aug Mon-Fri 7:00-19:30, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00, last entry 30 minutes before closing, closed late Aug-mid-May, Middelthunsgate 28, tel. 23 27 54 50).
Tøyenbadet, a modern indoor/outdoor pool complex with a 330-foot-long waterslide, also has a gym and sauna (100 kr, children-50 kr, Mon-Fri 7:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 9:00-19:00, sometimes closed mornings for school events, 10-minute walk from Edvard Munch Museum, Helgengate 90, tel. 23 30 44 70). Oslo’s free botanical gardens are nearby.
During the Napoleonic period, control of Norway changed from Denmark to Sweden. This ruffled the patriotic feathers of Norway’s Thomas Jeffersons and Ben Franklins, and on May 17, 1814, Norway’s constitution was written and signed in this stately mansion (in the town of Eidsvoll Verk, north of Oslo). While Sweden still ruled, Norway had more autonomy than ever.
To get ready for the bicentennial of Norway’s constitution, the manor itself was restored to how it looked in 1814. A visitors center in the nearby Wergeland House tells the history of Norway’s march to independence with 21st-century high-tech touches.
Cost and Hours: 100 kr, includes Eidsvoll Manor, Wergeland House, and guided tour; May-Aug daily 10:00-17:00; Sept Mon-Fri 10:00-16:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-16:00; Oct-April Tue-Fri 10:00-16:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-16:00, closed Mon; tel. 63 92 22 10, www.eidsvoll1814.no.
Getting There: Eidsvoll is 45 minutes from Oslo by car (take road E-6 toward Trondheim, turn right at Eidsvolls Bygningen sign, free parking) or bus (direct bus #854 runs hourly from Oslo Airport). You can also take the train to Eidsvoll (hourly, 45 minutes plus 15-minute walk). If you’re driving from Oslo to Lillehammer and the Gudbrandsdal Valley, it’s right on the way and worth a stop.
This delightful fjord town is just an hour from Oslo by bus (70 kr one-way if bought in advance, 90 kr on board, 2/hour, bus #541 or #542 from behind the train station) or ferry (70 kr one-way, sporadic departures usually Wed and Fri-Sun, check at pier 1 or ask at Oslo TI). Consider taking the 1.25-hour boat trip down, exploring the town, having dinner, and taking the bus back.
For holiday cheer year-round, stop into Tregaarden’s Julehuset Christmas shop, right off Drøbak’s main square (generally Mon-Fri 10:00-17:00, Sat 10:00-15:00, Sun 12:00-16:00, longer hours in Dec, closed Jan-Feb, tel. 64 93 41 78, www.julehus.no). Then wander out past the church and cemetery on the north side of town to a pleasant park. Looking out into the fjord, you can see the old Oscarsborg Fortress, where Norwegian troops fired cannons and torpedoes to sink Hitler’s warship, Blücher. The attack bought enough time for Norway’s king and parliament to escape capture and eventually set up a government-in-exile in London during the Nazi occupation of Norway (1940-1945). Nearby, a monument is dedicated to the commander of the fortress, and one of Blücher’s anchors rests aground (the other is at Aker Brygge in Oslo). A 100-kr round-trip summer ferry shuttles visitors from the town harbor.
If you want to spend the night, the TI can recommend accommodations (June-Aug Mon-Fri 8:30-16:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-14:00; Sept-May Mon-Fri 8:30-16:00, closed Sat-Sun; tel. 64 93 50 87, www.visitdrobak.no). Restaurant Skipperstuen is a good option for dinner, with outdoor seating that overlooks the fjord and all the Oslo-bound boat traffic (entrées from 300 kr, Mon-Sat 12:00-22:00, Sun 12:00-20:00, tel. 64 93 07 03).
Shops in Oslo are generally open 10:00-18:00 or 19:00. Many close early on Saturday and all day Sunday. Shopping centers are open Monday through Friday 10:00-21:00, Saturday 9:00-18:00, and are closed Sunday. Remember, when you make a purchase of 315 kr or more, you can get the 25 percent tax refunded when you leave the country if you hang on to the paperwork (see here). Here are a few favorite shopping opportunities many travelers enjoy, but not on Sunday, when they’re all closed.
Norway Designs, just outside the National Theater, shows off the country’s sleek, contemporary designs in clothing, kitchenware, glass, textiles, jewelry—and high prices (Stortingsgata 12, T-bane: Nationaltheatret, tel. 23 11 45 10).
Paleet is a mall in the heart of Oslo, with 30 shops on three levels and a food court in the basement (Karl Johans Gate 37, tel. 23 08 08 11).
Dale of Norway, considered Norway’s biggest and best maker of traditional and contemporary sweaters, offers its complete collection at this “concept store” (Karl Johans Gate 45, tel. 97 48 12 07).
Heimen Husflid has a superb selection of authentic Norwegian sweaters, bunads (national costumes), traditional jewelry, and other Norwegian crafts (top quality at high prices, Rosenkrantz Gate 8, tel. 23 21 42 00).
GlasMagasinet is one of Oslo’s oldest and fanciest department stores (top end, good souvenir shop, near the cathedral at Stortorvet 9, tel. 22 82 23 00).
The Husfliden Shop, in the basement of the GlasMagasinet department store (listed previously), is popular for its Norwegian-made sweaters, yarn, and colorful Norwegian folk crafts (tel. 22 42 10 75).
The Oslo Sweater Shop has competitive prices for Norwegian-made sweaters (in Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel at Tullinsgate 5, tel. 22 11 29 22).
Byporten, the big, splashy mall adjoining the central train station, is filled with youthful and hip shops, specialty stores, and eateries (Jernbanetorget 6, tel. 23 36 21 60).
The street named Bogstadveien is considered to have the city’s trendiest boutiques and chic, high-quality shops (stretches from behind the Royal Palace to Majorstuen near Vigeland Park).
Oslo’s Flea Market makes Saturday morning a happy day for those who brake for garage sales (at Vestkanttorvet, March-Nov only, two blocks east of Frogner Park at the corner of Professor Dahl’s Gate and Neubergsgate).
Oslo Flaggfabrikk sells quality flags of all shapes and sizes, including the long, pennant-shaped vimpel, seen fluttering from flagpoles all over Norway (875 kr for 11.5-foot vimpel—dresses up a boat or cabin wonderfully, near City Hall at Hieronymus Heyerdahlsgate 1, entrance on Tordenskioldsgate—on the other side of the block, tel. 22 40 50 60).
Vinmonopolet stores are the only places where you can buy wine and spirits in Norway. The most convenient location is at the central train station. Another location, not far from Stortinget, is at Rosenkrantzgate 11. The bottles used to be kept behind the counter, but now you can actually touch the merchandise. Locals say it went from being a “jewelry store” to a “grocery store.” (Light beer is sold in grocery stores, but strong beer is still limited to Vinmonopolet shops.)
In Oslo, like in many other big cities, supply and demand dictate hotel room prices. And yet, some hotels may still offer lower rates on weekends and during some parts of the summer. The only way to know is to check hotel websites for the dates you want to visit. For convenience and modern comfort, I like the Thon Budget Hotels. For lower prices, consider a cheap hotel or a hostel.
If you arrive without a reservation, the TI can try to sort through all of the confusing hotel specials and get you the best deal going on fancy hotel rooms on the push list. With “dynamic pricing,” it’s tough to get a hotel to give a firm rate. If booking on your own and on a budget, check hotel websites far in advance to see who’s willing to offer the most aggressive discount.
The most predictable special is the TI’s Oslo Package, which offers business-class rooms plus an Oslo Pass for around 800 kr per person (based on double occupancy); prices vary depending on the hotel you choose. The Oslo Package is offered daily year-round. It’s a good deal for couples and ideal for families with young children. Two kids under 16 sleep free, breakfast is included, and up to four family members get free Oslo Passes, covering admission to sights and all public transportation (see here). These passes are valid for four days, even if you only stay one night at the hotel (allowing you to squeeze two days of sightseeing out of a one-night stay—for example, if you take an overnight train or boat out of town on your second evening). Buy the Oslo Package through your travel agent at home or, simpler and quicker, upon arrival in Oslo at the TI. Even if you show up late in the day when prices may be deeply discounted, you still get the Oslo Pass along with your room. For details on the Oslo Package, see www.visitoslo.com.
These accommodations are within a 15-minute walk of the station. While evidence of an earlier, shadier time survives nearest the station, the hotels feel secure and comfortable. Parking in a central garage will run you about 250-300 kr per day.
This chain of business-class hotels (found in big cities throughout Norway) knows which comforts are worth paying for and which are not. They offer little character, but provide maximum comfort per krone in big, modern, conveniently located buildings. Each hotel has a cheery staff and lobby, tight but well-designed rooms, free Wi-Fi, and a big buffet breakfast. All are non-smoking.
Thon Hotels come in categories: Their “City Hotels” are a cut above their “Budget Hotels” and are generally more expensive. But depending on demand, you may be able to find a City Hotel that’s discounted below the cost of the Budget Hotels. Both Budget and City Hotels are usually cheaper during the summer. Most City Hotels offer free juice and coffee all day. In Budget Hotels, all rooms lack phones and mini-fridges; also, rooms with double beds are a bit bigger than twin-bedded rooms for the same price.
Because Thon Hotels base their prices on demand, their rates vary wildly, so the following prices are roughly the midpoint of a huge range: Thon City Hotels—Sb-1,525, Db-1,825 kr; Thon Budget Hotels—Sb-795 kr, Db-1,100 kr. Extra beds are 200 kr for an adult and 100 kr for a child under 13. Book by phone or online (central booking tel. 81 55 24 00, www.thonhotels.no).
For the best prices, check the “price calendar” on the Thon Hotels website. Booking via the Thon website gets you a 12 percent “Thon WebDeal” discount (with some exceptions) if you prepay, with no option to change or cancel your reservation 24 hours after booking. My price ratings for Thon Hotels are based on their average summer rates. Of the 14 Thon Hotels in Oslo, I find the following most convenient:
$$$ Thon City Hotel Rosenkrantz Oslo offers 151 modern, comfortable rooms in a classy and central location two blocks off Karl Johans Gate. Its eighth-floor lounge offers views of the Royal Palace park. If you want to splurge, this is the place to do it (Rosenkrantz Gate 1, tel. 23 31 55 00, www.thonhotels.no/rosenkrantzoslo, rosenkrantzoslo@thonhotels.no).
$$$ Thon City Hotel Terminus is similar but closer to the station (Steners Gate 10, tel. 22 05 60 00, www.thonhotels.no/terminus, terminus@thonhotels.no).
$$$ Thon City Hotel Cecil is near the Parliament building a block below Karl Johans Gate (Stortingsgata 8, tel. 23 31 48 00, www.thonhotels.no/cecil, cecil@thonhotels.no, manager Livanne loves my readers).
$$ Thon Budget Hotel Spectrum is four blocks from the station near the Grønland Torg shopping street. A quarter of its rooms are plagued by disco noise on weekends (leave station out north entrance toward bus terminal, go across footbridge toward tall glass Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, and pass through Grønland Torg, Brugata 7; tel. 23 36 27 00, www.thonhotels.no/spectrum, spectrum@thonhotels.no).
$$ Thon Budget Hotel Astoria has the least charm of my recommended Thon Hotels, but it’s well-located and perfectly serviceable (3 blocks in front of station, 50 yards off Karl Johans Gate, Dronningens Gate 21, tel. 24 14 55 50, www.thonhotels.no/astoria, astoria@thonhotels.no).
$$ Thon Budget Hotel Munch, a few blocks from the National Gallery, is like its sisters. Of all the Thon Budget hotels listed, this one has the most upscale location (Munchs Gate 5, tel. 23 21 96 00, www.thonhotels.no/munch, munch@thonhotels.no).
$$ Thon City Hotel Oslo Panorama is a 15-story attempt at a downtown condominium building (the condos didn’t work, so now it’s a budget hotel). While higher rooms are more expensive, even those reserving a cheap room often get bumped up. If you request anything higher than the fourth floor, you’ll likely enjoy a bigger room, perhaps with a balcony (just off Dronningens Gate at Rådhusgata 7, about 6 blocks from station, tel. 23 31 08 00, www.thonhotels.no/oslopanorama, oslopanorama@thonhotels.no).
$$$ Hotell Bondeheimen (“Farmer’s Home”) is a historic hotel run by the farmers’ youth league, Bondeungdomslaget. It once housed the children of rural farmers attending school in Oslo. Now a Best Western, its 127 rooms have all the comforts of a modern hotel (Db-1,195-1,990 kr, prices can vary wildly—check website for best deals, lower prices in July; non-smoking, elevator, Rosenkrantz Gate 8, tel. 23 21 41 00, www.bondeheimen.com, bookingoffice@bondeheimen.com). This almost-100-year-old building is also home to the Kaffistova cafeteria (see “Eating in Oslo”) and the Heimen Husflid shop (see “Shopping in Oslo”).
$$$ P-Hotel rents 93 comfortable rooms—some with hardwood-slick floors—for the same price every day of the year. You get a boxed breakfast delivered each morning, as well as a guest computer and Wi-Fi. Avoid late-night street noise by requesting a room high up or in the back (Db-895-1,250 kr, bigger rooms add 200 kr per person up to five, some sixth-floor rooms have balconies, pay by credit card—no cash accepted, Grensen 19, T-bane: Stortinget, tel. 23 31 80 00, www.p-hotels.com, oslo@p-hotels.no).
$$ Perminalen Hotel, a place for military personnel on leave, is perfectly central, spartan, inexpensive, and welcoming to civvies. They have the same fair prices all year. Spliced invisibly into a giant office block on a quiet street, it has sleek woody furniture and a no-nonsense reception desk (Sb-620 kr, twin Db-860 kr, some seventh-floor rooms have balconies, entirely non-smoking, elevator, pay guest computer, Wi-Fi in lobby, tram #12 from station to Øvre Slottsgate 2, tel. 23 09 30 81, www.perminalen.com, post.perminalen@iss.no). Single beds in shared quads segregated by sexes (with lockers and breakfast) rent for 380 kr each. Its cheap mess hall is open all day.
$$ Cochs Pensjonat has 89 characteristic rooms (20 remodeled doubles), many with kitchenettes. It’s on the far side of the Royal Palace (S-510 kr, Sb-610-660 kr, D-720 kr, Db-840-900 kr, Q-1,180 kr, Qb-1,340 kr, July usually cheaper, discounts for breakfast at nearby cafés, non-smoking rooms, elevator; T-bane: Nationaltheatret, exit to Parkveien, and 10-minute walk through park; or more-convenient trams #11, #17, or #18 to Welhavens Gate; Parkveien 25; tel. 23 33 24 00, www.cochspensjonat.no, booking@cochs.no, three generations of the Skram family).
$$ Ellingsen’s Pensjonat rents 18 clean, bright rooms with fluffy down comforters. It’s in a residential neighborhood four blocks behind the Royal Palace (S-500 kr, Sb-600 kr, D-800 kr, Db-990 kr, extra bed-350 kr, breakfast-85 kr, lower prices Sept-Feb, non-smoking, back rooms have less street noise, tram #19 from central station to Rosenborg stop, near Uranienborg church at Holtegata 25, tel. 22 60 03 59, www.ellingsenspensjonat.no, post@ellingsenspensjonat.no).
To find a room in a private home, which can save you money but at the cost of being farther from the center, try Airbnb or www.bbnorway.com. The TI does not offer a booking service for private homes, but they do list B&Bs and pensions on their website, www.visitoslo.com.
$ Anker Hostel, a huge student dorm open to travelers of any age, offers 250 of Oslo’s best cheap doubles. Though it comes with the ambience of a bomb shelter, each of its rooms is spacious, simple, and clean. There are kitchens and elevators (bed in 6-bed room-240-260 kr, bed in quad-270-290 kr, Db-620-640 kr, Tb-810-870 kr, higher prices are weekend rates, sheets-50 kr, towel-20 kr, no breakfast, self-serve laundry, parking-230 kr/day; tram #12 or #13, or bus #30 or #31 from central station, bus and tram stop: Hausmannsgate; or 10-minute walk from station; Storgata 55, tel. 22 99 72 00, www.ankerhostel.no, hostel@anker.oslo.no).
$ Haraldsheim Youth Hostel (IYHF), a huge, modern hostel open all year, comes with a grand view, laundry, self-service kitchen, 315 beds—most of them in four-bed rooms...and a long commute (2.5 miles out of town). Beds in the fancy quads with private showers and toilets are 280 kr per person (bed in simple quad with bathroom down the hall-255 kr). They also offer private rooms (S-455 kr, Sb-510 kr, D-610 kr, Db-690 kr, bunk-bed D-540 kr, Db-625 kr; all include breakfast, members get 10 percent off, sheets-50 kr, catch bus #31 or tram #17 or T-bane lines #4 or #6 from Oslo’s central train station to Sinsenkrysset, then 5-minute uphill hike to Haraldsheimveien 4, tel. 22 22 29 65, www.haraldsheim.no, oslo.haraldsheim@hihostels.no). Eurailers can train to the hostel with their rail pass (2/hour, to Grefsen and walk 10 minutes).
Norway’s trains and ferries offer ways to travel while sleeping. The eight-hour night train between Bergen and Oslo leaves at about 23:00 in each direction (nightly except Sat). The overnight cruise between these Nordic capitals is a clever way to avoid a night in a hotel and to travel while you sleep, saving a day in your itinerary (see “Oslo Connections,” later).
How do the Norwegians afford their high-priced restaurants? They don’t eat out much. This is one city in which you might just settle for simple or ethnic meals—you’ll save a lot and miss little. Many menus list small and large plates. Because portions tend to be large, choosing a small plate or splitting a large one makes some otherwise pricey options reasonable. You’ll notice many locals just drink free tap water, even in fine restaurants. For a description of Oslo’s classic (and expensive) restaurants, see the TI’s Oslo Guide booklet.
Splurge for a hotel that includes breakfast, or pay for it if it’s optional. At around 80 kr, a Norwegian breakfast fit for a Viking is a good deal. Picnic for lunch or dinner. Basements of big department stores have huge, first-class supermarkets with lots of alternatives to sandwiches for picnic dinners. The little yogurt tubs with cereal come with collapsible spoons. Wasa crackers and meat, shrimp, or cheese spread in a tube are cheap and pack well. The central station has a Joker supermarket with long hours (Mon-Fri 6:00-23:00, Sat 8:00-23:00, Sun 9:00-23:00). Some supermarkets have takeout food that is discounted just before closing—showing up just before 20:00 or so to buy some roast chicken could be your cheapest meal in Oslo. My favorite meals in Oslo are picnic dinners harborside.
Norwegians are experts at completely avoiding costly restaurants. “One-time grills,” or engangsgrill, are the rage for locals on a budget. For about 25 kr, you get a disposable outdoor cooker consisting of an aluminum tray, easy-to-light charcoal, and a flimsy metal grill. All that’s required is a sunny evening, a grassy park, and a group of friends. During balmy summer evenings, the air in Oslo’s city parks is thick with the smell of disposable (and not terribly eco-friendly) grills. It’s fun to see how prices for this kind of “dining” aren’t that bad in the supermarket: Norwegian beer-28 kr/half-liter, potato salad-30 kr/tub, cooked shrimp-50 kr/half kilo, “ready for grill” steak-two for 120 kr, grill polse hot dogs-75 kr per dozen, lomper (Norwegian tortillas for wrapping hot dogs)-20 kr per stack, and the actual grill itself.
Bars are also too expensive for the average Norwegian. Young night owls drink at home before (forspiel) and after (nachspiel) an evening on the town, with a couple of hours, generally around midnight, when they go out for a single drink in a public setting. A beer in a bar costs about $12 for a half-liter (compared to $6 in Ireland and $2 in the Czech Republic), while they can get a six-pack for about twice that price in a grocery store.
You’ll save 12 percent by getting takeaway food from a restaurant rather than eating inside. (The VAT on takeaway food is 12 percent; restaurant food is 24 percent.) Fast-food restaurants ask if you want to take away or not before they ring up your order on the cash register. Even McDonald’s has a two-tiered price list.
Oslo is awash with little budget eateries (modern, ethnic, fast food, pizza, department-store cafeterias, and so on). Deli de Luca, a cheery convenience store chain, notorious for having a store on every key corner in Oslo, is a step up from the similarly ubiquitous 7-Elevens. Most are open 24/7, selling sandwiches, pastries, sushi, and to-go boxes of warm pasta or Asian noodle dishes. You can fill your belly here for about 80 kr. Some outlets (such as the one at the corner of Karl Johans Gate and Rosenkrantz Gate) have seating on the street or upstairs. Beware: Because this is still a convenience store, not everything is well-priced. Convenience stores—while convenient—charge double what supermarkets do.
(See “Oslo Hotels & Restaurants” map, here.)
Strangely, Karl Johans Gate itself—the most Norwegian of boulevards—is lined with a strip of good-time American chain eateries and sports bars where you can get ribs, burgers, and pizza, including T.G.I. Fridays and the Hard Rock Cafe. Egon Restaurant offers a daily 110-kr all-you-can-eat pizza deal (available Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, Sun-Mon all day). Each place comes with great sidewalk seating and essentially the same prices.
Grand Café is perhaps the most venerable place in town. At lunchtime, they set up a sandwich buffet (150-kr single-sandwich, 315-kr all-you-like). Lunch plates are 150-200 kr, and dinner plates run about 250-300 kr. Reserve a window, and if you hit a time when there’s no tour group, you’re suddenly a posh Norwegian (daily 11:00-23:00, Karl Johans Gate 31, tel. 23 21 20 18).
Deli de Luca, just across from the Grand Café, offers good-value food and handy seats on Karl Johans Gate. For a fast meal with the best people-watching view in town, you may find yourself dropping by here repeatedly (for 60 kr you can get a calzone, or a portion of chicken noodles, beef noodles, or chicken vindaloo with rice—ask to have it heated up, open 24/7, Karl Johans Gate 33, tel. 22 33 35 22).
United Bakeries, next to the Paleet mall, is a quiet bit of Norwegian quality among sports bars, appreciated for its salads, light lunches, and fresh pastries (seating inside and out, Mon-Fri 7:00-20:00, Sat 9:00-20:00, Sun 9:00-16:00).
Kaffistova, a block off the main drag, is where my thrifty Norwegian grandparents always took me. And it remains almost unchanged since the 1970s. This alcohol-free cafeteria still serves simple, hearty, and typically Norwegian (read: bland) meals for a good price (140-kr daily specials, Mon-Fri 10:00-21:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-19:00, Rosenkrantz Gate 8, tel. 23 21 42 10).
Theatercaféen, since 1900 the place for Norway’s illuminati to see and be seen (note the celebrity portraits adorning the walls), is a swanky splurge steeped in Art Nouveau elegance (175-195-kr starters, 200-375-kr main dishes, 655-kr three-course meal, Mon-Sat 11:00-23:00, Sun 15:00-22:00, in Hotel Continental at Stortingsgata 24, across from National Theater, tel. 22 82 40 50).
Mr. Hong Restaurant is a busy Asian eatery serving fish, duck, chicken, pork, and beef dishes and an all-day, all-you-can-eat grill buffet (165-240-kr main dishes, 200-kr buffet, Mon-Fri 14:00-23:00, Sat 13:00-23:30, Sun 14:00-22:00, Stortingsgata 8, entrance on Rosenkrantz Gate, right next to recommended Hotel Cecil, tel. 22 42 20 08).
Engebret Café is a fine old restaurant in a 17th-century building in the Christiania section of town below the fortress. Since 1857 it’s been serving old-fashioned Norse food (reindeer is always on the menu) in a classic old Norwegian setting, with outdoor dining in spring and summer (250-350-kr main dishes, Mon-Fri 11:30-23:00, Sat in summer 13:00-23:00, closed Sun and July, Bankplassen 1, tel. 22 82 25 25).
Royal Marine Seafood Grill is a good bet for affordable dining on the harborfront on a balmy evening. All seats are outside, where you’ll enjoy nice views and sunsets on the Oslofjord. In contrast to the Aker Brygge scene, this is a casual place under the castle with nothing trendy about it (150-180-kr salads, burgers, fish-and-chips, 200-kr seafood dishes, daily May-Aug 14:00-22:00, closed Sept-April, Akershusstranda 5, tel. 22 08 03 00).
YaYa’s Thai Beach Bungalow is a welcome change from Norwegian bland. The tiki-bar decor is infectious, the menu is fun and accessible, and the food is surprisingly authentic—I slurped up every morsel of my green curry pork. Don’t be surprised if your dinner is accompanied by the sounds and lights of an hourly tropical thunderstorm (100-kr starters, 170-kr main dishes, vegetarian options, daily 16:00-22:00, Fri-Sat until 23:00, between the Parliament building and City Hall at Øvre Vollgate 13, tel. 22 83 71 10).
Aker Brygge, the harborfront mall, is popular with businesspeople and tourists. While it isn’t cheap, its inviting cafés and restaurants with outdoor, harborview tables make for a memorable waterfront meal. Before deciding where to eat, you might want to walk the entire lane (including the back side), considering both the regular places (some with second-floor view seating) and the various floating options. Nearly all are open for lunch and dinner.
Lekter’n Lounge, right on the water, offers the best harbor view (rather than views of strolling people). This trendy bar has a floating dining area open only when the weather is warm. It serves hamburgers, fish-and-chips, 150-180-kr salads, mussels, and shrimp buckets. Budget eaters can split a 160-kr pizza (all outdoors, Stranden 3, tel. 22 83 76 46). If you go just for drinks, the sofas make you feel right at home and a DJ adds to the ambience.
Rorbua, the “Fisherman’s Cabin,” is a lively yet cozy eatery tucked into this mostly modern stretch of restaurants. The specialty is food from Norway’s north, such as whale and reindeer. Inside, it’s extremely woody with a rustic charm and candlelit picnic tables surrounded by harpoons and old B&W photos. Grab a stool at one of the wooden tables, and choose from a menu of meat-and-potato dishes (200-300 kr). A hearty daily special with coffee for 165 kr is one of the best restaurant deals in the city (daily 12:30-23:00, Stranden 71, tel. 22 83 64 84).
Lofoten Fiskerestaurant serves fish amid a dressy yacht-club atmosphere at the end of the strip. While it’s beyond the people-watching action, it’s comfortable even in cold and blustery weather because of its heated atrium, which makes a meal here practically outdoor dining. Reservations are a must, especially if you want a harborside window table (lunch-200 kr, dinner from 300 kr, open daily, Stranden 75, tel. 22 83 08 08, www.lofoten-fiskerestaurant.no).
Budget Tips: If you’re on a budget, try a hotdog from a pølse stand or get a picnic from a nearby grocery store and grab a bench along the boardwalk. The ICA “Gourmet” grocery store—in the middle of the mall a few steps behind all the fancy restaurants—has salads, warm takeaway dishes (sold by the weight), and more (turn in about midway down the boardwalk, Mon-Fri 8:00-22:00, Sat 9:00-20:00, closed Sun). Farther down, the Joker mini-grocery (just over the bridge and to the right on Lille Stranden in Tjuvholmen) is open until 22:00.
Lofotstua Restaurant feels transplanted from the far northern islands it’s named for. Kjell Jenssen and his son, Jan Hugo, proudly serve up fish Lofoten-style. Evangelical about fish, they will patiently explain to you the fine differences between all the local varieties, with the help of a photo-filled chart. They serve only the freshest catch, perfectly—if simply—prepared. If you want meat, they’ve got it—whale or seal (170-290-kr plates, Mon-Fri 15:00-22:00, generally closed in July, 5-minute walk from gate of Vigeland statue garden, tram #12, in Majorstuen at Kirkeveien 40, tel. 22 46 93 96). This place is packed daily in winter for their famous lutefisk.
Curry and Ketchup Indian Restaurant is filled with in-the-know locals enjoying tasty and hearty meals for about 100 kr. This happening place requires no reservations and feels like an Indian market. If you want a reasonable Indian meal in Oslo, this is hard to beat (daily 14:00-23:00, cash only, a 5-minute walk from gate of Vigeland statue garden, tram #12, in Majorstuen at Kirkeveien 51, tel. 22 69 05 22).
(See “Grünerløkka/Grønland Area” map, here.)
Südøst Asian Crossover Restaurant, once a big bank, now fills its vault with wine (which makes sense, given Norwegian alcohol prices). Today it’s popular with young Norwegian professionals as a place to see and be seen. It’s a fine mix of Norwegian-chic woody ambience inside with a trendy menu, and a big riverside terrace outdoors with a more casual menu. Diners enjoy its chic setting, smart service, and modern creative Asian-fusion cuisine (200-kr dinner plate, 300-kr dinner menu, daily 16:00-24:00, at bottom of Grünerløkka, tram #11, #12, or #17 to Trondheimsveien 5, tel. 23 35 30 70).
Olaf Ryes Plass, Grünerløkka’s main square (and the streets nearby), is lined with inviting eateries and has a relaxed, bohemian-chic vibe. The top side of the square (near Villa Paradiso Pizzeria) has several pubs selling beer-centric food to a beer-centric crowd. To get here, hop on tram #11, #12, or #13 to Olaf Ryes Plass.
Villa Paradiso Pizzeria serves Oslo’s favorite pizza. Youthful and family-friendly, it has a rustic interior and a popular terrace overlooking the square and people scene (120-180-kr pizza, Olaf Ryes Plass 8, tel. 22 35 40 60).
Mathallen Oslo is a former 19th-century factory, spiffed up and morphed into a neighborhood market with a mix of produce stalls and enticing eateries all sharing food-circus-type seating in the middle (Tue-Sun until late, closed Mon, on the river, 5-minute walk from Olaf Ryes Plass).
(See “Grünerløkka/Grønland Area” map, here.)
The street called Grønland leads through this colorful immigrant neighborhood (a short walk behind the train station or T-bane: Grønland; see the map on here). After the cleanliness and orderliness of the rest of the city, the rough edges and diversity of people here can feel like a breath of fresh air. Whether you eat here or not, the street is fun to explore. In Grønland, backpackers and immigrants munch street food for dinner. Cheap and tasty börek (feta, spinach, mushroom) is sold hot and greasy to go for 25 kr.
Punjab Tandoori is friendly and serves hearty meals (70-100-kr, lamb and chicken curry, tandoori specials). I like eating outside here with a view of the street scene (daily 11:00-23:00, Grønland 24).
Alibaba Restaurant is clean, simple, and cheap for Turkish food. They have good indoor or outdoor seating (139-kr fixed-price meal Mon-Thu only, open daily 12:30-22:30, corner of Grønlandsleiret and Tøyengata at Tøyengata 2, tel. 22 17 22 22).
Asylet is more expensive and feels like it was here long before Norway ever saw a Pakistani. This big, traditional eatery—like a Norwegian beer garden—has a rustic, cozy interior and a cobbled backyard filled with picnic tables (150-240-kr plates and hearty dinner salads, daily 11:00-24:00, Grønland 28, tel. 22 17 09 39).
Dattera Til Hagen feels like a college party. It’s a lively scene filling a courtyard with picnic tables and benches under strings of colored lights. If it’s too cold, hang out inside. Locals like it for the tapas, burgers, salads, and Norwegian microbrews on tap (180-kr plates, Grønland 10, tel. 22 17 18 61). On weekends after 22:00, it becomes a disco.
Olympen Brown Pub is a dressy dining hall that’s a blast from the past. You’ll eat in a spacious, woody saloon with big dark furniture, faded paintings of circa-1920 Oslo lining the walls, and huge chandeliers. It’s good for solo travelers, because sharing the long dinner tables is standard practice. They serve hearty 200-kr plates and offer a huge selection of beers. Traditional Norwegian cuisine is served downstairs, while upstairs on the rooftop, the food is grilled (daily 11:00-2:00 in the morning, Grønlandsleiret 15, tel. 22 17 28 08).
Café Con Bar is a trendy yuppie eatery on the downtown edge of Grønland. Locals consider it to have the best burgers in town (150 kr). While the tight interior seating is very noisy, the sidewalk tables are great for people-watching (160-kr daily specials, 150-190-kr main dishes, Mon-Sat 10:00-late, Sun 12:00-late, kitchen closes at 23:00, where Grønland hits Brugata).
(See “Greater Oslo” map, here.)
Frognerseteren Hovedrestaurant, nestled high above Oslo (and 1,400 feet above sea level), is a classy, sod-roofed old restaurant. Its terrace, offering a commanding view of the city, is a popular stop for famous apple cake and coffee. The café is casual and less expensive, with indoor and outdoor seating (90-kr sandwiches and cold dishes, 140-190-kr entrées, Mon-Sat 11:00-22:00, Sun 11:00-21:00, reservations unnecessary). The elegant view restaurant is pricier (375-395-kr plates, Mon-Fri 12:00-22:00, Sat 13:00-22:00, Sun 13:00-21:00, reindeer specials, reserve for evening dining, tel. 22 92 40 40).
The Holmenkollen restaurant, just below the ski jump and a few steps above the Holmenkollen T-bane stop, is a practical alternative to the Frognerseteren restaurant. It serves better food at better prices with a similarly grand Oslo fjord view, but without the folk charm.
You can combine a trip into the forested hills surrounding the city with lunch or dinner and get a chance to see the famous Holmenkollen Ski Jump up close (see here).
For train information, call 81 50 08 88 and press 9 for English. For international trains, press 3. Even if you have a rail pass, reservations are required for long rides (free with first-class pass, 50 kr for second-class; SJ InterCity reservation fee for tickets to Stockholm in costs about 35 kr regardless of class). First class often comes with a hot meal, fruit bowl, and unlimited juice and coffee.
Be warned that international connections from Oslo are often in flux. Schedules can vary depending on the day of the week, so carefully confirm the specific train you need and purchase any required reservations in advance. Aside from the occasional direct train to Stockholm, most trips from Oslo to Copenhagen or Stockholm require a change in Sweden.
From Oslo by Train to Bergen: Oslo and Bergen are linked by a spectacularly scenic train ride (3-5/day, 7 hours, overnight possible daily except Sat). Many travelers take it as part of the Norway in a Nutshell route, which combines train, ferry, and bus travel in an unforgettably beautiful trip. For information on times and prices, see the next chapter.
By Train to: Lillehammer (almost hourly, 2.25 hours), Kristiansand (5/day, 4.5 hours, overnight possible), Stavanger (4/day, 8-8.5 hours, overnight possible), Copenhagen (2/day, 8.5 hours, transfer at Göteborg, more with multiple changes), Stockholm (2/day direct InterCity trains, 5.75 hours; 2/day with change in Göteborg, 6-7.5 hours).
By Bus to Stockholm: Taking the bus to Stockholm is cheaper but slower than the train (3/day, 8 hours, www.swebus.se).
By Car to the Jotunheimen Mountains: See “Route Tips for Drivers” on here.
Oslo has three cruise ports, described next. For more in-depth cruising information, pick up my Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports guidebook.
Getting Downtown: To varying degrees, all of Oslo’s cruise ports are within walking distance of the city center—but from the farthest-flung port, Filipstad, your best option is probably to take advantage of your cruise line’s shuttle bus, even if you have to pay for it (most drop off by the Nobel Peace Center, near City Hall on the harborfront). No public transit serves the ports, but Open Top Sightseeing’s hop-on, hop-off bus tours meet arriving cruise ships at or near all ports (pricey but convenient; see here). A taxi into town from any of the ports costs a hefty 150 kr.
Once you arrive at the City Hall/harbor area, you can simply walk up the street behind City Hall to find Karl Johans Gate, and the National Gallery; hop on tram #12 (ride it toward Majorstuen to reach Vigeland Park—use the Vigelandsparken stop; or ride it toward Disen to reach the train station—use the Jernbanetorget stop); or take the shuttle boat across the harbor to the museums at Bygdøy.
Port Details: Akershus, right on the harbor below Akershus Fortress, has two berths: Søndre Akershuskai, a bit closer to town, and Vippetangen, a bit farther out (at the tip of the peninsula). Both are within an easy 10-minute walk of City Hall (just stroll with the harbor on your left).
Revierkai, around the east side of the Akershus Fortress peninsula, faces Oslo’s can’t-miss-it, cutting-edge Opera House. From the Opera House, a pedestrian overpass takes you directly to the train station and the start of my self-guided “Welcome to Oslo” walk, or you can head up the street called Rådhusgata to City Hall.
Filipstad is just west of downtown, next to the brand-new Tjuvholmen development (around the far side of Aker Brygge from City Hall). From here, it’s a dull 20-minute walk into town: Walk out of the port, turn right at the roundabout, then head to the busy highway and follow the path to the right and signs to sentrum. When construction around Filipstad and Tjuvholmen is finally finished (years from now), it will be possible to cross directly from the port to Tjuvholmen and then it will be a quick walk along Aker Brygge to the city center. Your ship’s upper deck provides the perfect high-altitude vantage point for scouting your options before disembarking.
Consider connecting Oslo and Copenhagen by cruise ship. The boat leaves daily from Oslo at 16:30 (arrives in Copenhagen at 9:45 the following morning; going the other way, it departs Copenhagen at 16:30 and arrives in Oslo at 9:45; about 17 hours sailing each way). The boat leaves Oslo from the far (non-City Hall) side of the Akershus Fortress peninsula (get there via bus #60 from the train station, 2-3/hour, get off at Vippetangen stop and follow signs to DFDS ticket office). Boarding is from 15:00 to 16:15. From Oslo, you’ll sail through the Oslofjord—not as dramatic as Norway’s western fjords, but impressive if you’re not going to Bergen. On board are gourmet restaurants, dinner and breakfast buffets, cafés, nightclubs, shops, a sauna, hot tub, and swimming pool. This is fun and convenient, but more expensive and not as swanky as the Stockholm-Helsinki cruise (see the Helsinki chapter).
You can take this cruise one-way or do a round-trip from either city. Book online or by phone (from Norway, call DFDS Seaways’ Denmark office: Mon-Fri 9:00-16:30, closed Sat-Sun, tel. 00 45 33 42 30 10, www.dfdsseaways.us). Book in advance for the best prices. For more specifics and sample prices, see “By Overnight Boat to Oslo” on here.