We have booked flights to Norway twice before, and not made it out here! This time however, nothing could stop us! The first time, I was stuck in Minneapolis on a work thing and didn’t get back in time. Second time, Char booked wrong airport, and it was a two hour train ride away, and we would have landed at 2330, so it was a no from me.
Set off at 0430 to Stanstead Airport. Most our flights are from there. Maple Parking this time. Normally use the Stanstead one, but we always shop around via Martin Lewis’ site. If you do book airport parking, best advice is book early.
Ryanair. Standard. We did the usual thing of booking one priority seat, and 3 non-priority. That way, can take a suitcase on, and get on quicker. This time we were told off though, and we that we all should have gone non-priority. First time anyone has whinged. We will not be heeding her advice.
Gardermoen
Got to Oslo Gardermoen. Even though it is Oslo Airport, it’s still a fair bit out of the city. Express train gets you in quite quickly though. Cost about £20. I got on as a student so saved a tenner. No one checked our tickets though, so could have done it for free! Train was nice. Felt like First Class. Not that I know what First Class feels like!
Got to our AirBnB which was about 15 mins from centre on train, but much cheaper and better value and that. People say Norway is expensive, and they are not wrong!
We had planned to go to the Natural History Museum, as it’s free on a Thursday; except for school holidays. Googled it and turns out their summer hols start on 24 June! What a swizz. We arrived on the 27th.
Vigeland Park
Put sun cream on, and we went out. We put the sun cream on because it was proper hot, not because you have to wear it in Oslo. Got a tram to Skoyenparken, which then leads on to The Vigeland Park. He was a sculpture dude who did a bloody load of sculptures of people! They are really good mind. Lovely park, loads of folk in there, and a massive monolith made up of about 127 people. I didn’t count them.
Then, we had a walk through it all, stopped at a cafe in the park and had the best ice cream on a stick I’d ever had! Imagine a Magnum, but make it 4 times nicer. It was called a Royal. £3.50. We had one each.
Royal Palace
Still time in the day to do something else, so got on a tram and went to the Royal Palace. Was ok. Didn’t go in or anything. A Japanese man stopped to chat with us. Stan had said something, and Char had said ‘why’ and then the Japanese dude said ‘you said Why’? Then stared a bit. Had a chat about Wales, and I blasted him with a Konichiwa and that. He said Elizabeth the Second was alright, and off he went. We then tried palming Stan off to a group of French Octogenarians, but he wouldn’t go with them.
Back to the apartment, which was in the basement of the AirBnB woman’s house. Stopped at a shop and spent a bit for breakfasts and dinners, as usual. Pasta and bread and fruit and drinks.
Today was Jessica’s birthday. She would have been 8, which is bonkers. We got a cake, sang happy birthday and ate half of it.
Bathed kids, put them to bed, and then watched the Norway v England game in the Women’s World Cup. Norway lost. I didn’t hear any groans or anything. We were in Copenhagen for the Men’s World Cup, and you could hear people cheering for Iceland! None of that here.
Oslo Card
Next day, decided on a whim to buy an Oslo card. We bought one for Copenhagen and used it loads. It does all your travel and entry into museums and that. We had planned to go to a few, and it worked out slightly cheaper to get the card. Then, we decided to get a 48 hour one instead, to carry on the fun! They can seem like an expensive outlay, but it helps see and do more when in a city. What I don’t like about them is they say ‘free public transport’ or ‘free entry’, as it’s defo not free because you have paid for it effectively! Still very handy, especially on public transport.
First on the list was Norwegian Folk Museum. One of those open air ones where they have buildings from all of time in a little village. It was ok. 3/5 stars. A lot of buildings were locked, some were unlocked but had barriers on so you couldn’t go in, and some you could go in. The best bit was the Stave Church though. Really nice, black, wooden thing. Nice.
Had some lunch in the cafe. £10 for a sandwich. Bargain. Not even joking.
Viking Ship Museum
Had a walk down the road to the Viking Ship Museum. This was really good. 3 actual Viking ships. Loads of treasure and artefacts, and a really arty video which is played on about 10 projectors so you can ‘get in to’ the film.
Fram Museum
Next was Fram Museum. This was Amundsen’s Polar explorer ship, the ‘strongest wooden ship ever built’. This was amazing. You could see all his clothes and stuff he used, go into an ‘ice tunnel’ which the kids refused to go in. Then, you could get onto the boat. Or ship. Really well done to the dudes who got it all sorted. There was also a bit about Scott there, and it slagged off his sledging dogs.
Over the road was the Kon Tiki Museum. Easter Island and that. Where the Tiki Tiki bar comes from! This was the original balsa wood ship and looked ace.
Nobel Peace Centre
After this, we got the boat over to the centre bit. Nice little journey. Got off and it felt like a city centre. Street food, busker, Art sellers. Sea gulls. Went into the Nobel Peace Centre. This was lovely. Had a climate change exhibition downstairs, and the new that day Field of Nobel Laureate winners or summat. Stan saw Barack Obama and thought he was a man who had his leg bitten off by a shark. There was a protest bit by Greta Thunberg which was cool.
Went out, had some spring rolls and sat in the park next to city hall. So nice there loads of people having a sit down in the sun and that.
National Opera House
From here we went to the National Opera House. This building is amazing! It’s an angular thing, which is designed so that you can walk outside it, and up onto the roof. Really nice stuff. Proper windy though. This was probably my favourite thing to see in Oslo. Home after this. Pasta and bed.
Escape to the Country
Final day we started off with a trip to Sognsvann lake. This is slightly north of Oslo. Got there about 1130 and it was a nice busy. Loads of families enjoying the outdoors. It was a lovely lake with paths around it in the forest. Felt so nice there. Kids had a paddle, then an ice cream. Both had to lose their pants as they were soaking from the lake.
Munch
Back into the metro to the centre to see Munch Museum. The Scream is such an iconic painting, up there with Mona Lisa and The Sunflowers. Wasn’t as busy as the Louvre or Van Gogh museum. Could have a gentle walk around. I think it took us 10 mins to go through it. Saw The Scream. Saw Madonna (the painting, not the one with the weird bra from the 80’s). Good.
Got out and it was lunch time. We decided on a McDonalds, which is a bit of a tradition! Cheap, friendly food! I say cheap… Best thing they have is a cheese dip! Like a bbq sauce or whatever, but cheese.
Back on the metro. We used the public transport more here than most places. It is a big city which you can’t really do by foot, like you good with Helsinki. Oslo is the third biggest Scandinavia city, behind Stockholm and Copenhagen.
Children’s Art Museum
Another Oslo card find was the Children’s Art Museum. This was a bit out of the way, but was a nice trip. We got there about 40 mins before closing, which was more than enough time. Loads of kids artwork from around the world. Some of it was ace, quite political, and from their eyes. War, famine, education etc. One of the hits was a Blue Peter style model of the Twin Towers attack, which was quite accurate! Scary, but accurate. Left there, found a massive tiger outside the central station, and then sat in a church field for a bit.
Went back to our AirBnB to pick up bags, and got to the station. The Oslo card gives you Zone 1 and 2 travel, so airport isn’t included. On the fast train, it’s about £20. A slower train (5 mins slower), is about half the price. I bought a ticket for zone three and four, as I already had Oslo Pass, and made it even cheaper! Win.
In the airport about 2030. Nice airport, but everything blinking closes at about 2000hrs! Bonkers. Still a fair few flights, but all food stuff was closed, apart from a shop that sold baguettes, and another coffee shop. Bought a couple of baguettes, which were £8 each.
Found an unattended bag. Told security who sent someone ten mins later. He swabbed it, went off for 5 mins to test, came back and picked it up and walked off.
Oslo was great
Oslo was great. I enjoyed it. We could have easily spent two more days there, and still not got round everything we wanted to see! Some cities you can do in a couple of days, Oslo is not one of them. We would like to come back, but do a Finland style trip, with a weeks drive round the other bits of Norway. Would love to visit every country like that, but school/jobs don’t make it possible! Will defo come back to Norway mine.
It is expensive, but you almost have to ignore the cost when deciding what to order! We did it cheaply, by not going out for big meals and alcohol etc. We could have made it cheaper by making a packed lunch each day, but we didn’t. It is the happiest country in the world. I’d be happy to live there.
