Oslo City

Today, a day trip to Oslo was on the agenda. Yesterday we had already seen a lot of the city, but today there was even more to experience. We first visited the Fram Museum, where the boat of the famous explorers Amundsen and Nansen is located inside a museum hall. Both were well-known as Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole and brought a piece of Antarctica into view, while Nansen was the first to cross Greenland. The stories of their expeditions are beautifully depicted, and on the ship, you get an idea of what life was like back then.  After this museum, we quickly stopped by the Kon Tiki museum where you can see Thor Heyerdahl's raft. He succeeded in sailing 8000 km across the Pacific Ocean to South America with a self-built raft during his Kon Tiki expedition. 

After that, we took a small ferry that brought us back to the city center, and from the water, we had a beautiful view of the waterfront we had visited yesterday. We quickly went to the Radhuset where you can view immense murals in the entrance hall. It's certainly worth seeing once. Since we were a bit hungry, we walked to the oldest bakery in Oslo to grab a bite to eat, and of course, that had to be rounded off with a delicious cinnamon roll. These things are heavenly delicious!

From the center, we took the metro for the first time to the Holmenkollen ski jump.  This ski jump gives you a glimpse into one of the most important winter sports in Norway, but from here you also have stunning views over the city and the Oslofjord. The ski jump has been in use since 1892 and has been completely renovated several times since then. It is one of the most famous ski jumps in the world and is used for international competitions. There is also an interesting ski museum that we popped into, but unfortunately, we couldn't fully explore it as it was already closing time. 

Back in the city, we walked to a food hall where we ordered tacos and nachos. They really hit the spot after the many steps we had taken. Finally, we went to Ekepark where you can admire sculptures by various artists. The park itself is nice, but you don't really need to go there just for the sculptures. The great thing is that from the top of the mountain, you have a different view of the city. By around 9 PM, we were back at our hotel, and our program for today was about 80% complete. Tomorrow, we're heading deeper into Norway, but first, we're going to take a look at the Nors Folkemuseum, the Bokrijk of Norway.