Norway Fjords/Sweden - Day 14 - Oslo 5

Today is museum day. I got ready and had breakfast by 9am. Bought the Oslo card for 1 day online. I want to see at least three museums and use the public transport, so it should work out. 

First stop is City Hall. It opens at 9 am so I should have left earlier but reached there around 9:45 am by taking tram #11. The back side of the city hall is getting renovated, so it kind of looks bad. Anyway, the front entrance is on the other side. It is a wonderful entrance! A fountain and sculptures. I would have missed this! The inside also was amazing. I thought I was the only one there, but there were many tourists inside. There were wall to wall paintings, huge tapestries and wonderful chandeliers. All in all a great visit! And all for free. Spent about 1 hr here.

I need to take the ferry to the museums now. There is a special ferry for that on port "F". It was good, took all of 5 mins to get to the other side. They did check the Oslo pass here. Got off at the Fram museum. 

Fram

I really did not know what the Fram museum was about and I was pleasantly surprised. It was the first person, a Norwegian who set foot on the North Pole. Fram was the name of the ship. The original ship was there along with a lot of the original items. I found it fascinating since I had read the book on the captain who took the trip to Antarctica. This museum was full of information and history dating back to 1890s. There was so much reading to do, but I could not spend so much time here. I still spent over an hour reading, taking photos and admiring all the work these brave men did. It really takes a different kind of human being to be in these kinds of ships in such harsh conditions for so long. 

Next to the Fram museum is the Kon-Tiki museum. Again, no idea what this was. Apparently it was a journey of 6 men from South America to Easter Island on a raft in the 1940s. It took about 100 days for them to get there. Again, adventurous men! There was another raft there, Ra, which was made of papyrus and also used to sail to one of the islands. This was in 1969. Again, too much reading there. I figured I will read about it later on the internet.

Kon Tiki

The third museum there was the Maritime museum. I would not have visited this if I did not have the Oslo card. There was not much of my interest here. There were some nice paintings though. And a cafe....so I had an egg sandwich ($5). It was about 2 pm now.

Took bus #30 to the Cultural Museum. Had to change the bus to go in the other direction to reach the museum. I was expecting this to be like any other museum, but I was so wrong! 

There were four buildings making a square, each had things in it, historical items (clothes, house stuff, furniture etc.). This itself took one hour, and then there was the open air museum. This was a lot of buildings built outside in real dimensions to show what life was like in Norway. 

There was a lot of walking involved. There was also a stave church. This one had the original interior and some original pillars - about 1100 AD. The exterior was rebuilt. This church was much better than what I saw in Bergen. Walked around more, did not go to the farm side, but saw old Oslo streets. Very nice. It is a nice way to learn your history. There were many tourists there and probably locals too. It is about 4 pm now, and I need a cup of tea, so had one at their cafe.

Last thing on my list was the Ekeberg Garden. Took #30 bus to Solli and changed to #13 tram to get directly to Ekeberg. I thought I would be the only one there, but it was crowded! 

I knew there were sculptures there but not how and where. The museum would be closed by now. I think I heard about Ekeberg when I want to the Munch museum. Edvard Munch lived around this area. I can see why he would be so inspired to paint and draw. The location is high up and one get get a nice view of Oslo.

There was a lot of uphill in this park. I was not prepared for it. I had been on my feet since 10 am, but thank God for good shoes! The sculptures were everywhere. I reached the restaurant in the park, where is the best viewing for Oslo city. Really can see all the key points. Saw the map and realized that the maximum number of sculptures can be seen over 1.5 km walk. Okay then! The trek was  hard in the beginning, all uphill, but there were sculptures dispersed everywhere so it was nice to just go slow and enjoy. The most entertaining and big sculpture (or was it?) the light display in the forest. There were strings and strings of light that were changing colors, and music was playing. It was just magical forest. It was the most crowded place.

Went on to do the whole loop. I really enjoyed so many of the sculptures. These artists have really amazing imagination and the ability to bring it to a physical form. It was totally worth it. I would recommend about 2 hours for this park and come around sunset. I did not see much of a sunset because it was cloudy. It was after 6:30 pm when I was done....and boy I was done. I was just tired of being on my feet all day. 

Took the #19 tram to the central station and made it to my room. Had chips, peanuts, chocolate and will top it off with 2 advils - hehe. I am beat today. But really had a good day.