OSLO, THREE DAYS IN MAY: Art, Opera, History and Sunshine

View of Oslo from inside the Opera House.

We landed in Oslo on May 1^st, our first stop on a two-week trip to Norway. We had three days to get over jet lag before traveling to Bergen, where my husband would attend a professional meeting. We wanted to see as much as we could of Oslo, knowing that in our short time there we would have to pick and choose. 

Pansies in a sidewalk planter in front of our hotel in Oslo.

Our hotel, the Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz, was located in the center of town within walking distance of most things we wanted to do.

Boat in the harbor, Oslo fjord.

On our first evening, after dinner in the excellent Italian restaurant in our hotel, we walked to the harbor on the Oslo Fjord, enjoying the evening sunshine of the far north spring. (Because it was close to midsummer, the sun didn’t set until nearly 10pm and rose again early in the morning!) 

Family of Four, Sculpture by Gustav Vigeland, Oslo.

In the plaza by the harbor stood “Family of Four,” by Gustav Vigeland, Norway's most famous sculptor. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to see the museum and park in Oslo that features so much of Vigeland’s work. 

A tiny painter puts dots on the side of a storage building at the harbor.

But we saw lots of other public art everywhere we went, including this whimsical painting on the side of a building alongside the harbor.

Nobel Peace Center, Oslo.

The next morning, we visited the Nobel Peace Center. (Gustav Vigeland is the designer of the Nobel Peace Prize Medal.) At the Peace Center we learned about Alfred Nobel (Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite) and about the history of the Peace Prize and all the individuals who have received the award. I was reminded that Jane Addams, social activist and founder of Hull House in Chicago, was one of the early recipients.

Astrup Fearnley Museum.

All along the waterfront people were enjoying the warm weather, walking, sitting on benches, and eating at the many outdoor restaurants. Further along the Oslo Fjord we came to the Astrup FearnleyMuseum, one of Scandinavia’s most notable museums for contemporary art. The museum, designed by Renzo Piano, spans two buildings bisected by a canal. We walked over a bridge from one to the other. In one building, selected items from the Astrup Fearnley collection are displayed. They include paintings, textiles, sculpture, and other works by a wide variety of artists from around the world. There is also a room for children and families to create their own art.

Looking at Art Institute of Chicago 2, photograph by Thomas Struth at the Astrup Fearnley Museum, 2024.

Looking at Paris Street Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.

We were particularly engaged by a photograph entitled ­­Art Institute of Chicago 2 by Thomas Struth. In 2022 we were with our family in Chicago in front of the very same painting depicted in the photo, taking our own picture! (See the second photo above.) Our photo in Oslo (with me in the foreground) adds another layer of reality.

Bird Cabinet by Leonard Rickhard.

On the other side of the canal, the Astrup Fearnley Museum building features rotating temporary exhibits. We chose to see the retrospective of the work of Norwegian artist Leonard Rickhard. (It ended on May 19. ) The exhibit was organized around repeating themes in Rickhard's work—a bird cabinet, the night painter, the model table, the birch forest, deserted barracks, workers sheds—often in combination. I was struck by the contemporary look of his paintings, even those done fifty years ago. (For more samples of items at the Astrup Fearnley Museum, see my June 17 post at my Art and Books blog.)

Inside the Oslo Opera House on the ground floor.

That evening we had tickets for the opera, performed at the spectacular new opera house, where the roof is also a giant patio. 

From the roof of the Oslo Opera House your can see the Munch Museum next door. It is dedicated to the work of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and has three versions of his famous painting The Scream. 

The opera we saw was Cenerentola (Cinderella) by Rossini. The production was lively and humorous and easy to understand—a small screen at our seats followed the libretto translated into either Norwegian or English. (We chose, English, of course. Throughout Norway, at least in areas frequented by tourists, we found that almost everyone speaks English.) At intermission, as we stood on the balcony and gazed out the windows, the sun was just setting over the Oslo skyline.

At Henrik Ibsen's grave in the Memorial Cemetery.

On our second full day in Oslo we had arranged to meet an American friend who has lived in Oslo most of her life. It was wonderful to have a personal guide and insight on what it is like to live and raise a family in Norway. On the way to her apartment she took us through the Memorial Cemetery, a beautiful park-like area open to the public. It is the burial place of both ordinary citizens and Norwegian notables like Henrik Ibsen and Edgar Munch. 

Old Aker Church was built as a three-naved Romanesque style basilica.

From the cemetery we walked to the Gamle Aker Church, the oldest church in Oslo. It dates back to the 12^th Century and continues as an active congregation. The next day, on our visit to the Folk Museum in Bygdoy, we saw a 19th Century painting of the church. 

Our guide for our tour of the Folk Museum.

Our last full day in Oslo was devoted to a visit to the Folk Museum, a large park-like complex with museums and historical buildings from rural parts of Norway. Interpreters are dressed in traditional costumes. With a little imagination you almost feel as if you have taken a trip back in time. We took a one-hour English language tour that ended at the famous stave church, dating from the 13th century.

Stave Church at the Folk Museum. It is built entirely of wood.

We then wandered on our own, visiting a traditional farm kitchen, where young women in period clothes were baking lefse (a slightly sweet soft flat bread) on a griddle over hot coals. We bought two slices, served hot and slathered with melted butter. They were delicious!

The next morning we headed for the train station for the next part of our trip—a train ride over the mountains to Bergen. For a report of that journey and more about Oslo, see my post of May 27. We enjoyed our three days in Oslo, had beautiful sunny weather, made progress on adjusting to the time change, and felt we got a taste of the city. Someday we’ll have to go back and explore more.

At the Folk Museum with our two slices of freshly baked lefse.

TWO WEEKS IN NORWAY: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and a Few Ferries Too

Norway. View of the mountains from the train between Oslo and Bergen.

As our train climbed over the mountains between Oslo and Bergen, we looked out the window and  marveled at the expanse of snow that stretched as far as the eye could see. When we stopped at the station, passengers got on holding cross-country skis in their arms. While sea level gardens in Oslo and Bergen were already blooming with tulips and irises, here it was still winter.

Tulips in the city park in Bergen.

At the beginning of May, Art and I spent two weeks in Norway, a country we had never visited before. Art had a scientific meeting in Bergen, so the trip was planned around that, arriving first in Oslo, where we spent a few days getting over jet lag (9 hours from our home in California), then to the meeting in Bergen, and afterward, five days exploring Norway’s west coast. The trip began on a plane from Los Angeles to Oslo (via Copenhagen.) From there we got from one place to another by train, ferry, and driving ourselves in a rented car. (We also took a few local buses and taxis.)

View of Oslo from inside the Opera House. We went to the opera Cenerentola (Cinderella) by Rossini.

In Oslo our hotel was in the center of the city and we could easily walk to most museums, the opera house, the harbor, and restaurants. But to visit the island of Bygdoy we needed to take a local bus. A friend helped us obtain a bus card (available at local shops), but during our trip—on a busy Saturday afternoon on the same day as a marathon race—the conductor never came to collect the fares so we ended up riding for free! 

Stave church at the Folk Museum and our guide, wearing traditional dress. The stave church, built entirely of wood, goes back to the 13th century.

Our destination was the Folk Museum, a living history park with museums, reconstructed farm buildings from elsewhere in Norway, and most famously, a historic stave church, moved there from a village in the mountains in 1880.

View from the train window as we passed through a river valley.

The following day we checked out of our hotel and boarded the train for Bergen. 

View from the train window at the top of the pass.

During the seven-hour trip we watched the landscape speed by outside the window—first past suburbs, then farmland, river valleys, small villages, and gradually up to snow covered mountain passes, then back down to more river valleys, fjords, and finally to Bergen on Norway’s west coast. It was an exhilarating trip.

Our hotel, the red building at the left, was part of a row of historic buildings lining the wharf in Bergen.

In the Middle Ages, Bergen was Scandinavia’s biggest city, due to its role as a trading center, largely as a distributor of fish from Norway’s coast. While the trading culture of the past is gone today, its heritage is preserved in Bryggen, the part of the city along the wharf which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Our ship, part of the Hurtigruten line, at the dock in Bergen.

After four days in Bergen, we set off for the city of Alesund to the north, taking an overnight ferry on which we had booked a cabin. As we sailed out of the harbor we watched the sun set at 10pm from the lounge on the top deck, only to wake up a few hours later in our cabin to find that the sun had risen again. 

View of the coastline from the ship.

As we cruised northward, we saw snow-capped mountains rising above a rocky coast, small farms and villages, and the occasional lighthouse. 

A brief stop at a village along the way to Alesund.

While most of the other passengers on the Hurtigruten ship were going all the way to the top of Norway, past the Arctic Circle, on an organized tour, we got off at the first stop, Alesund.

View of Alesund from the city park.

In 1904, most of Alesund was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. With help from other European countries, it was rebuilt, providing the opportunity for new architecture in the Art Nouveau style. Almost every building features some kind of ornament. Again, most of the museums and parks in Alesund were within easy walking distance from our hotel in the center of town.

Beginning of the path to the overlook of the cliff nesting sites on Runde.

Our final excursion was to the island of Runde, famous for its bird nesting cliffs. It is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Alesund. We rented a car at the Alesund airport and set off for Runde, relying on our GPS to get us there. In Norway, most roads follow the shoreline of the fjords, islands and peninsulas that make up the Norwegian coast, connecting from one to the other usually by bridges or tunnels but sometimes by ferry. 

View from the car ferry between Hareid and Sulesund on Highway 61.

After leaving the main highway connecting Alesund and Bergen, we followed smaller roads along waterways, through coastal farmland (overshadowed by snow covered granite peaks), over bridges and through more tunnels, until finally arriving at a tall one-lane bridge that joins Runde island to the mainland. Luckily, there is not much traffic. 

Bridge connecting Runde to the mainland.

If you see an approaching car when you get to the top of the bridge, you wait at the layby until the car passes, before proceeding down the other side.

View from our hotel room in Fosnavag.

After spending the afternoon on Runde (see my post of May 20) we drove to the nearby town of Fosnavag to our hotel for the night. The next morning, we returned to Runde—going over the same narrow bridge again—for more bird watching, before returning to Alesund and getting ready for our early morning flight back to the United States.

Sunrise at 4:36am on our way to the Alesund airport.

Our two weeks in Norway were filled with fascinating visits to museums and other tourist sites, but the process of getting there--whether by plane, train, automobile or ferry--was half the fun. 

On the train from Oslo to Bergen.