After a seven hour flight from Newark, we land in Oslo Airport around 8:30am. The Oslo Airport is probably the most beautiful airport I have ever been to; the entire interior of the airport is built with gorgeous dark wood panels with huge glass windows looking out, and open office areas on the second floor. After collecting all of our luggage and going through customs, we boarded buses and began driving to the city center of Oslo towards our hotel (Bristol Thon) and began tours for the day. We had a beautiful day weather wise in Oslo, with spectacular sunshine and comfortable mid seventy degree temperatures.
Facts about Norway:
-Norway is a gorgeously green country with a varied landscape throughout the country, many forests, mountains, small villages, and ski slopes. Norway is well known for its fjords, which are long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea between high cliffs, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.
-Norway is the 4th largest country in Europe and has a population of 5million people.
-It is easy to converse with Norwegians in Norway, as we were told by our tour guide “everyone speaks English.”
-Yes we did pass an Ikea store!
-Norway is known as having the best tap water in the world. Everywhere in the country advertises the tap water as drinkable.
-We were told there was not much in the way of Norwegian cuisine, except reindeer, as being unique, local food. Norwegians eat a lot of fish as well as whale meat and moose.
– There are lots of tunnels in Norway, one of which is 3 1/2 miles long under the fjords in Oslo.
-There is many electric cars in Norway. People who drive electric cars are given advantages such as they do not have to pay parking fees, they can use bus lanes (this reminded me of driving on 36 between Denver and Boulder), and there is no cost for petrel (gas). Drivers of electric cars have an “EL” registration on their car.
-The Norwegian economy relies heavily on oil, natural gas, fishing exports, and Nordic furniture.
Facts about Oslo, Norway:
-Oslo, Norway is a very expensive city! The local currency used is Norwegian Krone and during the time I was traveling in Norway, 1 US Dollar was equivalent to about 8 Norwegian Krone.
-Oslo is one of the safest and cleanest capital cities in the world. With a population of 630,000, it is the largest European capital city in terms of acreage. Oslo is the largest metropolitan in Norway, about 455 square km. Olso is expected to increase about 30% in population in the next years. About 1.5-2 million people live around the Oslo fjord area.
-I witnessed lots of new construction and cranes in the city as the population is rising quickly. We drove through “Little Manhattan” with very tall buildings conquering new heights in the city as well as new apartment buildings going up nicknamed “Bar Codes.” There is a building cap restricting how high buildings can be built, like in Boulder. There is a thirty-two floor hotel (the Radisson Blu) which is the tallest building in Norway and in Scandinavia.
-Oslo offers lots of public transportation such as buses, trams, and trains.
-There is a cathedral dating back from 17th century, which is in the main square of the city.
-Oslo is a large port city with lots of commercial and private ships. The harbor areas reminded me a lot of Sydney, Australia, as both cities have a great deal of ships, culture, and nightlife along the water.
-Oslo city is organized on a 90 degree grid.
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Royal Palace is home to the King and Queen of Norway and is very close to the city center of Oslo. When the flag is up, as is shown above, it signifies that the king is in.
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Norway has a very sporty culture. Norway hosted the Winter Olympic games in Lillehammer in 1994. I remember this Olympic games vividly, watching Ukrainian Oksana Baiul win gold in the Women’s figure skating competition and United States’ Nancy Kerrigan win silver, after sustaining a terrible leg injury when she was attacked months before.
Information from our tour of the beautiful city of Oslo:
The Oslo Opera House
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The Vigeland Sculpture Park
Gustav Vigeland, is an incredibly famous Norwegian sculpture who created the two hundred plus, life size sculptures in the Vigeland Sculpture Park. Gustav Vigeland modeled all of his sculptures in full size without any assistance of pupils or other artists. Vigeland also designed the architectural setting and the layout of the grounds within the park and the lawns and walking paths, lined with maple trees. The Vigeland Sculpture park is one of the most popular places where people meet in Oslo.
Vigeland’s sculptures depict the “cycle of life” and are single statues of all ages, as well as men and women together, a man and a baby, and a woman and a baby. All the sculptures are unnamed on purpose; Vigeland felt that art must be interpreted by the viewer to make meaning.
Click here for more information about the Vigeland Sculpture Park
The Fram Ship Museum
The Fram Ship Museum houses the polar ship Fram, the first ship specially built in Norway for polar research. The Fram is the only ship to travel to both the North and South Poles (during the 1800’s and1900’s). It was incredible to walk around on levels of the ship and begin to imagine what life might have been like traveling on board this ship.
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