Dates: 28 December 2011 – 1 January 2012.
Having been in Edinburgh and Dublin for New Year’s Eve in previous years, we really fancied taking things up a notch and I personally had always enjoyed trips to Scandinavia, so Norway would “complete the set” as it were.
We flew fairly late in the day and were welcomed to Norway by a cold a soggy Oslo evening.
And a tiger outside Oslo central station:
After dropping our gear off at the hotel we took a look around:
Olav Thon is Norway’s richest man:
Stortinget, the Norwegian Parliament:
I dread to think what happened in this pub for this sign to be necessary:
Difficult to miss the Ruter help centre:
For our first morning in Oslo we headed west out of the centre to the Bygdøy peninsular, home to several museums and plenty of green space.
The Norsk Folkemuseum, an open-air museum demonstrating the Norwegian way of life thoughout the centuries:
I want that Beetle:
A whole “old town” has been constructed:
Despite the fascinating buildings and artefacts on show, I think my favourite part was witnessing, for the first ever time, a real-life woodpecker in action!
From outdoor history to indoor history, next was the Viking Ship Museum:
The view out to the islets south of Bygdøy:
The entrance to the Kon-Tiki Museum:
At around 14.00 the sun was already beginning to set:
Oslo city centre in the background:
The Fram Museum, featuring the Fram, the strongest wooden polar ship, dating from 1893:
To cap-off the museum-crawl we visited the Kon-Tiki Musuem that documents ocean-going wooden rafts:
We headed back to the city centre for dinner and found Skule Waksvik’s seal sculpture:
Liz gives Norwegian actress and comedian Aud Schønemann a hug:
The Klingenberg Cinema disappears into the night sky:
The eerie face of the clocktower in the Aker Brygge area by the harbour:
It was too cold for us to eat al fresco, but not for everyone:
The following day we headed back to the harbour area to see what it looks like in daylight. Unlike the previous day, it was sunny, clear and crisp.
Rådhuset (City Hall):
Akershus Fortress:
Another fantastic vista as we made our way to the opera house:
The “She Lies” sculpture floating in the Oslofjord with the opera house behind:
Oslo Opera House:
You can actually climb the slopes to the top…so we did!:
Views from the top:
Hmm…
Next we jumped on a train and headed north to find the Holmenkollen Ski Museum and ski jump.
Winter sun:
Islets in the Oslofjord:
We had to walk the last couple of hundred meters to reach the jump:
Too beautiful to be just a hotel:
Don’t look down:
That low winter sun again:
And those islets again:
We headed back to the city centre before the light faded completely.
Stortinget in the daylight:
The national theatre at dusk:
The royal palace in Slottsparken with King Karl Johan of Sweden and Norway out front:
We began New Year’s Eve with a stroll to the Akershus Fortress before heading to the Vigelandsparken.
En route:
Ski jump in the distance:
Another crisp day:
Though the light quality seemed to be ever-changing:
That low winter sun made for some atmospheric shots:
Akershus Fortress:
Vigelandsparken (Vigeland Park) is an open space dedicated to Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland:
Look, it was cold…:
So cool:
Beautiful:
Arty:
The park contains over 200 sculptures:
Curious:
After a return to the hotel and a quick change, we headed out for food, drink and Norwegian merriment.
The fireworks appeared to be a mix of an organised display in combination with locals randomly letting their own off and worryingly shallow angles!
It was pretty cool being in and around the crowd though:
Maybe a bit tipsy:
After seeing the new year in we returned to the hotel to get some tips on somewhere to get greasy food, and then headed back out to find it.
As we were walking, two merry-looking guys approached us, singing and wishing us a happy new year. They seemed friendly enough and insisted we link arms and dance with them…
However, I felt a hand go to my back pocket and my wallet be taken. Thankfully, I quickly grabbed the guy’s arm and Liz spotted was was going on and intercepted the hand-off of the wallet to the other guy. It was all very surreal.
Liz and I backed-away as I shouted at them to stay away. They seemed shocked and quickly disappeared. All the guidebooks warn of pick-pocketers, usually in touristy and/or crowded areas, but I felt very surprised to be a victim of such an attempt in Oslo of all places.
We found a place to sit and eat, and we both recounted the episode to each other. Both surprised but relieved. I was annoyed with myself for what I thought was naivety, but in truth it was probably a timely reminder of the need to be vigilant at all times.
When we ventured out on New Year’s Day we found Oslo had received a dusting of snow to go with its collective hangover.
Karl Johan’s gate, Oslo’s main thoroughfare, with the Royal Palace is the far distance:
Nose competition:
Once last snap of the Norwegian Parliament:
Oslo was a great choice for a shorty city break for New Year’s Eve. It’s a compact and navigable city with plenty of green space and cool water vistas. Ideally, we should have gone for longer and perhaps incorporated a day or two in Bergen, but we’ll have to leave that for a future date. The merriment of NYE was different to anything I’ve experienced before and more than made up for issues experienced later that evening.
Notes From The Road 