Full day in Oslo

 Thursday 

19 September 

Day 81

15 to go

With a good night under our belt, we woke refreshed and ready for our day of exploring. We were up for 8am, had breakfast, showered and put through the washing. Then sat and planned out where we wanted to head to. 

At 945am, we were on the paving outside and heading for Akershus Fortress, about 30min walk. It was a gorgeous day. Clear blue and crisp. It made for pleasant walking. We were surprised how quiet it was on the street. It seemed most shops were still closed and we wondered about opening hours. We asked through a shopping mall, individual stores only just starting to open. We then walked an open mall of high end fashion houses, before finally reaching our destination. 

We followed the cobbled entrance to the fortress built in the 1300’s, through the gate and noted how foggy it was over the water. We walked to a lookout for a better view over the harbour and the places we had seen from the ferry. We then continued to wander the grounds, passing canons and a rider on a horse. 

We left the fortress via the drawbridge and then continued our explore through the streets, until we reached the harbour area. The fog was still persisting, but was not to last. We took in the sauna boxes for rent and across from us, the Norwegian Opera & Ballet House.

We walked the boardwalk, before entering the Opera House forecourt. We took in the shrouded view of floating art, our ferry and a sailing ship, before venturing onto the marble clad roof of the 2007 built building. We climbed the gentle slope, taking in the views of the harbour and the various city buildings. The roof space is actually quite massive. There is plenty of room for thousands of tourists, not that we had to deal with too many today. I just needed to dodge an over friendly seagull, who came along to say hi. 

After tap dancing on the roof, we crossed the road and entered the Oslo Public library, which opened in 2020. The library is over 5 floors and is full of interesting architecture, art and fun spaces. We enjoyed taking the escalator to the top floor and then exploring the levels. This was a really cool space and was exceptionally well patronised. There were plenty of students on laptops making use of the reference material, the quiet and the free wifi. 

From here, we returned to the opera house side of the road and walked around the back to see the Munch (pronounced monk) Museum. This is dedicated to the artist Edvard Munch, who is famous for painting The Scream. We didn’t go in, just walked around and checked out the large sculpture. 

Being midday and having completed a significant amount of steps, we were in need of lunch, so we made our way to Barcode Street food, only a short walk. The food court is inside a large building, with plenty on offer. We checked all the stalls first, before making our choices and then

sitting down to enjoy. 

We opted to return to the apartment, when we were done. We crossed over the top of the central station, watching poor tourists lug heavy bags upstairs, as the lift was being worked on. We hoped we wouldn’t need to use it on Saturday. 

Once back, we settled into the lounge and watched the first game of the Hoops Fest being played at home. We are bummed we aren’t there for it, but glad we can still watch the games via YouTube. Melbourne downed Tassie in today’s tussle. 

We then ventured out again, heading for the shopping mall we had passed through this morning in search of a hand held luggage scale. We had seen a luggage store this morning and returned to it to buy what we needed. We then picked up dinner items, before walking a short distance to Oslo Street Food, another indoor food court. This time we were looking for dessert, Norwegian waffles.

The bright pink store met us as we entered the building. We made our choices and when they were served, we happily ate them. 

Not keen for a big arvo, we made our way back to the apartment for the rest of the evening. We watched some TV, cooked up our dinner and chilled on the couch, before finally retreating to bed.