Two days in the city of the fjord!
FRIDAY
6:00 p.m. Tall buildings with a daring architecture, which breaks with the image of low and sober apartments that we have of the cities of northern Europe, and which are liked, precisely because of the unexpectedness and difference of each one of them, is the first thing that the traveler perceives on your train journey from the airport to Oslo Central Station. After that, he awaits the city in which to enter through its main artery, the Karl Johans Gate, a pedestrian street of just over a kilometer that connects the station with a Royal Palace Simple and not over the top situated on a small hill.
On your way to it, you will pass by ** the cathedral, the Parliament, the Grand Hotel **, where the Nobel Peace Prize laureate stays every year and in whose café Henrik Ibsen used to drink his coffee every morning. You will also walk alongside the Spikersuppa Pond, which freezes over in winter to become the city's busiest ice rink ; You will leave the National Theater on your left and the University on your right. pass it slowly, take your time to contemplate the buildings that flank it (some are among the oldest in the city) and see how the city breathes through one of the most lively avenues.
Karl Johans Gate, the central axis of the city
9:00 p.m. For dinner, we pull a classic in town. The ** Café Christiania ** _(Nedre Vollgate, 19) _, with 25 years of life behind it, is one of the essential restaurants in Oslo for a first contact with Norwegian gastronomy. In addition, being located a few meters from the Parliament, it is a frequent meeting place for those who move the political strings in the country. Recommendations? The fish soup, the entrecôte and, if you go at Christmas, the Christmas Plate. And pay attention to its decoration: its elegant classical architecture is completely overshadowed by the owner's admirable collection of antique doll heads and vintage advertising posters, which are displayed throughout the establishment. Fascinating as well as disturbing.
SATURDAY
09:00 a.m. . We wake up in the central ** First Hotel Grims Grenka ** _(Kongens Gate, 5) _, a few meters from Karl Johans Gate. This establishment, with a sophisticated design and **spacious rooms (more than 20 square meters each)**, is a regular in the leisure of the Norwegian capital. The reason? When the good weather arrives, on the top floor, opens to the public one of the few high-rise terraces in the city: the Q Lounge Rooftop Bar. If it is not the time for roof bars when you visit Oslo, but you are staying at the hotel, you can always peek out and enjoy the views that stretch out at your feet.
for breakfast, we opted for its copious buffet, in which, in addition to pastries, breads, fruits and other delicacies that characterize the early hours of the morning in many hotels, you can try Brunost, a Norwegian brown cheese with a sweet flavor. Deliciously shocking!
One of the few roof bars in the city
10:30 a.m. To the Frognerparken, better known as ** Vigeland Park ** (that place capable of gathering outdoors more than 200 sculptures ) , is reached after a 15-minute ride on bus 20 or tram 12. Located in the western part of the city, in the Frogner neighbourhood, the park is the life's work of sculptor Gustav Vigeland, who was also in charge of its design and architecture. Although the park is huge, most of the sculptures are concentrated on a vertical axis of about 850 meters. Don't settle for the Bridge. Take as many photos as you want, look for the Sinnataggen, the famous angry boy that appears on many of Norway's postcards. Then go ahead and get to the fountain of the titans , who reflect the arduous task of bearing the weight of life, and continues to the Monolith . you will find yourself before 121 figures carved from a single block of rock over 17 meters high, in which the desire and longing of man for the divine and the spiritual are shown. Made of wrought iron, bronze or granite, all the sculptures in the park represent men, women and children, and aim to make the visitor reflect on the different stages of life through which the human being passes.
Over 200 outdoor sculptures in Vigeland Park
12:00 p.m. Back in the city center, we stroll through the **Akershus Fortress**. With him City hall , form one of the most characteristic images of the city's skyline. It was built 700 years ago and for a while life in Oslo was organized around it. Going through its doors, we enter a place where walk contemplating the entrance of the fjord. You will notice how history surrounds you, especially as it relates to World War II. And it is that inside, in addition to the castle that houses the royal mausoleum and in which the Government continues to organize many of its official acts, you can visit the Museum of the Resistance and contemplate the National Monument in honor of those who fell in the war . It can boast of never having been conquered by any military force!
No military force ever conquered this fortress
1:00 p.m. On the banks of the fjord and next to the Central Station, is the architectural right eye of the city. The construction that makes its inhabitants bust out and that is becoming the new icon of Oslo. At 38,500 m2, the Opera House is the largest building in Norway . The Operahuset is the headquarters of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, which until its opening in 2008 did not have one. Signed by the Norwegian architects studio Snøhetta we could talk about a building-sculpture of which the possibility of going up to its roof and walking around it to discover a different perspective of the fjord is especially attractive. From Monday to Friday and on Sundays at 1:00 p.m. they organize guided tours in english in which they will explain to you, for example, that the opera house has three rooms with capacity for around 2,000 spectators, that it permanently employs around 600 people and the wonders they have done with technology and design to guarantee the best circulation possible from the sound. They will also show you what is going on behind the scenes, if you are lucky you will be able to watch some rehearsal **and you will enter the sewing workshop with the tailors in action and the suits at your fingertips (note, they do not touch ) **. Keep your eyes open in the backstage area and pay attention to the last touches and movements of sets.
2:00 p.m. The restaurant Rorbua _(Stranden, 71) _ welcomes us on the banks of the fjord in the thriving neighborhood of Aker Brygge, where shops, cafes and pubs proliferate, concentrating the city's leisure offer, especially in the summer months. Decorated based on wood, with a fireplace included, and with photos of the fishing area of the Lofoten Islands, his dishes take us directly to northern Norway based on classics such as smoked cod or reindeer meat.
The Opera, the architectural right eye of the city
3:30 p.m. . Ibsen hated and loved Norway as much as the Norwegians loved and hated him. He aroused in people exactly the same mixed feelings that he had towards them. Visit the Ibsen-Museum is to delve into the eccentric personality of the most international author that the Nordic country has given. First, through a small exhibition with which to discover his complete work and approach his character. Later, with a guided tour, and here comes the most interesting, for the apartment in which Ibsen lived for the last 11 years of his life , when he returned to Oslo after spending 27 years between Italy and Germany. The apartment, which after the death of the writer and his wife Suzannah was not acquired by the State, could be preserved as it was in Ibsen's lifetime Thanks to the work of his son who, anticipating the fame that his father's figure would acquire, kept all the furniture in the house.
Recreation of Ibsen's study
5:00 p.m. Colorful houses, street markets and street art level. Grünerløkka is Oslo's hipster neighborhood , an area once reserved for students who decided to leave once they were preparing to start a family, but who have now changed their minds and choose to stay, helping to give a twist to this area of the city that is also beginning to fill with kids. And that can be seen in its sidewalks that are increasingly full of toy stores, the authentic ones that distance themselves from the big commercial chains, and that compete for prominence with cafes, pubs and second-hand shops, those that already existed before vintage became a fashion and not a lifestyle , as it is in these establishments. Rejoice in its streets, lose yourself aimlessly and, yes, at a given moment, approach the akerselva river , whose banks are full of old factories converted into shops, restaurants and cafes.
Grünerløkka: there is a hipster neighborhood in the city!
8:00 p.m. Norway aspires to make gastronomy its new oil, and the ** Mathallen Oslo ** market, in the center of Grünerløkka, is a good place to get in touch with the gastronomic scene of the country and try to understand how this process is going. Among its stalls you will find international options such as our tapas, the ever-present Italian cuisine, Mexican or Asian proposals. But we have come to 'eat the country', so you can choose to a tasting menu (from 20 euros) made up of different cheeses, sausages, salmon, pork ribs, herring and bread with ginger liqueur and blue cheese. Another option in the area, faster but equally tasty, is to take our steps at ** Munchies ** _(Thorvald Meyers Gate, 36A) _. The mere mention of his name among the inhabitants of the Norwegian capital makes burger lovers salivate. In the establishment they confirm it to us. "It's the best place to have hamburgers," one of the waiters tells us about him. Their specialty, **the Munchies (with blue cheese, bacon and caramelized onions)**, will more than likely make it onto your list of the best burgers you've tried to date.
The famous (in town) Munchies
11:00 p.m. Leisure in Oslo, whatever its type and for all tastes, has its own name: ** Kulturhuset ** _(Youngstorget, 3) _. Burn it on fire. It is the place to be, a multidisciplinary space that fulfills what this adjective, so inflated lately, promises. Its different environments make it the place to go have a drink, take salsa classes, listen to a political debate, get lost among the stalls of a second-hand market, watch a movie, swing dance, drink an AEgir IPA or dare to play shuffleboard.
SUNDAY
11:00 a.m. . On Sundays in Oslo they wake up with art, with which it treasures its National Museum, where you can admire the work of the most representative Norwegian artists, among which you could not miss Edward Munch. It will be here where you can contemplate its mythical The Scream, surrounded by other essentials of his work such as The Madonna, Sick Child either girls on the bridge . Give yourself the time you need in the room dedicated to the genius of Norwegian painting, but don't overlook the sculptures and canvases in the rest of the museum.
"The Scream" by Munch
1:00 p.m. Our last visit (for now) in the city directs our steps to the ** Nobel Peace Center .** Located in Akker Bryge, the center occupies what was once a train station and inside one can learn a little more about the person of Alfred Nobel, literally walk among the different winners of the award in a dark room, where a path makes its way between small lights dotted with interactive screens that show the image and history of the winners; and visit temporary and permanent exhibitions related to the Nobel Peace Prize, the only one awarded outside of Stockholm.
2:30 p.m. Eat in Louise , it's almost like doing it on a Norwegian fishing boat. In addition to being a restaurant, it is a museum in itself since its owner has spent years collecting objects related to the sea that decorate the walls of the huge premises . On your tour of its interior you will be able to see everything from ship models to boat engines, as well as fishing nets that wrap practically everything. An authentic immersion in the world of the sea that is complete if you do not leave without trying its specialty: the fish soup, with prawns, salmon, cod and mussels.
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Stroll among Nobel Peace Prize