Oslo, Norway July 25, 2023

Beautiful docking spot right in the heart of Oslo cultural center.  From the ship we could see the Opera House and Munch Museum as well as the Oslo skyline.  We did have a planned tour today which took us to 

1. Oslo City Hall (built 1931 to 1950) where they award the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 (Nobel's birthday) each year.

2. Frogner Park - a large park located a few minutes' walk away from the city centre. This is the biggest and best-known park in Norway, with a large collection of sculptures by Gustav Vigeland.

3. Holmenkollen ski jump -  the area has been a ski recreation area since the late 19th century, with its famous ski jumping hill, the Holmenkollbakken, hosting competitions since 1892.  The jump itself was rebuilt in again for the 2011 World Championships.

Oslo City Hall

The exterior is of oversized red brick and Norwegian marble and decorated by many artist, but I particularly like the colorful wooden bas reliefs depicting old Norse legends.  Brick, marble, wood all to gether - what's not to like?  There is also a very large astrological clock that they are very proud of as well as carillion towers that sound bells every 15  minutes.

Inside of City is the great hall where many events occur but I like to picture the Nobel Peace prize being awarded here:

Outside in the back of City Hall are beautiful serene colorful flower beds

Frogner Park with sculpture installations by Vigeland

Pictures will walk you down the a (1) bridge with Vigeland's "Angry Boy" towards a (2) fountain and then the (3) monolith (36 figures depicting the circle of life all out of one piece of norwegian granite).  The final item is the (4) Wheel of Life stone sculpture, carved 1933–1934. The wheel depicts four adults, a child and a baby (the baby and child are on opposite sides)

The Vigeland Museum, located in Frogner Park where the artist Gustav Vigeland lived and worked for nearly two decades. It is the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist, and is one of Norway's most popular tourist attractions.  Most of the sculptures are placed in five units along an 850 meter long axis: The Main gate, the Bridge with the Children's playground, the Fountain, the Monolith plateau and the Wheel of Life.

Long view of the bridge, waterfall and Obelisk (way in the background)

Aerial View of Frogner Park and the Vigeland installation

The bus dropped us off at one gate and picked us up at the other far end

Bridge with Children's playground

Fun sculptural details on the bridge:

Crying boy

Child playing on parent's back

Fountain details: showing volume of water flowing over the bowl

Some detailed sculpture around the fountain 

Views looking back and forth between the monolith

Details around and of the monolith

Got a big laugh out of these two children...brought back some memories

Holmenkollen ski jump

The hill has been rebuilt 19 times; important upgrades include a stone take-off in 1910, an in-run superstructure in 1914, and a new superstructure in 1928. During the Second World War, the venue was used as a military installation, but upgraded in the late 1940s. Further expansions were made ahead of the 1966 and 1982 World Championships, as well as in 1991. Between 2008 and 2010, the entire structure was demolished and rebuilt. 

To help give you some perspective of size...look for the person walking up the stairs in the bottom left of the picture (no, not Bob).  This ski jump was impressively huge.

Okay, okay, I'll help you find the person...

After this tour we took the afternoon to explore the new opera house all in Norwegian granite and to explore the Munch Museum (turns out it was necessary to purchase timed entrance tickets and the next available time was 4:30.  Next visit we will remember this.)

Opera House - explored the exterior and interior of this fantastic building

The exterior is completely of white marble irregularly stepped up and sloped to help you get to the top for the views of the fjord and city skyline.  Both of which were awe inspiring.

 

Views from the top

I was fascinated by the monochromatic skyline that was accented by varied directions and textures of the windows.  Apparently these are known as he Barcode buildings.  The buildings were described as a geometric system of volumes based on penetrating strips of empty space.

Clouds reflected in the upper windows as well as the support beams inside of the building made for a really fun picture

Inside was as interesting as the all marble outside

Munch Museum

Interesting architecture around the wharf

From the top of the Opera House you have a wonderful view of Oslo....loved the textures created by the windows and uniformity of the neutral colors.

Walking the downtown...the white building with the irregular windows was Deloitte Building, one of the Barcode Project in Oslo, Norway.

Mirror sailboat sculpture in the middle of the cruise ship docking area probably part of the Opera House installation