Last week I travelled to Oslo for an extended break, and similarly to the previous visit in 2018, I was blessed with some sunny weather (but not too hot!). During this trip, I managed to squeeze in two guided tours, a trip outside Oslo to the Kistefos Museum, a visit to a couple of galleries/museums in Oslo, along with visiting new areas of Oslo itself. At this point, I would not say that I have “completed” Oslo, but I think I’d visit Bergen & Trondheim in the future if I wanted a city break in Norway. One thing I definitely noticed during the trip - I’m not sure whether its a result of post-academic fatigue or something else - but I found it far more of a struggle to get my photographer’s eye into gear, so the photos may be of a lower quality than I’ve come to expect of myself. Despite that, I have uploaded a handful to the Oslo photography page that I feel are good enough for highlighting.
Day 1
In the morning, I had a wonder down to the Aker Brygge area to start to refamiliarise myself with various parts of Oslo, and stumbled upon an area called ‘Oslo Havn’ which was a sculpted play & breakout area for all ages, including an outdoor fitness area alongside a large warehouse (that I still don’t know what is used for). This provided some decent enough photographic opportunities despite the overcast conditions on the first morning. One thing to note: e-scooters + e-bikes for hire are ubiquitous in Oslo, and there do not seem to be any rules at all regarding who uses what infrastructure. There are in some places marked, dedicated bicycle paths, but it is also apparently wholly acceptable to ride a bike on the pavement. It can get vary chaotic when its a busy point in the tourist season.
The highlight of the first day was the visit to the National Museum in Oslo, which was still under construction when I visited in 2018. From a UK perspective - imagine the Tate Modern and V&A combined, and that’ll give you a good idea of what to expect. Whilst the contemporary offerings were of interest, I found myself to be fascinated more by the collection of period landscape paintings, both urban and rural, along with a smattering of historical design work on show. By the end of the visit, I was pretty much overloaded. Personally, I would recommend splitting the visit over two to three days (feasible + cheaper using the Oslo Pass), to avoid being overloaded by the sheer breadth of art & relics on offer.
After dinner I went for another walkabout, making my way from Aker Brygge to Uranienborg (a residential district behind the Royal Palace), before looping back round to Rosenkrantz Gate. By this point, the Sun had finally broken through the clouds, and I was able to get some relatively playful shots over what I assumed to a civic facility and attached vacant sports court, adjacent to the church. As it turned out, this area happened to be Embassy row, much like Belgravia in London.
Day 2
The second day was the first of two tour days, however the cycling tour did not start until the afternoon. This gave me an opportunity to travel to Huk beach on Bygdøy - a scenic and popular area with both locals and tourists, and with beautiful views of the fjord, you can understand why. Whilst the bicycle tour didn’t take me to any particular location I wasn’t already familiar with (something I knew ahead of time), it was incredibly useful seeing Oslo from a different perspective, both for the guide’s knowledge, and from a bike’s view. Incidentally, there was a moment of mild amusement when I stumbled upon Snøhetta’s office which is in a rather nondescript warehouse next to the DFDS ferry terminal. If I was feeling particularly cheeky, perhaps I should have knocked on the door and handed a business card over, but I restrained myself!
Day 3
I had planned a trip to the Kistefos Museum & Gallery for the third day, which is located to the North of Oslo near Jevnaker, and about 1.5hrs by coach. I didn’t completely know what to expect going in - hoping for something along the lines of the Kröller-Müller near Amsterdam. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Yes, it had elements of a sculpture park, along with a new BIG designed gallery, but it also had a historic timber processing complex that had been turned into a museum, complete with a still functional dam. The area itself was rather picturesque, when the Sun finally came out, but apart from the exhibit in the new gallery, I was not particularly taken with what else was on offer.
The Twist gallery has already received write-ups in the dedicated architectural press, along with a feature in Detail magazine, which is partly what drew me to visit the area in the first place to see what all the fuss was about. From an internal massing perspective, I can completely see why this is a useful form for a gallery - you are effectively offering two distinct galleries within one flow/path. This itself provides a cool (technical expression) experience for the punter when wandering through the two sections. Allowing the fenestration to climb up around the ‘twist’ element (or curved exterior) also provides an internal signpost for the change in programme, by focusing natural light on only one side of the conjoined programme.
Structurally, the gallery is cantilevered across the river Randselva from the North bank, with a basement level acting as edifice, river view and lavatories. Whilst I’m convinced by the form of the structure in this instance, I’m not entirely convinced by the cladding. Materially, having a pale/white/grey cladding does work, in juxtaposition to the pine as well as the rocks and green tint of the river. However, when you approach, or the light catches the cladding at the wrong angle, it looks like glossy plastic, and I feel that perhaps a matte, powder-coated metal, or perhaps if you’re feeling very up-market, a pale stone cladding material, may have been a bit more pleasant. But then, aesthetics as what they are, everyone will have a different opinion, and that is fine. I’ll see if I can find the cladding specification later, and have a look into the reasons why it is how it is.
The last port of call on day three was the Hadeland Glassverk, about ten minutes North of the Kistefos Museum. I was hoping for something like the Caithness Glass Centre that I remember from my childhood trips to Perth & Thurso. Whilst there was a very interesting museum attached to the place, along with a live view into the workshop itself, it didn’t feel quite as spectacular. What it did feel like was mostly like a high-end retail outlet for domestic interior design fit-outs, which is all well and good, except to someone like me, who felt well and truly tourist trapped. The only saving grace here was that the facility was on the edge of Randsfjorden, which the Randselva flowed from (ultimately connecting to the Outer Oslofjord). I had a wander over with my camera, and just spent a half hour or more walking along the beach and scrambling along the artificial levees with the camera.
Day 4
The view over Oslofjord towards Håøya, flanked by the mainland on either side.
Left to my own devices again on day four, I got the bus down to Snarøya for around 10:00ish, as my intention was to check out the view of the fjord from this (evidently rather upscale) residential neighbourhood in the Oslo suburbs. There was a rather peaceful & magical view looking towards the peninsula from a beach adjacent Kongshavn. The water was so clear, and so blue, it honestly felt like the sky and fjord were melting into one entity. It honestly felt like the kind of place you could just kick back and relax for a while, if the beach wasn’t so rocky!
Following on from the trip to Kongshavn, I made my way by bus again to the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter - another contemporary + modern art gallery. Architecturally, the place felt really disappointing, which is why I haven’t uploaded any photos, as I didn’t take any of the exterior, and I didn’t get a good frame for any interior shots. As I mentioned to a friend - after stepping through the entrance of the gallery, it felt like I had ended up on the set of Thunderbirds. In principal that sounds fascinating, but I wasn’t so taken with it this time around. However, the exhibitions on at the time spanning the history of modern + contemporary Nordic art, including a couple of photography exhibitions and an audiovisual sculpture exhibition were all rather interesting. My largest gripe however was access to the gallery. There is a bus stop that is about a 5-10 minute walk from the gallery, however it isn’t exactly the most pleasant route to walk if I’m honest. Going to the gallery I actually got lost, getting off the bus too early, and ended up walking a good 2.5km through a couple of residential neighbourhoods, as well as past a campus. Having just looked it up, it was the campus of some kind of research & certification or think-tank type entity. I also had my first encounter with a ‘roomba’-like lawn mower. It honestly felt surreal, and that I was walking through the set for a mildly dystopian near-future TV series.
Having had enough of galleries, I made my way via bus back to central Oslo, and decided to spend the afternoon riding the metro, using the satellite view on my phone to try and find interesting areas to explore. I took a couple of different lines, popping out at Nydalen for a walk around at one point. The area around the metro had evidently been very recently redeveloped, but unfortunately the end result felt rather sterile. By this point the heat was getting to me and boredom kicked in, so I headed back to the hotel to crash for a while before jumping on the #19 tram to Ekebergparken.
The intent of the visit to Ekebergparken was two-fold - firstly to rekkie the area for somewhere to take a photo of the sunset over Oslo, and secondly if I was in the mood, to peruse some more sculptures. Having reached the park around 17:00 (sunset was around 21:55), to give me enough time to have a wonder around before dinner, I was not particularly in the mood in the end to go sculpture hunting. However, you do get a very good view across Oslo looking North & West, which suited me just fine. One element of the infrastructure of the city that I had not quite appreciated the first time I visited was that in order to fulfil the desire of a largely pedestrianised central Oslo, the through-traffic was moved underground. The third photo below shows one of the vehicular tunnel entrances, including ventilation shafts, leading out of the city centre.
Unfortunately, I could not find the “perfect” spot for a sunset photo or panorama from Ekebergparken. I strongly suspect that if I hadn’t been so hot and tired by that point, I would have made more of an effort to cover more ground and find a spot within or nearby. To say the terrain was hilly is an understatement, but that is just a fact of life you’ll get used to if you decide to vacation in or emigrate to Norway. Despite the lack of “perfect photo” opportunity, the view of the sunset was rather good, and it is evidently a popular place to view it considering the numbers of people with their cameras, or couples on dates.
Day 5
This was the last full day I had in Oslo, with the afternoon was spent on guided tour hopping across the islands barely a short ferry’s ride from Aker Brygge. These happen to be incredibly popular with the locals during the hot sunny weather we were having: beaches and trees/shade a plenty. The islands were Hovedøya, Bleikøya, Gressholmen-Rambergøya, and Lindøya. Hovedøya is (in)famous for only being inhabited by the general public since around the 60s (if memory serves), as it was inhabited by Cistercian Monks for a few centuries, then used a military outpost during the Napoleonic Wars, and commandeered by the Nazi Occupying Force as their command centre during the Second World War. The other thing to note about this islands is that they are only accessible between April & September, and the homes on them are strictly for summer inhabitation. They are generational dwellings, and if and when they do go on the open market, then can fetch upwards of one million USD. All of this information came from the guide who took us around - a very useful experience, especially for one who usually prefers solo exploration!
Dusk from Tjuvholmen in Oslo, looking South across the fjord.
One other thing to mention. At this time of year there is at least one cruise ship docking daily at Oslo’s ports, as well as the regular ferries to København, Fredrikshavn, and others. Unfortunately some of the cruise ships can be quite the blight on the view, especially the larger ones which can easily rise up above Akershus Fortress (a working military fortress, Norway’s Ministry of Defence). However, they only usually remain during the day, and set sail of an evening, so you can still get some good views later in the day, or first thing in the morning. To round the day, and the trip off, I popped back down to Tjuvholmen (adjacent to Aker Brygge) to watch the sunset from the pier, enjoying the sound of the peaceful lapping of the water, along with the gentle breeze.
Day 6
For the final morning I made my way on the metro to Holmenkollen, with the intention of getting up the ski jump to appreciate the view before I had to catch a flight. Unfortunately, time was against me, and I only managed to get a view from somewhere nearby. It was however still a good way to finish off the trip, even though the weather had evidently turned overnight. The panorama perhaps provides more of a focus on the diversity of trees than the view of Oslofjord behind, but it still provides an idea. Should I ever head back to Oslo, it would be good to get to the top of that ski jump for the view.