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.
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Oslo 3/3
One of the things that really struck me in Oslo was the shear volume of (re)development that was occuring - and not just around the Opera House, but to the West beyond the Royal Palace, and just in front of my hotel, the Government Plaza has also been under a long process of development since before the tragedy in 2011. There is also a new National Museum slated for opening in 2020, that is being constructed right next to the Nobel Peace Centre. It could just be that Oslo Sentrum/Centre is so compact (not much wider than the distance from Kent Uni to UCA iirc), that it has simply condensed the appearance of development. Granted, Oslo also has *many* districts, and I only wandered around maybe 3?
Vigeland Park is (in/near) the Majorstruen district (and for whatever particular reason, my inner voice goes full Geordie when saying Majorstruen); and it is named after a prolific sculptor - Gustav Vigeland - who signed a contract with Oslo municipality to provide him a studio, apartment & future museum; and in return the city would be provided almost all his works, past, current & future. Vigeland park was a major undertaking and was never completely finished (several planned gates are missing for instance), but the three key items were finished - the Wheel of Life, the Monolith & the Fountain.
Another structure I visited was the Villa Stenersen - one of the so called “Iconic Houses” (such as Villa Savoye”) that mark a key piece of international domestic architectural heritage. Unfortunately, I was unable to go inside as it is only open on Sundays (someone forgot to check ahead… *ahem*, whoops).
Ultimately, I ended up doing a long loop around from Vigeland Park, through the suburbs of Vinderen to Blindern & Oslo University (which I wanted to mosey around due to it being the location of a film I’ve seen - ‘Thelma’, as well as a friend’s old haunt), then hitched on the metro back through Majorstruen to Sentrum. That was a hot day.
I think I preferred Oslo to Copenhagen, but I would like to go back to both cities, although next time I think I’d prefer not to go alone. Visiting new places by yourself is a *lot* of fun, and I’ll still love to do so, but we’ll see ^_^.
Oslo 2/3
One of the other new developments I visited whilst in Oslo was the Snøhetta-designed Oslo Opera House, which itself is one of two cornerstones of redevelopment in that area - the other being the so-called ‘Barcode’ development of city offices that house prominent international businesses such as pwc & Deloitte (amongst others).
The lines & views of the Opera House lead to quite a few attempts at some playful photography. I’ll let you be the judge of how successful that has been.
Oslo 1/3
After a train cancellation nearly threw my entire travel plans off (I ended up getting to Oslo 4hrs later than planned), I was grateful that I even made it to the hotel on the Saturday. On the flip side, I did manage to spend a couple of hours wondering around Gothenburg - and popped into their Botanic Gardens for some shade. The train & bus ride up from Gothenburg to Oslo was rather lovely (and unsurprisingly) reminded me of Scotland in parts.
The first visit was to Oslo City Hall - designed by Arnstein Arneberg & Magnus Poulsson via competition awarded in 1918; and construction started in 1930 but was finished after WW2 in 1950. The interior felt almost mythical, with large murals and gorgeous stonework.
After wandering through City Hall, I walked over to Akershus Fort, and popped into the Resistance Museum which was thoroughly interesting - learning even more about Norway under occupation during WW2. A couple of pieces I already knew about - such as the Shetland Bus & the sabotage operation(s) against the heavy water plant (Operation Gunnerside). However, learning who Quisling was, along with how governments-in-exile operate and day-to-day survival in occupied Norway was very educational.
Following this, I headed back to the opposite side of the quay to Aker Brygge - a new development with the Astrup Fearnley Collection Gallery designed by Renzo Piano. Like a lot of modern gentrification & redevelopment projects, I was underwhelmed. I enjoyed elements of the Astrup Fearnley structure - such as the shadowplay within the courtyard, the gallery spaces themselves and at least one of the methods of rainwater collection designed into the roof.