Not a good start to the rest of the day when I found out the Viking museum was permanently closed as they are building a new one due to open in 2026🤬. Was really looking forward to visiting this and seeing the original Viking boats on display. We caught the red hop on hop off bus and went straight to the Vigeland Sculpture Park. This is a beautiful parkland full of hundreds of sculptures by renowned Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland.
A must see while in Oslo and a great relaxing park to walk around as over 200 hectares of park and garden. From here it was back on the bus and next stop the Maritime museum on the Bogdoy peninsula. There are three museums grouped together and we got tickets to the Maritime and Fram museums skipping the Kon-Tiki as this has never interested either of us and we only had limited time. ( It is apparently very good from others reports).
The Maritime museum was extremely interesting and gave a great outline of Nordic history and it's close relationship to the sea. The BEST thing was they had temporarily moved one of the small Viking boats to this museum whilst the Viking museum was closed , so I got to see one anyway, brilliant.
They way the Norse moved on from dugout canoes over a couple of centuries to these ships was fascinating. We stopped for coffee and a nice chicken roll for lunch here before visiting the Fram museum. This was the name of the expedition vessel that Amundsen sailed on his historic trip to the reach the South Pole before Scott. Absolutely brilliant exhibition and the actual vessel 'Fram' was inside and you could walk throughout the ship which was decked out as it was for the three year (yes 3 years) journey. Spent much longer here than expected and eventually made ourselves leave as there were other things to do and only so many hours in the day.
Back onto the red bus and next stop was the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Amazing architecture and we walked all over the marble covered roof to the top for a great view of the city. Inside is just as impressive with timber slats throughout. Popped into the library for a coffee and cake before heading to the Munch gallery. Another impressive building and this time housing a large collection of Munch's work that he donated to the city, including The Scream, all three versions; pastel and crayon 1893, lithograph 1895 and painting 1910, something I was unaware of. There were three floors dedicated to his work and another to temporary exhibitions by other artists which we didn't bother looking at due to time constraints. We did a little rubbing (Frottage, thanks Merody) and by the end it was almost 5pm so we headed to the nearest bus stop and made our way back to the hotel.
We dropped our gear off in the room and headed out for some dinner seeing as it was Jane's birthday. Nothing special for dinner, crab roll for Jane and burger for me with wine for Jane and a local beer for me. We then went for walk around a part of the city and headed towards The Royal Palace built in 1825 and still the main residence. The guards on the outside were resplendent in their traditional uniforms and the Queen's gardens which surround the palace are open to walk around. Extremely low security and excellent access compared to Britain's royal palaces.
We finally gave in on sunset and made our way back to the hotel where we concluded with a drink each in the hotel lounge. Another busy and rewarding day in a beautiful city that way exceeded my expectations. Now for sleep and ready for the approx hour train trip to Voss tomorrow on what is considered one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world.
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