The ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo is considered a mini cruise. The ferry leaves at 3pm and pulls into Oslo at 10am the next morning. We got there about 15 minutes before they began boarding; so we decided to wait and board early. Our lovely spacious rooms were ready when we boarded.
On board there are a few restaurants, the duty-free shop, 2 pools, and few bar/lounges. They offer entertainment in a couple of the lounges. It was a nice relaxing way to travel overnight from Copenhagen to Oslo.
We arrived in Oslo to rain. Our plan was to visit a couple museum anyway as they were a bit out of the center of Oslo. Plus we had time before checking into the hotel that afternoon.
We started at the Kon-Tiki Museum. I had been interested in seeing this one. Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl and his crew took a raft made of balsa logs and bamboo from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands in 1947. They drifted 4,300 miles. He wanted to prove it was possible that ancient people could have made such a journey.
Thor also sailed a papyrus reed boat in 1970, the Ra II, from the west coast of Africa to Barbados. Again he was trying to prove that ancient people could have been in contact over great distances.
We also did the Maritime and Fram museums. They were all in close proximity to one another. The Fram Museum is about Norway’s polar expeditions. It was interesting, but there was a lot of information, and we suffered from museum overload.
So got to the hotel and checked-in. It was still raining, but we decided to brave the elements and check-out some of the city center. We walked along the harbor to the Ankershus Fortress.
Then it was on to the Oslo Opera House to walk the roof. The architect designed the opera house to look as though it was rising from the water and to invite people to walk on the roof and enjoy the city views. After that we’d had enough of the rain and called it a night.
The next morning, we were off again to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump. It was the site for the 1952 Olympics and has hosted a number of World Cup Ski Jumping competitions. We toured the newly renovated Ski Museum and took the elevator to the top of the tower. (Well, at least Kendall and I did.)
Will stayed at the bottom, but enjoyed watching some of the biathlon athletes do their summer training. They use roller skis on a 10km track and have targets to practice the shooting portion as well.
Then it was on to the town of Flå. It was a good stop for lunch and got a quick photo op of the troll statue in town.
Our next stop was in Gol to see a replica stave church. Stave church gets its name from the ore-pine posts used as part of the construction. The stave principle is vertical wall panels with beams above and below and with corner pillars at each end. The original Gol stave church was moved to the folk museum in Oslo. So, the one currently in Gol was a reproduction done in 1994, but it was still kind of cool to see. The “amusement park” where the church is at is a little creepy. Especially creepy in the rain with no one else there. The bathrooms and showers seemed newly built so maybe they are trying to bring the place back to life.
The rain continued as we drove onto Geilo our home for the night. We just hunkered down for the night as the rain was coming down harder.