31 August 2023

Today was a perfect day to conquer something! The sun was shining, the breeze was cooling and the mind and body were now willing. (The Sudafed is beginning to actually work!)

The plan was to conquer the streets of Oslo. By bike. We were going Viking Cycling!! And we were gonna look something like this….

Our ride didn’t start til 10 am, so after sleeping “the sleep of the dead“, we found a coffee to kick start the day (Coffee rating 7/10 surprisingly), and headed back down to the harbour to explore a little more.

We headed around and through the foyer of the Opera House again. The sloping roof allows everyone to walk all over it. ( A bit like our Parliament House, except there’s no grass, no security and no fence!)

We found this wonderful lady out on the end of a pier. She’s called The Mother and is inspired by Edvard Munch’s mother, Laura.

Further around the harbour we came across these cute little floating saunas but were not tempted to give it a go. It’s still warm here but I’m sure they do a roaring trade as the weather cools .

But Vikings don’t sauna, they cycle! We swapped to regular helmets (recommended but not compulsory) as Grahame didn’t want to give the enemy advance warning of our intent to plunder. And also, he only suffered the the indignity of wearing a bike helmet with wonky horns, to get the photo and to shut me up! ( “Happy wife, happy life”, and all that ).

Conveniently , the tour was conducted in English, despite only four of us being actual native English speakers.

We dominated the roads and cycleways as cars slowed or even stopped to let us through. A few times I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. And it worked. We felt incredibly safe, unlike when we take to the road at home.

We headed back to Akershus Fortress for a quick look around and a bit of a chat about “ Allemanstretten”.

“Allemannsretten (meaning “everyman’s right”) is a law that allows everyone to roam free on uncultivated land in Norway. In a practical sense, this means that you are free to responsibly hike, camp and enjoy the fresh air in forests, mountains, and coastal areas, which make up the majority of Norwegian nature. ( Thanks Google)

But our Little Viking Queen took advantage of this law and brazenly marched us past the guards at the entrance to the Fort. After all it is Allemannstretren! Even though, technically we weren’t on uncultivated land. But we were Vikings!!!

We cycled to the Parliament Building,the City Hall ( where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded) The building itself looks pretty ordinary to my uncultured eye, but what do I know about architecture?

As we all know, one should never judge a book by its cover and that apparently stands true here. We presented ourselves at the front door in order to view what we were told were magnificent murals filling the main hall. They would more than make up for the drab exterior. CLOSED TODAY- Special event.

But had we entered….. ( sigh!)

We had to be content with viewing the beautiful wood carved freezes on the side walls leading to the main door.

The Royal Palace was just up the road, so off we cycled to watch someone important either arrive or leave. But we got sick of standing around doing nothing and left, unlike those poor soldiers who had to stand at attention for ages.

Now, everyday has to have a highlight and our next stop was it, so far at least.

We cycled through the embassy district and ended up at Vigeland Sculpture Park. Omg!!! No words!!

Amazing!!!!

We cycled back towards our starting point via some pretty cool and newly repurposed and renovated wharf areas ( think Honeysuckle) before saying our farewell to Stina and our other Cycling Vikings. We absolutely loved the experience. And look forward to the next time we cycle tour through a new city!

So, apparently today was a „two highlight day“. After a busy morning , we thought it might be a good idea to take it a bit easier and perhaps an art gallery might be the best option Off to the Munch museum we went.

There are several versions of The Scream and the gallery owns three, which they rotate on display every half hour, in order to preserve them.

We were lucky to see these two….

Having made it all the way to the top of the gallery, we took in the Birds Eye view of the new developments nearby.

Ok, so maybe there were three highlights today.

We went for a hike up a local hill. We walked up through the forest, on well worn paths. The Norwegians obviously love their hiking, but they obviously love their sculptures too. Scattered throughout the trees, we came across several just sitting there waiting to be discovered.

We did however have a reason for this hike. We were looking for, and found the exact spot where experts say Munch was when he got the inspiration for The Scream.

According to Google „Munch recalled that he had been out for a walk at sunset when suddenly the setting sun’s light turned the clouds “a blood red“ He sensed an “infinite scream passing through nature”.

Three highlights are enough for one day.