Oslo, Norway - Day 1

We arrived in Oslo in the late afternoon of a long August day after driving 200 miles from Kristiansand. We drove through 41 tunnels, the last one in the heart of Oslo. Our final exit was within the tunnel, but we missed it and had to refigure our navigation. It all worked out because we landed at this lovely camping park in the heart of Oslo.

These two photos were taken from the website of formerly named Ekeberg Camping but currently called Topcamp Ekeberg. The views of the city especially at night are outstanding. The public bus stops across the street from the camping park's entrance. We conveniently purchased tickets at the camp office. 

Topcamp Ekeberg is located adjacent to the Ekeberg Sculpture Park where we cycled.

This 'statue' moves, making several variations with its two curvy wands.

I've never seen a sculpture quite like the one below.

For our first full day in Oslo, we caught the bus and tram to the harbor area and spent the morning exploring Akershus Fortress, a medieval castle conveniently located near many other places of interest in Oslo.

A self-guided tour takes a minimum of one hour to do.

We spent a few hours wandering around and learning about Norwegian history. The church below was built in the classic Scandinavian design.

The grounds afford various views of the harbor including this one below with a cruise ship parked right alongside the fortress.

And here's another  with the contrast of the ancient fortress on the left and the modern cruise ship on the right. We're getting hungry, it's time to go. 

After tramping around the fortress, we had lunch at a nearby cafe in the harbor area. The restaurant we chose had outdoor seating complete with a blanket on every chair to ward off chilly air. I had seafood chowder (yum!) complete with mussels, which I had never tried until that day. For the record, I ate two and gave the rest to Brian.

After lunch we took a metro-type train, the T-bane, to the Holmenkollen station. From there we walked to the Homenkollen Ski Jump and Museum, home of the collection of the oldest skis in the world.

Having enjoyed downhill skiing since we were children, our interest was naturally piqued by this museum. It covers four thousand years of skiing history and is located beneath a world-famous ski jump. 

We took the elevator to the platform at the top of the jump to enjoy the views. Brian was going to take the zipline down from the top, but right before his turn, they closed it due to lightning in the area. A fun field trip!

We returned to the harbor area before we made our way back to our campsite. Another view of the fortress across from a cruise ship.

Tomorrow we will come back to the harbor to explore more of Oslo.