Weekend in Oslo

Oslo Opera House

As this was our first visit to Oslo we decided to spend a couple of days here at the end of the trip, have a look around and take the stress out of travelling. We were both really tired so it was nice to have some chill time.

Vania had recommended a restaurant near the central railway station, Vaaghals, so I booked that for an early dinner. We decided to stay at the airport in the Raddison Red hotel, great choice. Comfy rooms, a little warm, easy walk to the terminal and station and excellent breakfast. After checking in and freshening up we took the train into the centre. Had time to walk up and over the opera house (very futuristic design ), steep slopes and it would be good to have looked inside to see how it is set up with the tiering. The modern architecture around the docks was really cool and we both thought it looked a nice place to live.  Time to have a beer in a local bar before dinner.

 Vaaghals is a restaurant showcasing Norwegian food and is based around set sharing meals. We went for the smallest menu as Vania had said the portions were generous and glad we had as we were both really full by the end and did not need the extra cheese course. The cod main course was excellent, lovely sauce and twice baked parsnips. Also loved the dark chocolate and blackcurrant desert. unusual to have a brown cheese sauce with it but it lifted the flavours and was very effective. Nearly fell asleep on the train back! Lovely evening.

On Sunday Oslo is basically shut except for restaurants and museums / galleries. Although the sun was out there was a cool wind and neither of us fancied walking round the sculpture park or docks. We had hoped to go to the Viking Ship museum but that is being rebuilt. However, a number of artefacts are temporarily housed in the Historical Museum. We trundled up there mid morning, stopped off for a coffee and scone flavoured with orange peel, very nice. Nearly spoilt Mike’s coffee by sprinkling what I thought was coco over it but turned out to be nutmeg. Had to scrape it off the top of his cappuccino and eat it myself!

The museum was fantastic. We started with a new exhibition portraying Viking mythology, telling tales about the gods interspersed with artefacts. One of our favourites were a set of silver necklaces, the silver had been platted / coiled into intricate patterns. Apparently silver was used for payment and a store of wealth whilst gold was used as a symbol of power by the elite. One example we saw was a carved gold weathervane, initially used on Viking ships to indicate the presence of royalty and later transferred to a church. Apparently only 4 of these still exist. It was carved on both sides with different animals, all important from a mythological perspective and really impressive.

Another exhibition I really liked was the gold bullion section. The museum had a large range of gold coins from round the world dating from pre medieval ages as well as various gold medals, often awarded to polar explorers and seafarers by the Geological Society. We could get very close to the display cabinet and see the intricacy of the etching into the items. There were also information boards providing more history and context about many of the items which was really interesting.

Lastly we wandered through an exhibition where the artefacts displayed were largely from Viking graves and burial mounds found in more recent years, often discovered in various farms across Norway. We had an English booklet to guide us which was good. It explained many weapons were destroyed when buried with their owners, possibly to help them ascend into the afterlife as they were also now dead. Mike really liked a helmet, the best preserved in Norway, although in fragments (as it had also been killed) held together in modelling clay. The decorations on swords and spears were intricate. It was interesting to see how Christianity started to emerge and be represented as decoration on later objects through crosses replacing the animals of Viking culture.

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