Around Scandinavia: Part Six

In which I explored the capital city of Norway

28.05.2025: Tour Day2, Country2, City1

Norway occupies western half of the Scandinavian Peninsula. With the Barents Sea to the north, the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea to the west, and Skagerrak Strait to the south, Norway has land borders only to the east—with Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Dominated by mountains, glaciers, and over 50,000 islands along a deeply indented coastline carved by fjords. Norway’s fjords are among the most iconic and breathtaking landscapes on Earth—deep, glacially carved inlets flanked by towering cliffs, cascading waterfalls, and serene waters.

Welcome to Oslo! Vihar introduced us to Yomi, our tour guide for the day. Oslo is the capital and largest city of Norway, nestled at the head of the Oslofjord in the southeastern part of the country. Main sightseeing places for the day were the Fram Museum, Ski Museum and the Sculpture Park. We had a mini city orientation tour in which we watched a few places sitting in the bus. Yomi elaborated about Norway and Oslo. We had a photo stop at the Opera House at 10:45am. 

It is the home of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Everyone got busy in clicking photos with the waterfront background. Some did walk to the rooftop to watch the amazing view. The Deichman Bjørvika library is opposite to the opera house. 

There is Munch Museum and a Ferris wheel adjacent to the opera house. “She Lies” is a 3D sculpture by Italian artist Monica Bonvicini, permanently installed in the Oslofjord, just off the shore of the opera house. 

It’s a shimmering, rotating structure made of stainless steel and glass panels, designed to resemble a floating iceberg.

We drove through the waterfront, yachts parked all over. We pass by “The Kings Farm” located on the Bygdøy peninsula. 

We further drove through the traditional Norwegian houses, with dense green hedge and white picket fence line, dark and tiled sloping roofs. 

The Bygdøy peninsula is an epicentre for museums like:

Kon-Tiki Museum: experience original vessels and up-to-date exhibits on Heyerdahl’s expeditions, including Kon-Tiki, Ra, Tigris, Easter Island, Fatu-Hiva, Tùcume, Galapagos, a 30-metre cave tour, an underwater exhibit with a 10-metre model of a whale shark.

Norwegian Maritime Museum: presents Norwegian maritime history, shipbuilding and underwater technology. 

Norsk Folke Museum: shows how people have been living in Norway since the 16th century. In the open-air museum, you’ll find 160 historic buildings situated in beautiful surroundings.

Vikings Museum: under renovation. It houses three Viking era burial ships that were found as part of archaeological finds from Tune, Gokstad (Sandefjord), Oseberg (Tønsberg).

Fram museum: Learn more about the polar expeditions and see the original ship. Our itinerary covered only this museum. We reached there at 11:45am, tickets were scanned and had an hour to explore. More on this in next post.