Savvy Sightseer - tips and insights for seasoned travelers!
Indescribable Norse Views
Open invitation to walk on its roof!
Capital sits on the eastern side of Norway.
Unique island getaways dot Oslo's harbor.
Hanseatic League Home
Norway - Scandinavian Eye Candy
Norway is a gem of the Scandinavian countries - eye candy from coast to coast! It has a vibrant modern east coast capital city, Oslo, and the gateway to fjord country on its west - Bergen. Oslo's state-of-the-art opera house invites you to walk on its roof; Bergen wants you to visit its historic fish market and learn why it's been selected as a UNESCO “Creative City of Gastronomy.” In between the two cities are outstanding views of waterfalls, gorges, mountains and countryside. Explore both and more below!
Oslo: Norway's Captivating Capital City
Norway’s largest and capital city on its east coast has an inviting tag line for its state-of-the-art Opera House: “Please, walk on our roof!” That’s indicative of Norwegian philosophy overall – nature is free for everyone. And they encourage everybody to take advantage of it, at every opportunity. They consider outdoor recreation to a major part of the nation’s identity, and access to nature is protected by law, known as their “Right to Roam.” Oslo's Opera House is a prime example of this concept: the angled, white exterior looks like an extension of the harbor it borders; an iceberg rising from the water that invites visitors to climb its roof and fully enjoy panoramic views of Oslo’s beautiful surroundings. This compact city has it all: expanses of nature, world-class architecture, culture, history and art!
Click for a larger Oslo from its harbor.
Oslo celebrates its courageous explorers, from Viking seafarers to Thor Heyerdahl and his risky raft trip. It revels in being home of the Nobel Peace Center and the stunning City Hall where the prestigious award is presented. Find out what else about this city and country have landed them in the Top 10 Happiest Places in the annual World Happiness Report.
Opera House
Another motto associated with the impressive design concept: If you can climb mountains, why can’t you climb buildings?
The roof plaza routinely hosts outdoor concerts and simulcasts of operas happening inside the main theater. Up to 15,000 people have attended a single rooftop event. On Constitution Day, May 17, 2024, the Opera House plaza became a spontaneous group dance site, with tourists happily jumping in to help the locals, some in traditional dress, celebrate.
This one surrounds roof supports and serves to disguise bathrooms and small technical rooms. Adding to the continuity factor of changing texture, ice and water, its panels are illuminated both from the floor and behind, with beams of white and green light. The lights are programmed to fade in and out, creating shifting shadows and the illusion of slowly melting ice.
Another motto associated with the impressive design concept: If you can climb mountains, why can’t you climb buildings?
Bergen: Gateway to the Fjords
Click for a larger view of the fjord.
By far the best known city in Norway is its current capital, Oslo, but that wasn’t always the case. Initially it was the west coast town of Bergen that was the country’s capital and most important commercial center. It was founded in 1070 by King Olav I following the demise of Viking rule, when he declared the small trading region a city, the name of which translated to: the green meadow among the mountains. It grew to be Norway’s largest up until the mid 19th century, when that honor finally went to burgeoning Oslo.
Bergen is more lay back than Oslo, picturesque and surrounded by mountains. The compact city – only 180 sq miles – is full of colorful houses perched all along the mountainside and harbor. It’s an easily walkable city, with most sites clustered near the shore. Its relationship with the sea is most evident in its fish market; one of Norway’s most visited. Since the 1200s Bergen has been a meeting place for merchants and fishermen, and a market has existed near or on this spot for all that time. In the massive indoor setting, are fish of all kinds, fresh and colorful! Another enduring reminder of Bergen’s long linkage with merchants and its importance as a port city at the harbor side is a collection of about 60 wooden buildings called the Bryggen or wharf. These were a home base of the Hanseatic League – that was Northern Europe’s most powerful economic, political and trade group of guilds, or hanses, that began in Germany.
Given how far north Bergen is, visitors are amazed by the profusion of colorful flowers blooming everywhere. Another surprise is the plethora of street art - Bergen officials support artists and say they want the city to be “a trend-setting center of graffiti as a form of expression, in both a Norwegian and Nordic context.”
Click to open a slideshow of the Opera House.
Opened in 2008, officials say they achieved many goals with the impressive building: one was to make the roof a platform accessible to all and therefore create a new public space in the center of Oslo, which they did in more ways than just adding a building – they added usable land! The architects, who also were behind NYC’s National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion, explain: “It is built on piles in the Oslo fjord, bordering reclaimed land that extends Oslo's harbor, giving more of the city's waterfront space back to the public.” Fjord is a Norwegian word for a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland, often with steep sides or cliffs, that was created by a glacier.
Part of the Opera House project involved a large-scale environmental cleanup of the site, once a highly polluted shipyard. Today the Oslo Fjord is its cleanest in nearly 100 years, and the rooftop is an ideal overlook to take in all the surrounding beauty. Another motto associated with the impressive design concept: If you can climb mountains, why can’t you climb buildings? The roof plaza routinely hosts outdoor concerts and simulcasts of operas happening inside the main theater. Up to 15,000 people have attended a single rooftop event.
Vigeland Sculpture Park
No attraction epitomizes the country’s focus on outdoor recreation available to all than the Vigeland Outdoor Sculpture Museum, about 1 ½ miles from downtown Oslo at Frogner Park. It has become the most popular free attraction in Oslo, open 24/7, and is visited by more than one million people a year. The park features over 200 sculptures in granite, bronze and wrought iron, spread out across about 80 acres. In 1921, artist Gustav Vigeland made quite a deal with the City of Oslo: in exchange for a vast studio and home, he would donate all his works to the city. He also designed the outline of the park itself on open land adjacent to his studio. It is now the world's largest sculpture park filled with works by the same artist.
Gustav Vigeland was a prolific craftsman. His works include: 1,600 sculptures, 420 woodcuts and 12,000 drawings.
His plaster originals of the park’s sculptures were used by master artisans to bring the artworks to life. Vigeland’s vision is played out multiple ways with these creations.
Interpretation is left to the viewer to determine.
Gustav Vigeland was a prolific craftsman. His works include: 1,600 sculptures, 420 woodcuts and 12,000 drawings.
Click to open a slideshow of the unusual park.
Cruising Oslo Fjord
The first stop is to Hovedøya, just 10 minutes from the city center, with beautiful forests, beaches and cultural heritage. It is the closest and, at only 100 acres, largest of the islands.
The island’s abbey ruins and remaining concentration camp buildings draw tourists for their historic significance but for locals, it is also a quick getaway to commune with nature.
The ferry cruise also gives you a different view of Oslo.
The first stop is to Hovedøya, just 10 minutes from the city center, with beautiful forests, beaches and cultural heritage. It is the closest and, at only 100 acres, largest of the islands.
Click to open a slideshow to tour the harbor.
Houses cluster around the mountainside.
Wooden buildings along the wharf, or bryggen, comprised a key business hub of the Hanseatic League.
These little guys are tucked into a shop doorway.
Houses cluster around the mountainside.
Click to open a slideshow of Bergen sights.
Up on Mt. Fløyen
For a true bird’s-eye view of Bergen, take a six minute ride to the top of Mt. Fløyen. Two carriages have transported people from the heart of Bergen’s city center to the summit for over 100 years; I’m happy to report new ones were installed in 2022. At the summit, the harbor view is breathtaking, as is the lake found after a short walk through Norwegian woods. Along the way, you might encounter some friendly goats and fierce looking trolls!
Bird's-eye view from Mt. Fløyen shows just how compact the city is.
Get whisked to the summit in just six minutes.
They only went out at night, because there was one thing that could terrify a real troll, and that was sunlight, which could turn them into stone instantly.
Bird's-eye view from Mt. Fløyen shows just how compact the city is.
Click to open a slideshow of the mountain top scenes.
Sognefjord Fjord
Norway has the third longest coastline in the world and the longest one in Europe, a little over 36,000 miles, not counting all the ins and outs of islands and fjords (which brings it up to closer to 64K). The country has over 1,700 namedfjords with the largest collection found on the west coast. Bergen is considered the capital of Norway’s fjord region earning it the label of the Gateway to the Fjords. The so-called king of the fjords is Sognefjord – at 124 miles, it is Norway’s longest and the 2nd longest on earth. To get to it is another opportunity to enjoy rail travel amid beautiful scenery, first to Myrdal then onto Flam, about 68 miles NE of Bergen. the Flam Railway is considered one of Norway’s leading tourist attractions; in 2010 it was chosen as one of the top 10 most beautiful train journeys in Europe by National Geographic Traveler Magazine. It is considered a marvel of Norwegian engineering. Although only 12 miles long, laying track when work started in 1923 between the remote fjords and urban Norway was a massive challenge. The Flam is one of the steepest standard gauge railway lines in the world, climbing from sea level up nearly 3,000 feet, clinging to mountain sides for some stretches, and running right through them in others, sometimes via twisting tunnels. A small but informative free museum in Flam salutes the workers who made this tourist trip possible and displays original locomotives and other means of motoring along the rails, such as the rail tricycle.
Eighteen of Flåmbana railway's 20 tunnels needed to be excavated by hand; roughly two-thirds of a mile took a month’s manual labor.
In 1908, experts estimated the number of annual passengers they could expect when it opened in 1940 would be around 22,000; in 2023, almost 800,000 rode the railway!
Ten of the world’s 30 highest waterfalls are in Norway, one of the most photographed surely must be this one, which drops 2000’ over 4 cascades.
Eighteen of Flåmbana railway's 20 tunnels needed to be excavated by hand; roughly two-thirds of a mile took a month’s manual labor.
At Oslo harbor, a terminal links several of the small islands in the fjord. Some uninhabited; some mainly summer retreats, all interesting with varied histories. With regular service, a spin on an inner Oslo fjord ferry whisks visitors from the bustle of the city, to absolute peace and quiet. Even if you don’t stop at any of the islands, a ferry ride on a beautiful day is a great way to pass a morning.
Click to open a slideshow of impressive fjord sights and Flam train museum tribute.
Click video to take a little cruise around Oslo Fjord.
More to See!
Oslo-Bergen Connection
Arguably the best way to go from Oslo on the east coast, to Bergen on the west, is by train. The roughly 7-hour, 310-mile journey is a never-ending smorgasbord for the eyes. Along the way you pass through lush countryside, solitary farm lands and mirror-reflecting lakes before transitioning to mountains. The Bergensbanan cuts through 180 tunnels and up to Northern Europe's highest stretch of railway at 4000’ above sea level. It was a huge project in its day, at the turn of the 20th century.
Click for views from Bergenbanan ride.
Why is a tiger roaming around Oslo? What event takes place each year in Oslo's City Hall? What are images of former U.S. presidents doing in Oslo? Why is a finger pointing to the ground? Why are beehives on a food hall roof? What are those strange dark buildings with dragons and crosses? Why is there a big blue rock slab in Bergen? Rooftop lawn? What's up with those strange colorful containers standing around Bergen? Stop by a Savvy Sightseer Oslo: Captivating Capital City and/or Bergen: Gateway to the Fjords Destination Travelogues and find the answers to these and other interesting tidbits about the Norwegian country! Check the Programs tab to see if one is being presented near you!
Click above to open a slideshow of other Oslo sights.
Stunning murals provide the backdrop for presenting the annual Nobel Peace Prize.
Multimedia introduction to the Peace Prize, its benefactor and recipients.
This 15’ long tiger was a gift from a local real estate company to celebrate the city’s 1000th anniversary. It personifies Oslo’s nickname: "The Tiger City."
During WWII President Franklin Roosevelt had helped Norway’s Crown Princess Märtha and her three children arrange a 5-year exile in the USA; they commemorate him with a sculpture overlooking the harbor.
When a fire leveled Oslo in 1625, Danish-Norwegian King Christian IV decided to rebuild the town in this specific area near the harbor and name it after himself. He supposedly pointed to this spot and said: "The new town will lie here!” Christiania, following a grid-based urban street layout, sprung up around the spot.
Atop the Mathallen food court is a stop on the “Pollinators’ Passageway” – that’s a route connecting green roofs and flowers for bees to pollinate their way through - the world's first urban bee highway.
Once there were up to 2,000 of the uniquely styled houses of worship in Norway; today only 28 remain. Once there were up to 2,000 of the uniquely styled houses of worship in Norway; today only 28 remain.
A gift to the city, this slab has become an easily identifiable meeting point for locals.
Norway is ranked among the top 10 “most green countries in the world.”
Closed underground collection system that operates in a similar way to the bank drive-up, using airflow to whisk material to a processing plant.
To enjoy the Oslo and Bergen experiences at the fullest, attend a Savvy Sightseer Oslo: Captivating Capital City or Bergen: Gateway to the Fjords Destination Travelogues at a library or community center near you! Check the Programs page for upcoming dates and locations.
