Oslo was a special detour we made while visiting the Scandinavian countries in 2015. After an overnight trip by boat from Copenhagen to Oslo, we had little more than 24 hours to absorb as much of this city as possible.
We were so lucky to have had perfect weather for our short visit, so my memories are of a sun-soaked city with people out in droves enjoying the warmth.
I have featured Oslo in several posts over the past 6 months – including one on meeting Cardinal Guzman and some great doors.
It is a very old port city with a fortress to be explored …
… the unforgettable Frogner Park with over 200 amazing statutes and sculptures (one day I’m going to figure out the difference between the two) …
… and lots of interesting architecture.
… including City Hall, also called the Brown Cheese Building. I think it was meant to be derogatory, but any building with such a wonderful clock on it deserves some respect.
Visiting this wonderful old city was definitely worth the detour.
My Life Lived Full 
I love Oslo! I’d love to see it in that summer weather! Beautiful!
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After reading about your 13C in Bergen in July, I now realize why everyone was so happy in Oslo when we visited 🙂
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I guess its part of its charm! People in Scandinavian countries know how to make the most of the sunny weather!
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Coming from Canada, I can appreciate that perspective as well. Summer and warm weather are short lived!!
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Same! Especially as a Spaniard living in London…I miss the sun!
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My grandpa was born in Sweden and so one fourth of my blood is from the fjords and ocean, fishing and his family men were stone masons, Joanne. I was “off the grid” so missed a few posts, this was not during this weekend, but maybe another reason? Sorry but glad I came back to see the places I missed! Hugs!
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I appreciate that you came back to look for me 🙂
So you have some Nordic Viking blood! 🙂
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I think I have an inner core of Viking which has withstood a few battles, Joanne! I am happy and sunny like the Swedes, while my Grandma was the silent type when mad. If she wanted salt, “Robin, tell your grandpa to pass the salt,” or in the car I was allowed to sit between the two of them, “tell your grandpa he is getting too close to the car in front of us!” 😀
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LOL!! That’s hilarious 🙂
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Doing another catch-up so scooting through from New York to wherever you are today! I worked in Norway for 6 months way back when I was 19 but never made it to Oslo. I did like Bergen though no nude sculptures there as far as I recall 😉
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You have certainly done more than your fair share of traversing the world! How adventurous of you to go to Norway at 19 to work! I wasn’t very brave when I was younger … more of a wannabe 🙂
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I felt very hemmed in living in England. Everyone was so set in their ways and I could see my life being the same old same old. I needed to be free.
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Funny – I felt the same way living in Northern Ontario. That’s how I ended up in a university at the opposite end of the province.
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I remember the statues and was fascinated. Bu, I do agree that clock is awesome on the Brown Cheese building!
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I have a *thing* about clocks and this one is a beauty 🙂
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Agreed!
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Wow the pics are amazing, 24h in Oslo could never be enough
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I know! That’s the problem with these quick in-and-out visits. You get a flavour for the location, but no time to really browse and savour!
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I love the “pile-of-naked-bodies” sculpture. Was there a meaning behind this one?
My brother and his girlfriend visited Norway last fall and although they said it was a bit expensive, it was also gorgeous. Their photos of the country were amazing.
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There were sooooo many sculptures of naked bodies, I have no idea if there was a meaning intended. This guy was prolific though!!
We found all the Scandinavian countries very expensive, but worth the trip. It is very beautiful.
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I would guess the Scandinavians are fairly uninhibited and free-spirited 😉
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Good guess. I couldn’t imagine these statues gracing downtown Toronto 🙂
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So, I went from J to O, fairly quickly, but I hit them all 🙂
I need to travel more! Sigh … the job, the job.
Someday though!
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Glad to have you travelling along with me then 🙂
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Another letter, another place I haven’t been and need to visit! I love all the statues/sculptures!
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Frogner Park is very unique and I’ve never seen anything quite like it!
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I’ve heard of that park. A statue is generally a memorial to a person or event. A sculpture is considered art and is open to viewer interpretation. You can make a sculpture out of toilet paper however you cannot make a statue out of total paper. (well, you could but you know…)
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Thanks Jan. The discussion today about sculptures vs statutes has been very informative 🙂
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You are a whirlwind traveler, it seems. Do you ever stay anywhere more than 24 hours? Ha ha. The outdoor cafes lined up as far as the eye can see made me smile, and I love the tower of intertwined bodies, I could study that for a full day all by itself. It looks like a great city to visit!
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Oh Diana – if you liked that tower, you would love this park. Picture over 200 statues along the same theme as that one tower. There was so much to see, I wasn’t really sure where exactly to start!!
… and yes, we do manage to stay in one place for a few days, but our vacations are nothing remotely close to relaxing.
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Love the architecture!
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Me too 🙂 Old cities are so interesting.
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So wonderful seeing these photos, Joanne. We’ll be there two weeks from now.. only for a day though. I am so looking forward to it. Thanks for the preview 😉
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Oh wow!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I’m looking forward to reading about your experience!
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Beautiful photos of a beautiful city. Never considered going to Oslo, but I couldn’t tell you why. Now, it’s on the list!
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Oh – that list!! So much to do, so little time, money, and energy 😉
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It looks like an amazing place! I love the sculptures. What amazing adventures you have.
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Thank you 🙂
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Joanne that street scene is astounding. So inviting to sit down at one of the cafes. Love the sculpture of the bodies. Hard to imagine the skill to create such an interwoven piece.
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I love these little oases where you can just people watch for while. I’ve only recently got Gilles to the point where we can actually sit chilling for a while in an outdoor cafe enjoying a drink or a meal before he wants to scurry off to do something else 🙂
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Yes, I love the woman floating off the building.
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Isn’t she beautiful?!!
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quite!
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Now THAT is a place I’d love to visit! 🙂
My husband spent many months there as a Marine, but somehow his memories involve a lot more snow and beer than is reflected in your photos 😉
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HAHAHAHAHA!! If it had snowed in August, my memories might be very different than they are 😀
… and I admit our visit included an amount of wine and beer. It might have been only 24 hours, but we did have time for chillin’ 😉
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Great images and I love how many places you have visited Joanne 😀
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Thanks Joe. I think it says a lot about a city that almost every photo I took became a favourite 🙂
This A to Z Challenge has led very nicely into reminiscing about our travels, but I will eventually run out of cities to match letters.
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Gorgeous sites there to be sure, Joanne, and you captured them very well!
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Thanks Torrie 🙂
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Perhaps the difference between a statue and a sculpture is the price.
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LOL!!!
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I love the opening photo of all the cafes and all the people eating outside. So much life!
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That is the one common thing about northern countries. When the weather is nice, EVERYONE flocks outside to soak it up while they can. I really enjoyed sitting outside at one of these outdoor cafes – with a beer 🙂 – and watching people go by!
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Oh how wonderful you met Cardinal Guzman!!!
I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never been to Norway. I so want to … not only Oslo, I would want to go up north, to Lofoten and those places. Maybe one day …
Your pictures are quite lovely! You did good, considering you only had 24 hours 🙂
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The weather really helped us on this trip. I’m sure our visit to Oslo wouldn’t have been quite as successful if it had been pouring rain.
Like you, I’d like to get into the Far North one day … although Husband points out that we could do that from Canada 🙂
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Thanks Johanne. Never visited Norway and now I’ve put Oslo as well as Copenhagen on my list. The statues / sculptures sound fascinating.
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Another blogger had once written that when visiting the Scandinavian countries, one needs to bring a wheelbarrow of money because it is so expensive.
He wasn’t joking. It was certainly one of the most expensive vacations we have ever taken.
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What beautiful photos! So wonderful you met Max! His photos introduced me to Oslo – and now yours have furthered that!
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Max was a very big reason for going to Oslo. I too had been introduced to the city first by his photos, then the wonderful tour he gave us while we were there.
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What a neat place to explore. And although you were there for only a very short time, it looks like you did a lot and saw a lot!
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We can cram a lot of activity into a short period of time … however we still couldn’t keep up with the high energy of the Cardinal when he took us on tour 🙂
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Looks like a lovely city. I think statues are sculptures that have people or animals in them btw.
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oh. That makes sense – thanks for the clarification. I suppose I could have looked it up, but I was being exceptionally lazy 🙂
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Not really. Ask the question in a blog and someone will usually know the answer (and I am an art nerd).
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🙂
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One of my favorite cities – we went there on our honeymoon and were there on June 21st – their national holiday since the sun does not set. We loved the park and all the art the city has to offer. Thanks for reminding me of this wonderful place.
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What a lovely place to include on your honeymoon!! I’ve read about the celebrations on their national holiday and everyone dresses up … it must have been a lot of fun.
One of the things on my wish list is to experience the midnight sun. Someday 🙂
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You’re mixing up Sweden and Norway. June 21st is a Holiday in Sweden. 🙂
But the park is in Oslo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer
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So when is the big national holiday in Norway?
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The national day is the 17th of May. That’s when you’ll see all the costumes and kids in parades.
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I’ve definitely been there! It was really cool to meet you & Gilles.
Did you see the inside of the city hall too? It has some amazing, huge murals.
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Going to Oslo and meeting you was certainly the highlight of that trip for me 🙂
We did get inside city hall and walked around as much as we could. Unfortunately the great hall was closed so we could only peer at it from the entrance.
I’m glad you had told us about the Brown Cheese Building because I doubt we would have otherwise known to go exploring in that direction.
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Oh thank you for sharing Oslo with us. I love Scandinavia but Norway has been missing on our adventures there to date. Oslo is definitely moving up the list. Fascinating sculpture of the bodies 🙂
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Oslo isn’t the kind of place you can casually drop into. It’s definitely out of the way and requires a very deliberate decision to visit there. I don’t regret that decision for a minute!!
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Oslo looks great, and always nice to see a city in sunshine……and when it comes to statues verses sculptures…who knows??
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Another blogger very helpfully suggested that a statue is a sculpture with people or animals in it 🙂
I’m sure we would have had a very different kind of visit if it had poured rain the entire time we were there.
Fortunately, we got the beautiful sunny version 🙂
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With the exception of Helsinki, Scandinavia is missing from my travel map. I’d love to go there. Oslo looks pretty and I love a statue/sculpture park. (When you work out which is which let me know.)
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hahaha – I’m now the complete opposite. Unfortunately we couldn’t squeeze Finland into our trip so it’s still outstanding for me.
Frogner Park with all its statues is amazing. I could have spent way more time there. Su Leslie suggested that a statue is a sculpture with people or animals. I suppose I could have looked it up, but … well, lazy.
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