It's a short walk around the harbor to just above where our cruise ship docked last month, when we were here with our son, Brian. We toured Akershus Castle with their free audio guide and our own ear buds. The route through the castle was very well laid out for touring and the directions around this castle are included through their audio tour.
This castle dates back to the late 1200’s. Its commanding view of the Oslo Harbor was a formidable challenge to all who tried to take it.
Down the stairs and into the depths of the castle we went. What a fun corridor this was.
Down to the crypts of King Haakon and Queen Maud
Within the walls of the castle is this church that is still in use with a grand altar and a beautiful set of organ pipes.
Here’s a model of the castle
Table for 60 please.
You know, we’ve been to a few museums over this past week. Stay with me, as I try to tie a few of them together.
From the Fram Museum: Fridtjof Nansen was the guy who came up with the idea of floating a boat, the FRAM, on the ice to the North Pole in the 1890's.
From the Norwegian Resistance Museum: Vidkun Quisling helped Nansen with humanitarian relief during the Russian famine of 1921. However, he turned bad guy when he became pro-Nazi and was a puppet of the Nazi regime as Prime Minister of Norway during the German occupation.
From the Akershus Castle: At the end of the World War II Quisling was imprisoned in Akershus. He was tried and found guilty of murder and executed by a firing squad in the Castle in October, 1945 right here in this courtyard.
We left the castle and headed for downtown. Karl Johans Gate is a one mile street that runs from the train station all the way to the Royal Palace. It’s mostly free of cars and, boy, does it get crowded on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
We were doing a Rick Steves’ Walking Tour of Oslo and as usual he leads us to some great spots within the city.
A great place to get some skolebrod - “school bread” is at the top of rise on Karl Johans Gate. Karen and I get this every time we visit the Norway Pavilion at EPCOT. It’s delicious there and the WB Samson Bakery version tastes even better.
There’s a bar on the 8th floor at #27 on Karl Johans and it has a great view of the city on this extraordinarily beautiful, sunny day.
Just down the street from this huge advertising sign for Freia Chocolates is their store where you can taste them for yourself.
What was all the commotion around the National Theater today? There were THREE bands standing there having a battle of the bands competition.
We ended up at the Oslo City Hall which had this huge marbled floor Great Room. Each year in this room the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in front of the Norwegian Royal Family.
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