Ireland day 1220. Thursday 30 January 2025- Oslo Day 4

Today’s summary	A busy day today. Slept much better then spent a couple of hours in the spa before breakfast. Then caught a couple of buses and a train over to Bygdoy, on the opposite side of Oslo bay. Visited the Kon-Tiki, Maritime and Fram museums. All good especially the Fram. Caught buses back to my old hotel for a final couple of hours in the spa. Then trekked by bus and train to the airport where I’m staying in a hotel overnight before my early flight tomorrow
Today’s weather	Overcast and grey with mist in the morning. No wind. Appx 0c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The red line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Nauticalia

Commentary

Exploring new places can be quite hard work, I’ve realised, especially if you want to get the most out of it. Today was particularly busy, as it was my last full day in Oslo and I wanted to use it fully.

So, having studiously avoided coffee all day yesterday, I slept well so didn’t struggle so much to get up reasonably early and have a couple of hours in the spa before breakfast. Then I checked out, but bought a spa- extension which meant I could use the spa later in the day – and also leave my luggage at reception rather than carting it around with me. Then I electronically checked in for tonight’s hotel and for my flight tomorrow.

Once all the admin was done, I caught a bus, train and bus through Oslo to Bygdoy, a residential area on the far side of Oslo bay. Of greater interest to me, though, were the nautical museums there. I visited three (in turn): Kon-Tiki, Maritime and Fram.

Kon -Tiki celebrates the various expedidions of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdal, most notably his voyage in a balsa wood raft from Peru to the Polynesian islands in 1947. His theory about migration from South America to Polynesia isn’t proven, but it’s an interesting story of 20th century derring -do. Of course the original Kon-Tiki raft is there to see – looking a bit battered now, but still impressive.

The Maritime museum has lots of excellent displays about Norwegian ships. It was well done but of rather less interest to me. It did have a nice café though!

Finally, the Fram museum was by far and away the best. A really good display, including the Fram ship itself and lots of information about its two most notable occupants- Nansen and Amundsen. For a while, the Fram was the ship which had travelled to the most northerly and southerly points on earth

The most northerly involved being frozen in pack ice for three years, as part of Nansen’s unsuccessful attempt to drift and sledge to the North Pole in 1893. The most southerly was when the Fram transported Amundsen and his team to Antarctica on his successful expedition to the South Pole in 1912. Another story of 20th century derring-do.

After a surprisingly interesting afternoon amongst the ships, I caught the no 30 and the 81 buses back to my old hotel and a final couple of hours in the spa. I am determined to make the most of it, even though it has involved having so many showers I think I am in danger of dissolving. I got there about 6:30 and spent a couple of hours splashing around then finally – with some reluctance – left at about 9pm and headed back to the bus stop for the bus-train-train journey to the airport. I’m staying near the airport ready for an early morning flight tomorrow.

A quick call to Val from the bus stop, then a straightforward journey and I was in the hotel at 10:45pm; luckily just in time for fish and chips for dinner!

Anyway it’s bedtime now and I’ve got an early start tomorrow to catch an 8am flight. I hate those early mornings, and this time there’s no spa to set me off in the right frame of mind!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Stage 2 of my bus-train-bus journey to Bygdoy this afternoon	Kon-Tiki

Looking out over Oslo Harbour from the Maritime Museum	Part of the Fram had been refrigerated – and given a moving floor- to give you a more authentic experience of what life on board the ship must have been like. Amazing!

Amundsen and some of his South Pole team	Part 1 of my bus-train-train journey to the airport this evening

The Fram – there was a cinematic projection of waves from an Arctic storm on the ceiling alongside the ship – quite a realistic effect