Oslo - Land of the Vikings & Cold (June 14)

Oslo is the capitol and largest city of Norway, situated on the north side of the North Sea. The population of Norway is approximately 4,660,000 and Oslo is home to approximately 580,000.

We visited the Viking Ship Museum. The Viking Ship Museum contains some absolutely astonishing exhibits including discoveries from Viking tombs and the finding of the world’s two best-preserved Viking longboats, which were built and used sometime in the ninth century A.D. This museum also hosts implements, tools, harnesses, textiles and much more, giving us unique insight into Viking cultures.

We also explored the Vigeland Sculpture Park. One of the most visited parks in Norway with more than one million visitors per year, the Vigeland Sculpture Park contains more than two hundred sculptures in bronze, granite and cast Iron. The sculpter, Gustav Vigeland, threw his life into the park and its contents, even designing the layout of the park itself.



In addition to the Viking Ship Museum and the Vigeland Sculpture Park, we caught a glimpse of Oslo’s incredible opera house and the brand new ski jump being constructed for next years World Championship. All of Oslo is more beautiful than I could ever have imagined. (Jesse)

Well today we finally ventured into a Northern-European country. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from Oslo, but any preconceived notions I held were exceeded by my experience today. Oslo is a very nice city situated in a beautiful country.
Our first stop was the Viking ship museum, which contains three actual Viking ships that were excavated in the early 20th century, along with several other period artifacts. Next we visited the open-air museum, which is similar to a living history museum in some ways. It was comprised of many original structures dating from the 17th and 18th centuries that were all constructed in the traditional Norse style.

After that, we walked through the Vigeland sculpture park, situated in the middle of Oslo. It is beautiful, 70-acre public-park, lined down the middle with fascinating sculptures. Our last stop involved driving up into the hills of Oslo. This was to see the huge ski jump being constructed for the 2011 world ski jump championships, which are to be held in Oslo.

Overall, the city was very impressive and exceeded my expectations. It was a great start to our tour of Northern Europe, and I can’t wait for Copenhagen! (Jacob)