One Day in Oslo

As I took the bus from the city center of Oslo out to Bygdøy, the island that is home to several well-known museums, I struck up a conversation with a lady from Florida. She was spending the day in the city, along with her husband, 13 year old son, younger daughter, and mother, as a brief stop on their European cruise. She asked what I considered the must-see spots if you only have a day in the city.

Ironic she would ask this, as I was doing just that: showing my niece my favorite spots in about 10 hours.

We purchased 24-hour transit passes, to help us make the most of our time. If you plan to use public more than twice in a 24-hour period, it makes sense to buy this pass.

From Oslo S, we took the 30 bus towards Bygdøy and got off at Vikingskiphuset. The bus stop is a 2 minute walk to the Viking Ship Museum entrance.

This is my favorite museum. Not overly large, but really cool. One of the ships was originally discovered in our city, Sandefjord, and another discovered in our neighboring town on Tønsberg.

We took the bus back towards the city. We exited at Aker Brygge and walked over to Karl Johans Gate. 

Lunch was at Deli de Luca. With locations all over the city, I really love this place. I have yet to order anything I didn't enjoy. Sandwiches, calzone, wraps, salad, dessert, ice cream, drinks, coffee. And I especially like the Karl Johans location. Indoor and outdoor seating, just across from parliament, and great people watching!

After lunch, we took the trolley to Frogner Park and the Vigeland sculptures. Also known by many as 'the naked statue park'. The statue exhibition is extensive and impressive. There are almost always bus loads of tourists milling about. In the summer, the massive green space plays host to hundreds of carefree locals and tourists, enjoying the sun, a picnic, biking and exercise. Anna and I took time to explore more of the park than I ever have before. And even so, I still have much left to discover on future visits

We took the trolley back to Aker Brygge, where we walked around a bit, took some photos of the fortress, and then stopped at Espresso House for a cold coffee (it was really warm in Oslo today!!). 

We checked into our hotel (CityBox Oslo is a great budget-friendly, no frills hotel in the city center), and then set out for another stop. A critical stop, in fact, in my quick must-see Oslo tour. Fuglen is our favorite cafe in Oslo. I will be writing about it on the coffee tour soon, but suffice it to say that it is on the top of our cafe list!

After coffee, and some really bad walking navigation on my part, we grabbed a pizza at Dolly Dimple's. From there, we walked to the palace for a few photos, and then strolled the full stretch back down Karl Johan's. 

We finished up the evening walking up to the top of the Opera House.

If you have more time, I can recommend quite a few other top spots. But this tour seemed just right for us: we managed to squeeze in some shopping here and there, and never felt really rushed. We had a great day!