Pillsbury Press: 2025

One of the things that excited me about the flight home was that it included a 20-hour layover in Oslo. Seven years ago when we took a Norwegian Cruise through the Baltic Sea our itinerary did not include Norway, though it did include every other Scandinavian city and more.

Landing at 3 pm I knew I only had a few hours for sightseeing. I'm sharing both what I did, and what I would have done it differently in case you are reading this for advice.

Traveling in Europe is so different from the United States. The airports are designed anticipating you will want to leave to explore the nearby city. There are two different trainlines that go into the Oslo Airport: Vy Train and FlytoGet. The former is included in the Oslo Pass (easily purchased online) which gives you 24 hour access to all mass transit (including the Vy train from the airport) and many museums, the latter is 4 minutes faster, twice as expensive, and not included.

I knew time was limited, so I created a quick cheat sheet of things to do:

Cathedral

National Opera House: walk on top

Munsch Museum

City Hall (Closed at 4 pm)

Vigeland Sculpture Park / Frogner Park

Because I had a layover, I checked my suitcase through to Newark Airport and used a backpack for the day. I found the train, bought the pass (which, unlike in Belgium, was never checked) and rode the train 23 minutes to the main train station.

I left the train train station and looked around. Temperatures were in the upper 60s. The sky was Southern California blue. It was an amazing day to be outside exploring a city for the first time.

I crossed the streets and went to the Opera House where you climb on the roof from the outside. When I read about going on the roof, I assumed you'd have to go inside, find a secret staircase, and emerge at the top on the roof. I didn't picture tiered floors gently leading you to the top. Children were on scooters. Teens were playing ball. People were walking their dogs to the top. It was quite a party scene.

From the roof I saw a museum, but did not realize it was the Munsch Museum as I only saw the last few letters until later (after it was closed). They close at 6 early in the week, and 8:30 closer the weekend. Next time I have a long layover in the city.

I also saw huts attached to the land, with ladders dipping into the fjord. Had I remembered a friend's advice and packed my bathing suit, I could have gone for an icy dip. Instead, I started to walk to the (Gustav) Vigeland Sculpture Park. Sure, I could have hopped on mass transit, but with only a few hours in the city, walking gave me more opportunities to explore Oslo.

I walked past the Cathedral (now closed), and past the National Theater (admiring the bicycle statue), and around parliament. At this point I clearly left the tourist district and thought about taking mass transit, but the bus line I was on was temporarily out of service, so I kept walking.

Finally I arrived in the park. After dropping a book off in a Little Free Library / Phone Booth (sometimes it helps to have reading material while you are on hold), I noticed the statues of naked people doing a variety of activities. The park boasts over 200 marble, bronze, and wrought iron statues.

I took a tram back to the central business district and found dinner. Though it was mid-April in Norway, I ate al fresco. The restaurant had both heat lamps and blankets, though neither was needed. It was a perfect night.

I wasn't quite ready to leave the city so I roamed around the area near the train station. Here I saw the closed Munsch Museum, but I also saw the open library. The library was several floors deep with a large section of books in foreign languages, a large children's section, and the biggest section of books in Braille I have ever seen in a public library. The inside was mostly black and red, so it didn't appeal to me aesthetically, but I was able to tap into their wifi and use the restroom, so wins.

I took the train to the airport and found the airport shuttle, which was not free. The next day I followed a couple of 20-somethings when I missed the airport shuttle and took the city bus, which was included in the Oslo Pass. It was confusing figuring out which were non-free shuttle buses and which were city buses. I'm not sure I'd be able to figure it out any differently next time, though next time I would stay in Oslo.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel was out of this world! There were five different types of eggs, for example.

Things I would have done differently:

1) Booked a hotel near the Central Train Station as it took just as long to get to the airport from the airport hotel as it would have from the center of town. Or at least I'd look into it. My airport hotel was only $60 for the night with an incredible breakfast.

2) Made a beeline for the Munsch Museum as I had enough time to see it and it was close to the train station. Saved the Sculpture Park until after the museum closed.

3) Packed a bathing suit and two towels in carryon so I could go to a sauna on the fjord. Or at least the sauna at the hotel using the hotel towel.

Pictures from the day: