We took an organized walking tour of the old city area this morning and there was light rain coming down for the entire tour. The good news is that the rain stopped when the tour ended, and it hasn't rained since and it now looks good for the rest of our time in Oslo. Here are some photo highlights of the tour. The photo at the right is Christiania Torv (Square). Oslo dates back to the Viking days, but it was destroyed by fire in 1624 and was rebuilt on a slightly different spot when King Cristian IV dropped his glove, hence the statue of his glove. The city was named Cristiana until Norway gained its independence and the city was renamed Oslo in 1925.
To the left is the National Theater and a statue of Henrik Ibsen, the great Norwegian playwright.
To the right is the City Hall which is now famous as the site where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year, starting in 1901. All the remaining Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm. Our walk back to the hotel took us right by the Waffle place we ate at yesterday so we each had waffles again for lunch.
In the afternoon we went to the newly located Munch Museum, which opened in 2021.
Edvard Munch is Norway's most famous painter, and the museum has a great many of his paintings. We hadn't seen too many of his paintings before, except of course for "The Scream" (year 1893). There are actually four versions of this painting, but the one on exhibit in Oslo is the most famous.
We walked back to our hotel, passing right by the Oslo Opera House. It has a unique design which allows visitors to walk on the roof all the way to the top and people seem to be there at all times of the day. To close, we had a nice dinner at a local place which seem like kind of a Norwegian version of a pub. Beef with gravy and vegetables, along with some Lingonberry on the side. I also tried the local beer they had on tap - a Ringnes. Everything was very good.
One final note. I'm finishing this post at around 9:30 pm and it is still kind of light outside. I'm really not sure when it becomes light in the morning here, and I don't intend to get up to find out.
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