Our day had a bit of a late start after we slept in until 11 and got some much needed rest after our long day across Norway yesterday. We headed out from our hotel and walked through the surrounding neighborhood to grab coffee and a bite to eat. It was easy to see why this neighborhood, Grunerlokka, is known as "Oslo's Greenwich Village" with endless boutiques and cafes lining the streets.
After our caffeine pick me up, we headed toward the city center to take in the main sights of the city. We followed along the wide pedestrain street and didn't have much trouble knowing which way to go since the crowd of people seemed to be going in the same direction as us.
We continued down the city center until we reached the modern harbor area where many people were out and about. Jennifer couldn't resist the gelato man along the way and twisted Sam's arm into sharing one with her as we walked along this beautiful waterfront.
Eager to see more of the city, we hopped on a tram over to Frogner Park where we walked through a sculpture garden by Norway's greatest sculptor Gustav Vigeland. The massive park was full of people enjoying the beautiful weather and admiring Vigelands statues that adorn the bridge and rose garden... all leading to a massive monolith in the middle of the park.
We relaxed a bit on one of the park benches and then decided to continue on with our tour of the city to a park-like area of town called Bygdoy.
Once in the area of Bygdoy, we went into the Viking Museum to take a look at Viking ships from the 9th and 10th centuries. We were quite impressed by the size and detail of the ships and couldn't believe how well preserved the boats were.
Still having energy for some more sight-seeing, we continued along the Bygdoy peninsula and entered the Norwegian Folk Museum. This open-air museum spans over 35 acres and feels more like a park than a museum.
The buildings scattered throughout this museum were brought from all corners of Norway and reassembled at this location. They have pieced mealed different structures together in street scapes to recreate little neighborhoods as they would have stood during different eras of Norwegian history.
We saw farm houses dating back to the 1600's and suburban neighborhoods from the early 1900's with markets, schools, banks, bars and houses that were fully furnished for the era. The grounds of this "museum" were truly impressive and we were very pleased to have the opportunity to stroll through the exhibition.
Our evening ended with a bottle of wine back in our room and planning the activites we can fit in our day tomorrow prior to having to depart Oslo for Coppenhagen mid afternoon.
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