City Tour

The other activity I had pre-planned was the free city walking tour. I have done these in many countries and generally they are better than the paid ones. This one was no exception – informative and covers quite a lot of ground. You start at the main train station beside a large tiger.

Back when Oslo was called Christiania it was nicknamed the city of tiggers or "tiggerstaden"  which actually translates to city of beggars by Danes and others that visited from the more affluent western parts of the country. The transition from "tigger" (beggar) to "tiger" is likely due to Danish pronunciation, or lack thereof and of course,  Oslo preferred tiger and thus became known as “tiger town”.

Then the tour takes you towards the opera house passing a few places on the way . . .

This newer opera house, opened in 2008, is the only one in the world that doubles as a public plaza, with a roof designed to be walked on. It also has a cool statue outside of it that is in the water which is open to interpretation.

During the tour you also pass the oldest building in Oslo - the Old town hall built n 1641 - which sits on Christinania sqaure.

Old town hall

Christiania Square

And then past the Akershus Fortress. Started being built in 1299 under king Håkon V. This medieval castle, which was completed in the 1300s, and had a strategical location at the very end of the headland, and withstood a number of sieges throughout the ages. King Christian IV (1588-1648) had the castle modernised and converted into a Renaisssance castle and royal residence.  

The Fortress overlooks the harbour and City Hall. City Hall is famous for hosting the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. There is a museum next door with some street art outside.

City Hall was completed in 1950 to celebrate the city's 900th birthday, the building is decorated by Norwegian art from the early 1900s. 

The guide actually took us inside to take a quick look at the interior rooms including where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony takes place.

 

 

 

The neatest part of the building is that every hour from 7am until midnight, the bells in the building’s east tower will play a short melody – known as a ritornello. The musical selections in the morning and at midnight may be as traditional as you’d expect are from the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg but the rest of the day’s hours are a truly eclectic mix of styles. The playlist ranges from video game music (e.g. “Super Mario Bros.” and “Minecraft” have both been featured) to film scores, pop and rock (while I was there they even played Prince!) and electronic acts like Kygo and Kraftwerk (which will come up again in a later post). The playlist can be found on Spotify.

The last stop is the Theatre which for some reason I cannot find photos of, not sure what I did with those and then on my way back to the hotel I swung by the Palace.

View from the park in front of the palace