Winter in Norway, Part 1: Oslo (the city of museums)

After spending almost three weeks freezing our tails off in Switzerland, what did these three hot blooded Houston natives decide they should do? Go somewhere even colder, obviously! And so, we traveled to Norway and our first stop was Oslo.

I should have known that Oslo would be a great place for kids when we stepped off the airplane and were immediately greeted with a playground in the airport! Talk about a great way to shake off those travel blues. Also, have I mentioned how hard travel days are?? Loooong!

We were all a bit extra grumpy after this flight, so the airport playground was much appreciated.

Honestly, Oslo was just so well suited for kids that even though it was absolutely miserably freezing cold, we had an awesome trip!

First off, I’ll note that we purchased an Oslo Pass right when we got in town, which gave us free entry to most museums and free public transport, which accounts for why we were able to visit so many museums. Lots of cities offer similar passes and I would recommend doing the math before purchasing to make sure they are really a good deal (sometimes they are not), but for Oslo, a place with so many museums, it was a great value and we really appreciated having the Oslo Pass.

Munch Museum –

No trip to Oslo would be complete without a visit to the Munch Museum. You know Edvard Munch – or you at least know The Scream. But did you know there are actually multiple “original” Screams? Apparently, he made two tempera paintings and two drawings and one lithograph. The Munch Museum rotates out one of the paintings, a crayon drawing version, and one of the lithographs every half hour. We were there to see the pastel painting version.

Hey kid – that’s history in front of you, if you’d look up from the phone.

I tried to snap a photo of how into it Nora was, but like a total amateur, my flash went off (total no-no!) but you get the idea of just how into it she was (insert face/palm emoji). That said, she really got into the museum once she discovered all of the little hidden mouse holes for kids. It was actually really cool and I wish more art museums would take a clue from the Munch and set up things specifically for kids. Because **news flash: art museums are really boring for kids. Thankfully the Munch had all of these little hidden holes throughout for kids to find scenes of the mice living in the museum. Nora had a blast with it, which meant we could actually take our time exploring while she hunted for mouse holes.

A view inside the mouse hole.

Nobel Peace Center –

We really hadn’t intended on visiting The Nobel Peace Center, but when the nearby museum we had planned to visit wasn’t open yet, we decided to pop in and man, I’m glad we did! The entire space was very inspiring. I wish we could have spent more time downstairs in the exhibit honoring this year’s recipients, but Nora was a little antsy to get started on the kid’s activity. Upstairs they had a GREAT “Nobel Mystery” for kids all about Alfred Nobel. It was really fun for her and a great activity. I wish all the places we visit would do such a good job of involving kids.

Cracking the code to Alfred’s safe.

At the end, the exhibit asked what she thought would make the world better. Without any leading from us, Nora wrote “no littering” “Love ❤️” and “no oil spills.” It was so cute.

Vigeland Sculpture Park –

Full disclosure: it was a little hard to fully enjoy the Vigeland Sculpture Park because we had to focus so hard on not eating it on the ice. The entire park was iced over, which was a little terrifying on the staircases! That said, what I did really enjoy in the park was lunch at the park cafe (Kate Vigeland). Even though I’m complaining about the ice, the sculpture park (one of several in Oslo) is pretty impressive both in scope and size. It wasn’t until very recently when Paul and I were talking about our Oslo trip that I learned that all of the statues in the park were designed by one person – Gustov Vigeland. Hence the name of the park, ummm duh. But that does make it really impressive because the park is huge and lined all over with sculptures.

Fram Museum –

This one is one of Paul’s favorites – he’s a big museum reader (I usually have a 6-year-old tugging on my arm trying to get through all of it as quickly as possible because she’s bored). The Fram Museum must contain every single bit of knowledge/artifact/history regarding the original polar expeditions from Norway, which I’m sure makes it an amazing museum – just not great with young kids who can’t read and all of the information is presented in writing on the walls. So, while Paul was determined to try, we just couldn’t spend the time we would have needed to take it all in. The highlight though, is that the actual original ship, The Fram, is housed inside the museum and you get to tour inside and above and below. By far the best time at the museum was touring the boat!

Taylormade Donuts –

If you follow us at all, you know we are always on the hunt for good donuts. We sure miss Shipley’s back home! Finding Taylormade in Oslo was such a welcome treat (literally). The gourmet donuts are absolutely delicious (our favorite was the Oreo), our teas and coffee were great, and the owner was super friendly. Oh, and the shop itself is really cute. Can you tell we liked it?

We miss donuts so much!

Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology –

This museum was a huge hit! So much so, we cancelled all of our other plans that day and stayed until closing. They also had a fun clue hunting game for kids to find pictures throughout the museum to solve a riddle (are you picking up on how kid-inclusive Oslo is??). The NMST is huge and covers topics like transportation (trains, planes, automobiles), the body, electricity, tools, birth/death, climate, communication – just to name a few. I’m telling you, if you can think of a topic, it’s addressed at this museum, but all through interesting, interactive, kid-friendly exhibits. We spent hours exploring. They literally had to kick us out. If you find yourself traveling in Oslo with kids, I’m telling you, this is an absolute must visit. It’s engaging and entertaining for kids and adults alike. There is truly something for everyone.

It’s funny, the whole time we were there, we kept saying “I really want to come back in the summer,” but looking back, we really had a great time visiting even in the below freezing temperatures!

I thought I would include a few random thoughts about Oslo and Norway, in general, here:

Norway is expensive! Like as in, makes our time in Switzerland look cheap, expensive. We definitely had to pinch the pennies while we traveled and opted for cooking easy meals at home over eating out.
Don’t think you’re going to spend a lot of time boozing. First of all, alcohol, other than extra weak beers, can only be bought at very specific government stores called Vinopolets (truly wine monopolies) during very limited hours. And, don’t go thinking you’ll skirt around this rule by eating out and ordering your booze there because OMG, it’s crazy expensive! Nothing or almost nothing is sold by the glass and bottles start at $80+. Needless to say, our time in Norway was spent very sober.
Oslo is actually a huge city. We were within walking distance to the Opera House and several of the museums we visited (but keep in mind, our idea of walking distance covers quite a bit – we hoof it most everywhere we go). Luckily, they have a good bus system that can get you around town to all of the places you want to visit relatively frequently.
Don’t stress not knowing the language. Everyone speaks perfect English. When we first landed, I was completely overwhelmed by how difficult Norwegian appears, but it turns out that you really don’t need to know any of it because everyone is totally comfortable with English. In fact, I would say, with the exception of being in London, where English actually is the language, Norway has been the place we have been most easily able to communicate.
This is random, but cash is really hard to come by in Norway. For whatever reason, it’s nearly impossible to find ATMs in Norway, in fact, we completely failed to find anywhere to get cash while we were in Oslo. Keep in mind, Oslo does not operate on the Euro and has its own unique currency. It’s just that actually getting your hands on it is difficult. Luckily, everywhere and everything operates on credit cards, so it didn’t end up being much of a hassle.

And to finish it out, here are a couple more random Oslo photos: