Norway is rich ya’ll! They have over $1 trillion in their sovereign wealth fund. The fund is used to ensure responsible and long-term management of revenue from Norway’s oil and gas resources, so that this wealth benefits both current and future generations.
Already, over 50% of their vehicles are electric. That was really cool to see. And, they don’t work too hard – an average work week is 30 hours…ummm, yes please! We’re obviously doing something wrong in the U.S. But don’t get all excited about moving there just yet. They are in darkness 3 months out of the year (Nov, Dec, Jan), it gets really cold, and it rains about 47% of the time (in Oslo). Luckily, when we visited we had no rain. The weather was perfect!
We didn’t have much time to spend in Oslo but we squeezed in a bike tour. Our first stop on the tour was Akershus Fortress, built in the 1300s. The fortress has never successfully been besieged by a foreign enemy except when it was surrendered without conflict to the Nazi’s during WWII.
We visited the palace grounds. We weren’t able to tour the inside because we missed the summer schedule. I was so disappointed. I absolutely love touring castles and palaces. The statue in front of the palace is of Charles XIV John, King of Sweden and Norway. Fun little fact, he isn’t even Swedish or Norwegian, what??? He’s French!!! The blood line wasn’t very strong (King Charles XIII of Sweden was childless) so they needed to find a king from somewhere so they chose Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (Charles XIV John). His wife was engaged to Napoleon before he broke things off to be with Josephine. So much drama but in the end the people accepted him and he ruled for 26 years.
We visited Oslo City Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. They have the most beautiful wood carvings lining the exterior of the building that show the motifs from Norse mythology: the life of gods and the stories of wisdom and love, war and hate, and magnificent visions of the future.
We went to Vigeland Park, the world’s largest sculpture park by the same artist. Gustav Vigeland’s life work, comprises over 200 sculptures in granite, bronze and wrought iron. It was built mainly in the period 1940-1949, but is the result of over 40 years of work.
The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History was a must-do. It includes a massive outdoor museum with different structures (original, built to size) from over the years including a church, houses, shops, and a mini town recreated to show what life was like during different times. It was very interesting. When you walked into the wooden structures they had felt very dank, humid and smelled of rotting wood. I felt like I was about to be enveloped by termites.
My favorite place we ate during our entire trip to Poland and Norway was Frenchie in Oslo. I loved everything about the restaurant; the décor, the food, and the absolutely most delicious french fries I have ever had. We got two orders they were so good. It is really hard to get a good french fry folks!! Adam and I had a leisurely lunch with wine and the yummiest open faced steak sandwich with béarnaise sauce. I am drooling as I write this.
Some other food and drink highlights: Adam tried whale blubber…just kidding it was smoked whale and pork knuckle at Den Glade Gris. Adam said I would not like the whale, I trusted him on that one. I played it safe with pulled pork. Dessert was white chocolate with bacon bits on top. Everything was so rich! We checked another Top 50 Bar of the World off of our list, Himkok (no. 43). It was good but not the best. I tried a carrot ginger tequila drink and Adam tried a drink called Bun. It resembled bread, lol. Our favorite bar concept was a bar court, Posthallen. It was a massive building with about eight different bars to choose from under one roof. We liked diosmio – they made a great spicy margarita.
On the flight back the US we couldn’t resist and upgraded to business class. OMG, the lie flat seat is everything!!! Still not impressed with the food but so worth it just for the seat!!!!
We booked Poland and Norway on a whim but both places exceeded expectations. We had such a lovely time. I don’t like to revisit places, I have many more countries to check off the list but Poland was one of my favorites. I might have to reconsider my revisiting rule…
We just got back from a quick trip to Grand Cayman so I’ll be back soon with updates from that trip.
Spotswood House 