Not for us necessarily, but Norway as a whole was having a really good time on our second day in the city. But more on that later. We enjoyed two glorious days exploring the city under clear-blue skies and comfortable temperatures in the low 70s Fahrenheit. Locals told us it had been cold and dreary up until a week or two before our arrival. The last thing we expected when booking this trip was warmer temperatures in Norway than home in New Jersey.

We arrived on a Thursday after an uneventful flight from Newark on SAS Airlines. It was our first trip on that carrier. There was nothing particularly great about the flight, nor anything especially awful. A typical overnight flight to Europe. We’ve had better flying experiences, but also much worse.

We surprised ourselves with how much we accomplished on the first day after the flight, given sleeping isn’t a strong point of ours even under the best of circumstances. We managed to take a ferry out to what is referred to as “Museum Island.” It’s actually a peninsula, but who cares?

We first visited the Kon Tiki museum, dedicated to the exploits of Thor Heyerdahl, who gained fame for drifting from South America to Polynesia on a raft made of balsa wood in 1947. The crazy SOB had ZERO sailing experience, but he and five other dudes did it anyway. One of the guys had sailing experience, but that was it. I was familiar with Heyerdahl and the Kon Tiki saga from childhood so I found it all quite interesting. Google it if you’re unfamiliar with the story.

The second stop, basically next door, is the Fram Museum, home to a ship of the same name. It was purpose- built around the turn of the 20h Century by Norwegian artic explorers. The ship was designed to prevent the hull from being crushed if it got stuck in polar ice.

It’s too much history to go into for this blog, but the Fram is interesting nonetheless and worth a visit. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen captained the Fram to Antarctica in 1911, where he led the first successful effort to reach the South Pole. You can go inside the ship to get a sense of the living conditions on board.

We also visited the museum housing works of the artist Edward Munch, best known for his “The Scream” paintings, but Pat will cover that separately.

Our second day in Oslo coincided with Norway’s Constitution Day, akin to July 4 in the U.S. It was a big, day-long party in which many local residents dress in traditional garb. If they didn’t dress traditionally, people at least were generally in their Sunday best.

The day began with with a parade that featured marching bands and a lot of school groups, not unlike back home. The parade passed the Norwegian Parliament building, where the current president stood on a balcony and waived to the crowd. It culminated at the Royal Palace, where Norway’s royal family also waived at the crowd. The president undoubtedly has real duties. The royals, on the other hand, probably not so much. (It’s a constitutional monarchy like Britain.)

We were able to view some of the parade from the Grand Hotel on the parade route, courtesy of UpNorway, the local tour operator Pat worked with. Later we pushed through the crowds towards the Royal Palace, and then later to Vigeland Sculpture Park.

The park is built around the works of the Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland, who died in 1943. His works focus on the naked human form. They featured various body types, not idealized. We wanted to learn more but a museum dedicated to Vigeland was closed due to the national holiday.

In general we found Oslo easy to navigate. The center city is fairly compact and walkable. There are tram lines throughout. We used one briefly but mostly we walked.

Getting from the airport to the center of the city takes about 20 minutes via a dedicated train. UpNorway booked us into a hotel that was adjacent to the train station, which also meant departing for the second leg of our journey was simple. The only downside was our room faced the square fronting the train station and a tram line, so there was some noise from that.

We also bought a day pass through the local transit agency that provides access to a number of museums and all forms of public transit. How much you save depends on how much you use the pass, but if nothing else it simplifies things. You only buy one ticket, instead of having to buy multiple individual entries.

Next we are off to the countryside to explore some of Norway’s interior.