A city site perfect for Oslo sight-seeing

We've arrived in Norway - our fifth country in our 5 countries in 5 weeks tour. I've always wanted to visit Norway and see its spectacular landscapes. Unfortunately we are not spending as much time here as I had hoped as the return journey will soon begin taking us back through Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. A taste is better than nothing!

 

Today we travelled up the south-west coast of Sweden and across the border. It might not match up to the scale of northern Norwegian fiords but we did see some impressive sights as we crossed road bridges over rivers and inlets. I'm looking forward to more of this.

 

The journey ended not far from the capital city at our stopover site: Ekeberg camping. Perched in woodland high above the city, it is the ideal spot to explore Oslo. It was quite busy and had a mixture of caravans, motorhome and quite a few tents. There is one toilet block at one end of the site which has toilets, showers and dish washing facilities. Showers cost 15 NOK - we avoided paying this cost since we'd be moving on the next day so can't vouch for how good the showers are. The site was busy during our stay and had some large groups of young adults as well as couples. The atmosphere was lively and quite noisy but everything settled later into the night. There was actually more noise coming from a concert down in the city centre!

 

There is small shop and fast food cafe at the entrance to the site but the nearest supermarket is in Oslo. The site doesn't offer the usual sports or outdoor activities that we've seen on other sites so there is no playground, giant jumping pillow or swimming pool but there is are a couple of football pitches. But that isn't the reason for visiting this site - it's the location and its proximity to the capital city that is the obvious attraction.

 

In order to get into the city centre, there are regular buses that run from a stop right outside the reception area. The numbers 34 and 74 both run regularly throughout the day. An adult 24-hour ticket for all public transport costs 90 NOK and a child costs 45 NOK which is cheap compared to a single fare of 50 NOK, especially if spending the day exploring the sights that the city has to offer.

 

We arrived late afternoon and did not have a day to explore since we were only staying one night but we did decide to make the most of the fact that were so close to Oslo. Instead of catching the bus, we decided to stretch our legs after the 3 hour journey and wandered down the hill into the outskirts of the city to where the Opera House is located; it is about a 2 - 3 km walk. The journey back is uphill though with some steep sections!

 

We did a bit of research into possible locations to visit and if time had allowed we probably would have liked to walk down the main street, Karl Johans gate and take in the main historical buildings such as the Oslo cathedral, the National theatre and Royal Palace. Norway is quite expensive place but it is possible to see the capital on a budget; there are free locations such as Vigeland Sculpture park, walking on the roof of the Opera House, Akershus fortress and the City hall. If you fancy a museum, there is an art museum dedicated to Munch, where you can view The Scream and a Viking Ship museum, National museum of Art, Natural history museum, Museum of Science and Technology and the one that appealed to us, the Fram museum dedicated to the story of Norwegian polar expeditions with the Fram ship. 

 

Our stay here was very short and unfortunately we weren't able to see a lot but we are looking forward to heading out into the dramatic landscapes that Norway has to offer.