OSLO, the capital city of Norway

Oslo Train Station and the sightseeing bus.


The Information Centre located right in front of the train station and Karl Johans Gate on the opposite side of the Information Centre. 'Gate' is street in English. It is the Norway's best known and busiest street with many different types of shops on both sides and is named after the king of Norway and Sweden, Karl Johan (1818-44). Walking straight on the road from the train station direction, it brings you to the Royal Palace standing on the hill at the end of Karl Johans Gate.


The lives of Oslo people on the raining day.


Mushroom fountain in front of the National Theatre. Two animals hugging statue.


The Norwegian Parliament and the food and drink stalls in front of the parliament at the corner of Karl Johans Gate and Rosenkrantz Gate.


Tourist shop at Aker Brygge and Aker Brygge Shopping Centre.


4-side Clock Tower and The Eternal Peace-Flame at Aker Brygge

Viking Ship Museum

The Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy was designed by Arnstein Arneberg - the same highly renowned Norwegian architect who designed the Oslo City Hall. He won the architect competition in 1913.

In the musuem, you will find the grave finds from Tune, Gokstad and Oseberg. When the grave finds were found in the late nineteenth century, there was not specific museum used to display the finds. They were exhibited in the University Garden in Oslo, a temporary shelter for them. Only in 1913, it was proposed by Professor Gabriel Gustafson who led the excavation of the Osberg ship in 1904.

Date back to the period from 800 to 1050 A.D., the Vikings actually came from what is now Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They were not only strong-willed warriors and seafarers but also excellent farmers, merchants and craftsmen.


The followings are the pictures of the Osberg ships, the grave finds from the Oseberg Farm in Slagen, not far from Tønsberg. It was excavated in 1904.


The Gokstad Ship was excavated from Gokstad farm in the county of Sandefjord in 1880.


The Tune Ship was found at the Nedre Haugen farm in Rolvsøy, Østfold and was excavated in 1867.

The City Hall of Oslo

Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson won the architectural competition of Oslo City Hall in 1918. Their final design was done in 1930. After being delayed for some times by the World War II, the building was finally completed in 1950. It consists of two office towers and a central building containing the main hall and the city parliament chamber and is richly decorated with sculptures and paintings. The east tower and the west tower are 66 and 63 metres high respectively. In addition to being a work place for running the city's political and administrative management, the main hall has been used as a venue to present the Nobel Peace Prize every year on the 10th December since 1990. It also attracts more than 100,000 visitors every year. The main hall covers more than 1,500 sq. metres with a ceiling height of 20.8 metres. The paintings on the wall of the main hall were done by Henrik Sørensen and Alf Rolfsen as shown below.


The followings are some other paintings that can be seen inside the town hall.


"Life", painted by Edvard Munch, can be seen in the Munch's room in the town hall.


The front of the Town Hall, the bird statues on the top of the fountain and the postbox at the main entrance.

Flowers found in Trondheim, Norway

It is amazing to see all these flowers in the summer. Enjoy the photos as much as you can.

Tyholt Tower, Trondheim

Bus 60 and 20 from the town centre bring you to Tyholt Tower. Its height is 124 meters. It is a TV tower with a rotating restaurant at the top. On sunny days, you can see clearly the reflections of the views surrounding the tower on the glass surfaces.

Scenic views at Være Østre, Trondheim

På Vei

If you have no idea about norwegian, the good book to start with is På Vei. It is written by Elisabeth Ellingsen and Kirsti Mac Donald. It comes with a CD but the CD is enclosed at the back of the workbook. It is good that you buy the workbook to practise what you have learned from the book. If you have a German background you can pick up the language easily as there are a lot of similar words in both languages. If you have a good English background, it helps a lot of in the grammar part.

Norway

It is divided into five divisions which are Nord-Norge, Midt-Norge, Vestlandet, Sørlandet and Østlandet.

There are 19 counties altogether.

1) Nord-Norge : Finnmark, Troms, Nordland
2) Midt-Norge : Nord-Trøndelag, Sør-Trøndelag
3) Vestlandet : Møre and Romsdal, Sogn and Fjordane, Hordaland, Rogaland
4) Sørlandet : Vest-Agder, Aust-Agder
5) Østlandet : Telemark, Vestfold, Østfold, Akershus, Buskerud, Hedmark, Oppland, Oslo

Oslo is the capital and the largest city of Norway, Bergen the second largest, Trondheim the third largest, Stavanger the fourth largest and followed by Kristiansand.

According to the population statistic in 2004, Oslo has 517 000 inhabitants, Bergen 235 000, Trondheim 153 000, Stavanger 111 000 and Kristiansand 74 000.


(1) The counties of Norway (2) The main cities and towns in Norway

A message for visitors in Trondheim

In Trondheim, the most convenient transportation is bus. Unlike London, there is no underground here... A 24-hour bus ticket costs only 55 kroner. You can buy it from the bus driver when you get on the bus and you can also ask the bus driver for a small free book that contains the timetables and the routes of all buses available here.

It is easy to trace the bus you want to get on as you can see a number with the final destination written on the head banner of the bus. With bus no 5, you can go to Stokkanhaugen and walk around in the jungle path, if you are lucky, you might see a moose in the field. You can go to Jonsvatnet with bus no 24 to see the lake view. Bus 75 or 76 to Spongdal, from there you can overlook the Trondheimsfjorden. Bus 60 or 20 to the Moholt Tower, there you can have a meal in the revolving restaurant on the top of the tower. You can visit some big shopping plazas located outside the town such as City Lade and City Syd.

Wah! From the bus routes I mention you might think that Trondheim is very big to travel around. However, the town center is not as big as what you think. You can walk around easily and you can walk along the river Nidelva to enjoy the view. You can also walk from the town center to Gløshaugen which is one of the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) to see the campus life.

Me and Trondheim

Trondheim must be a very cold place for someone who grew up in a warm country. Snow everywhere with a strong cold wind blowing all the time and we have to wear like an Eskimo living in the North Pole. In fact, it is not. Trondheim, actually, is quite a pretty place to visit during summer and autumn. It is the third largest city in Norway, is situated in the county of Sør-Trøndelag where the river Nidelva meets a large fjord called Trondheimsfjorden and has around 156,000 inhabitants according to the survey in 2005.

Living in the basement is not a good experience especially in the winter. When November turned in and the day got bright late in the morning, the live in basement became a little dull. Here, in the winter, the sun rises at around 10:00, sets at around 14:30 and stays just above the horizon. The winter temperature can drop below -5 to -20 degree Celsius. In the summer, it has a very short night as the sun rises at around 03:00 and sets at around 23:40 and the temperature varies from 10 to 25 degree Celsius.

Here you can visit Nidaros Cathedral, Archbishop’s Palace, the NTNU University, the old town bridge, the view of the river Nidelva, Kristiansten Fortress, Ringve National Museum of music and musical instruments, statue of Olav Tryggvason in the city’s central plaza.

The map of Trondheim city centre and places to visit.