After waking up a little later in the morning, but without any post-NYE hangovers (yay!), we made our way to my second favorite experience in Oslo – Holmenkollen Ski Jump. This one took us about 30 minutes via tram to get to, but in my opinion was completely worth it. Some of our pictures below may look slightly familiar if you’ve watched the latest season of the Bachelorette, because Rachel brought the guys here! It’s funny to look back at the hotel we saw and talked about how beautiful it was and then of course it was used in a reality tv show. Unfortunately I have to reign in my champagne taste to fit my sparkling wine (dry please!) budget from time to time so we skipped out on staying there.
Be prepared to trek up a fairly long hill once you get off the tram since the elevator to the very top starts halfway-ish up the hill. There is a small initial lookout space, but if you’ve come all this way you should go to the top. We walked around the Skimuseet which was incredible to learn the history of the ski jump, 1952 Olympics and the Norwegian royal family’s participation. There was also an area to see a film of the Northern Lights in case you miss them in real life.
If you’re up for it, they have an interactive exhibit where you can get into a pod-like machine that plays video and audio and moves around simulating the experience of the downhill ski jump. Kristin sat this one out, but the other people in the pod had a good laugh at me squealing when it would suddenly lurch forward or drop down.
I think I neglected to mention so far that they are very big on their trolls in Norway. Obviously we had to take pictures with them.
The final part of visiting the Holmenkollen Ski Jump is going up to the very top! We waited in a long line to go up since the viewing area itself isn’t very large. It took probably 20-30 minutes since the lift can only fit I think 15 people so it was about 2-3 minutes between each batch of people getting to go up.
It’s probably important to mention here that both Kristin and I are afraid of heights. The elevator you take to the up was pretty terrifying and I’m pretty sure everyone else in the lift with us was laughing at the sheer terror on my face as we went up a hill in a GLASS elevator. It was cruel.
Being that it was December, the winds were INSANE. We got out of the lift and climbed one last set of stairs that brought us to the lookout. I understand why the walls were so high. If they were any lower surely one of us would have been swept away.
You can see down the famous ski jump and to the left of it the small area with snow where you could still actually ski.
Definitely plan for this to take half a day. We thought it would be a quick in and out experience but after getting there, walking up the hill, going through the museum, and riding the elevator up took about 3 hours alone.
Our final stop took us to Frogner Park. I imagine in the summer that this park is packed with people doing all sorts of activities as well as relaxing. Apparently there is even an outdoor public pool! Even in winter it was beautiful and a nice way to walk around and get some fresh air. My favorite part of Frogner Park was the Vigeland Sculpture Park that includes over 200 different sculptures made by Gustav Vigeland. If you recall I previously mentioned that the intrigue and interest in most art is kind of lost on me. That said, these sculptures were worth a look even if I didn’t take them seriously. Sorry Gustav, but some of these I just don’t get.
Exhibit A – the sculpture of a man kicking babies!
Hanging with my friends:
The way I prefer to hold cats:
With a limited schedule, this was the last but we got to see in Norway as we flew back to the states the following day. I’m sure there are a million things we didn’t see, but I’m happy we got a little taste of what Norway has to offer. I’ll give our final thoughts on Norway in my next post!
xx
Nicole