13.03 – 15.03 (Friday – Monday)

Holmenkollen

The drive to Oslo on Friday went well, not many cars on the road, easy to find. We started at the Fram Museum. It is a really nice museum and it is build around the big FRAM, the most popular ship in Norway. It is really impressive to see this old ship. You can go into it and visit all the rooms and equipment. It was Nansen’s ship and he used it for different explorations. Later it was used by Amundsen to win the race to the South Pole. Amundsen was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage, the first to reach the South Pole, a navigator of the Northeast Passage, the first to fly to latitude 88⁰ N, and the first to fly across the Arctic Ocean. He is one of the big idols in Norway. The exhibition around the Fram shows everything about the race, pictures, equipment and more. It was impressive to get an insight about how hard conditions have been at that time and what big risks people took to reach such a big goal.

In the afternoon we arrived at the campsite of Holmenkollen. This was so different from everything we expected. The Norwegians all seem to use the same kind of tent: a big tipi in od. Around it they build sitting benches out of snow and have a big fire going. Everybody was drinking, listening to music and enjoying the sun. It seemed to be a big festival. We enjoyed the atmosphere and had a look around.

On this and on the next day we saw different pre jumps at the jumping area and watched the 50 and 30 k race of women and men. We felt really Norwegian and it was great fun to cheer with all the different people.

The Holmenkollen museum was also interesting. But I preferred the Fram Museum. We saw a  lot of different types of skis and the development of the Holmenkollen jumping area.

On Sunday we used our free time to visit Oslo. We had really nice walk around the town from Vigelandsparken to the Opera.