Oslo - city center

Oslo city center

The city center is situated in the end of the beautiful Oslofjord. The streets are small, and there are extremely many nice
sculptures all over the city. The main street is Karl Johans gate, where most of the shopping, restaurant and some
museums are.

Karl Johans gate, the main street of Oslo. The following pictures are from Karl Johan:

Oslo was more small scale in the city center than I expected. When walking at the main street Karl Johan, it didn't feel like a big capital
city at all. The first part of Karl Johan is pedestrian, while the later and more hilly part is trafficated by cars. Even though there are many
cars in Oslo, they drive pretty slow and relaxed.

Most of the chain stores are Swedish, so they are the same as in Sweden: H&M, Lindex, KappAhl,
Åhléns, ICA, they are all there together with Norwegian stores like Dressman and Rimi that also exist
in Sweden. The only difference is that they are much more expensive.

Oslo domkirke (the cathedral of Oslo). It was originally built in 1697, but the tower was added in 1850.
I think it is pretty small do be a cathedral.

Vor Frelsers kirke (church of our saviour). Church near Karl Johan.

A nice façade on Karl Johan.

Nice green building at Egertorvet, the square between the royal castle and the central station. There
were many beggars in Oslo, almost one in every block.Probably they have come from other countries
because they have heard that Norway is rich or something.

Looking towards the Royal castle. This is the more exciting and beautiful part of Karl Johan. On "17 maj", the national day of Norway,
the Norwegians parades towards the palace. Btw, the banderols shows that the city was preparing for the Oslo Jazzfestival. 70 000
people are expected to visit the festival after our visit, to compare with Malmöfestivalen; 1,5 million people in one week!

We stopped at this place for a while while the girls were buying some clothes.

The advertisement signs are competing with each other next to Karl Johan. Note the Norwegian police car to the left.

Beautiful gothic building.

Towards the Royal castle.

Parallel to Karl Johan is Stortingsgata. The are between them is called Spikersuppa and have fountains and trees.

Strange sculpture at Spikersuppa. There are many sculptures in Oslo.

Nasjonalgalleriet, The National Gallery of Oslo. This art museum has free entrance! Among its art
collection has been a version of The Scream by Edward Munch.

Oslo has a well operating tram system. Subway and buses.

Trefoldighetskirken (Trinity Church) from 1858. Like a redbrick gothic version of St Paul's cathedral.
It is 30m between the floors and the walls of the inner dome.

Folkteaterbygningen at Youngstorget. If you look carefully, you can see this building was inspired by
Empire State Building. But it is much, much smaller and more simple. It has only 12 floors (46m), but
was built already in 1935 (but it looks much newer in my opinion).

Diverse achitectures! Biskop Gunnerus Gate 14 (Postgirobygget) is the tall building in the middle.

Modern architecture and trams.

Postgirobygget (Biskop Gunnerus Gate 14) from below. 7 floors have been added to the top of Norway's
2nd tallest building, that was originally built in 1975 as an 84m 19-storey highrise. It is now 111m tall and
has 26 floors. Believe it or not, a Norwegian band named themselves after this building (Postgirobygget)!

Radisson SAS Oslo Plaza Hotel. The tallest building in Norway, the tallest and largest hotel in Scandinavia, and 3rd tallest building in
Scandinavia, Radisson SAS Oslo Plaza Hotel is hidden behind. I like how it suddenly appears behind the low houses. It has 673 rooms.

The skyscraper is 117m tall and has 37 floors. It was built in 1990.

Skybridges lead to Oslo Plaza and Postgirobygget from the other side of the road. It is connected to
the large shopping mall Oslo City with 89 stores.

We met Kjetilab at Oslo Plaza.

The first thing we did after meeting was going in to the lobby of the hotel and up with the fast glass
enclosed elevator to the restaurant on the 37th floor on the top.

The views above Oslo:

Towards Holmenkollen, the popular ski jump mountain.

As you can see 7 floors where added on Postgirobygget recently and the building was renovated.
An architect firm hosts the top floors. The addition makes Olso Plaza invisible from some angles.

Margaretakyrkan is the Swedish church in Oslo. It is situated at Hammersborg torg. It is the building
to the right of Trefoldighetskirken.

Our ship, Crown of Scandinavia seen from the hotel!

Highways of Oslo leading through a tunnel. The building under construction will be a 17-storey highrise and is just one of a taller
architecture that is popping up and will form a new skyline together with Oslo Plaza and Postgirobygget.

Jernbanetorvet with the modern clock tower Trafikanten.

Going down with the glass enclosed elevator. After that we went up and then down again to feel the gravity.

The panorama elevator passing the Radisson sign.

The new opera house under construction at the waterfront. Seen from the elevator.

Looking up Oslo's tallest building/Scandianvia's tallest hotel!

Jernbanetorvet (Railway Square) with the modern clock tower Trafikanten. I like it, because it looks
like typical Tokyo architecture. I also like the old gothic building to the left of it.

Oslo Sentralstasjon, the new central station.

The old one (the yellow building to the right) has been transformed into a shopping galleria. Needless to say, you can also see Norway's 2 tallest buildings in this picture.

A cool modern fountain next to the old train station at Jernbanetorvet. Now we walk to Karl Johan again.

We also entered Hard Rock Café at Karl Johan with many guitars formerly belonging to famous artists.

Nationaltheater at Karl Johan. Built in 1899 and 45m tall.

Another cool fountain on "Spikersuppa", next to the national theatre and Karl Johan.

The end of Karl Johan, at the Royal Castle. In the background you can see Oslo's 3rd tallest highrise,
Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel (67m, 22 floors), Oslo Plaza's little brother from 1975.

Utenriksdepartementet (ministry for foreign affairs). With its Victorian architecture, it is in my opinion the most beautiful building in Oslo!

Unfortunately the view of Utenriksdepartementet is partly destroyed from ground level, because the built the ugly grey modernist
"Terrassen". Horrible!

Det Kongelige Slott, The Royal Palace. It was built in 1848 in classicism style. It lies in the middle of the Royal Family´s residence
with its beautiful gardens. On 17 May, Norway´s national day, children parades through Karl Johan and pass the palace. The king
Harald is at home, that is what the flag means according to Kjetil.

A statue of King Karl Johan XIV at the castle.

Looking down Karl Johan from the castle.

Norway's 2 tallest buildings seen from the castle.

The 2 skyscrapers and the national theatre above 2 buses. The buses of Oslo are light red, but suddenly a green bus appeared, the same colour as we use in Malmö.

Yet another bizarre Oslo sculpture! We had diner at a Burger King near Karl Johan and the castle.
That was extremely expensive, it landed on almost 10 euros (or around 90 norwegian crowns) for a
Whopper meal After the meal we were heading towards the famous Vigelandspark with beautiful
sculptures. It has now started to get warm and the sky was opening a little bit. Click here to visit
Vigelandparken. After Vigelandparken we went back to the city center and walked to the harbour district:

Rådhuset (town hall), built in 1950. The tallest of the two 17-storey towers is 66m and the lower 63m.
Has been a symbol of Oslo for more than 50 years, I remember it was one of the first buildings I have
seen on pictures of Oslo. The place in front of the town hall is called Rådhusplassen.