We’ve been in Oslo for just over three weeks, and we’ve been meaning to write about Oslo’s harbour. We explored it on our first day here, and have been back a bunch. But we got so caught up in other places (and food!) that we haven’t gotten round to it until now.
Opera House
The thing that most people first notice in the harbour (and we were no exception) is the Oslo Opera House. Built in 2008, it dominates Bjordika, the eastern bay of the harbour. The outside of the building is a series of angled walkways that lead up to the roof. And you can walk up the ‘sides’ of the building to reach the rooftop. Once you get to the top, the view is amazing, offering a panorama of the harbour and the islands beyond.
The opera house itself has a glass front on three sides, and it looks as if it has just broken through from under the water and reared its head. One of the really cool things about this, if you were ever a drama nerd of any kind, is that much of the behind-the scenes stuff (costume and set design etc.) happens there in beautiful airy spaces. There are no operas while we’re here. But we’re excited to have tickets for a piano performance next month so we can experience it more fully.
Munch Museum
Just behind the Opera House is the new Munch museum, dedicated to the works of Edvard Munch and his contemporaries (more on him soon). The building opened just last year (it took six years to build), and from the outside it is amazingly cool. Whereas the Opera House is sleek and smooth and white, the exterior of the Munch museum is wrapped in an aluminium skin that gently undulates, and the panels on the skin have varying levels of transparency. It’s thirteen storeys high and the top five storeys curve outward from the front of the building. The top four storeys, fronted with glass, provide spectacular views of the harbour and the islands beyond. Some critics have found fault with the museum for its size and design, but our untutored eyes really like it.
And More…
The other thing that we loved about the harbour is that there is a small beach (with sand!) in the shadow of the opera house. The first day we were there, it was full of families enjoying the sunny weather. And in the couple of times we’ve been back, it’s always been crowded.
As you’d expect, there are also stores and cafés along the waterfront, and if you walk a short distance from the Opera House and the Munch Museum there is another place to swim, separated from the rest of the harbour and with a diving board! And like the beach, it’s always full of people. To our eyes the whole complex is terrific. Naturally, it’s full of tourists (it’s designed for that!) but it’s also full of natives who clearly enjoy taking a dip in the water or lying out in the sun. We imagine it’s a bit different in winter, but at least in summer it’s a really magical place.
