7/8/26 Ekerberg Sculpture Park & Oslo Opera House

 

    Today justin & Isla are going up to the hills and walk back into the city via a river walk , we opted out of that one and decided to go up the mountain behind us to another sculpture park . It was only one tram stop away , so didn't take long to get there . Here's a view of the city from the roof top area this morning. 

It feels like we are in a quarry - or what remains of one , with the solid rock wall behind us and forest growing right to the edge , and in some spots down the cliff face .

We walked a different route to the tram stop for a change , going past these older buildings .

Looking back toward the apartment .

We walked past the hospital which dates back to 1851 and has had several upgrades over the years . Arriving at the tram stop , we started our walk up the hill , sculptures appearing regularly . There's a restaurant and function centre up here as well as a children's playground with zip line and low ropes course .

This one was named Marilyn .

Just past the restaurant is a lookout area with the one sculpture we wanted to see - Chloe . The sculpture is only 30cm wide but 3 dimensional , it changes as you walk around it .

It is quite stunning .

This is looking down toward the harbour and the business district . The buildings in the middle are for housing and there's several more under construction , they are designed to look like old warehouses , and succeed admirably .

This is more of the harbour area and more apartments on the finger wharf . The ship in the background usually docks every 2nd day , and must be an inter island type cruise boat , other cruise boats docked in the bay behind that one . Oslo is another busy port .

Up on the hills are ski jumps , there's the main one on the middle left of photo and actually 4 more just right of middle , and are used for ski jump training .

From the lookout there's a track that leads back down the hill , it slopes downwards and has several sets of steps to go down as well . Another sculpture greeted us on the walk down as well .

This walk has been excellent , green moss , steep slopes , rocks & lots of trees made for a great walk .

Another row of older apartments near the bottom of the hill .

We sat at some steps near the bottom of the walk and had our lunch , before going down to the tram stop and catching a tram into the city . This is where the river flows out into the harbour and has more sculptures . The leaning building i  the background is the Munch Museum - it's an art museum and entertainment venue . The glassed sections at the top are a restaurant and a viewing deck .

The next building is the Public Library , and is certainly a different design , as are most newer buildings here in Oslo , they are designed to not be the same as each other . The library certainly is a different design.

    This is the Opera House , another different design . This one you can walk up and onto the roof , the main entrance to the opera house is in the middle of the photo on ground level .

There's a sloping roof section to walk up , or there's some gradual steps near the sides .

 

    Here's the view from above .

Across the bay are some sauna boats , seems to be a thing here , you pay and have a sauna and when your done you jump in the harbour before doing it all again and again . Some of the boats are a little more elaborate and let you jump in off the roof of the boat !!!

Just for a change , another sculpture by the harbour .

Inside the opera house are these lighted panels , look very cool .

Timber takes over inside and lines the balconies etc , also looks very cool.

Here's the Munch Museum again with a Ferris Wheel . The wheel certainly isn't busy and there were very few people waiting for a ride .

Further around from the wheel were some older style wooden boats .

Here's the other sauna boats that you can jump off the roof into the harbour .

Down beside the pier is a replica viking boat - a complete working version that you can do a tour on - at a price of course .

Those buildings I mentioned earlier that are designed to look like warehouses , here they are .

   We continued around the bay onto the finger wharf with the apartments on it , via a floating walkway . Then continued on to a bus stop , where we headed back in to the main square outside the railway station . This is where we caught up with Justin & Isla , and headed out to the ferry terminal where there's a lot of restaurants . Isla chose a steakhouse where we ate before heading back to the apartment , a good day had by all . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1El3emNyI9BcsuNdRujhfILElyu3VYZ4&usp=sharing