Norway: Oslo Harbor and Fjord
Arriving a little early in Oslo Harbor for my boat tour of the Oslo Fjord, I realized it was simply too cold to just stand by the water, so I decided to walk around a bit to hopefully stay warm by keeping my blood pumping. There was a nearby park, so I went to explore and saw a statue up some stairs to examine. To my surprise, it was a statue of American President Franklin D Roosevelt. I had no idea why there was a statue of FDR in Norway at the time, so I was genuinely confused beyond belief. I wanted to ask someone but couldn't find a local, so I went online and found out it was a thank you to FDR for helping members of the Norwegian royal family escape during the Nazi invasion. I never knew about any of this, but to be fair, not much about Norway is taught in US schools. After I got over my surprise, I took in the beautiful sun shining over the fjord, appreciating the way the light reflected off the still water. Though I could have sat and stared out over the harbor for a while, my tour was going to get started soon so I set off for my boat.
The tour was not crowded whatsoever, so I had an entire section of seats inside for myself. Our tour guide was lovely and gave a thorough lesson about the history of the harbor and the Akershus Fortress (in English thankfully). We then set sail and started moving slowly through the ice, breaking up chunks as we moved along. We eventually were far enough out that we had a great view of the Oslo Opera House, which with the sunlight bouncing off of it, looked stunning and really stood out. And right beside the Opera House, you get a good view of the unique architecture of the Munch Museum, with the top half jutting out a bit over the lower half. A building style I had only seen done before for the Copper Building in Manhattan (if you are not familiar, I recommend looking up the building online as it's truly a sight to behold). Eventually we were too far out to see anything of note in Oslo, and were smoothly gliding along the water among many smaller islands in the fjord.
The tour then moved into a lesson about aquatic life in the harbor’s water, even having an underwater drone that showed a live camera feed onto a screen on the boat. Unfortunately, it being in the middle of January and the harbor mostly frozen over, there were no fish to be found so we didn’t see much. At this point in the tour, I decided to brave the outside and stood on the deck of the ship, taking in the bright sun overhead and freezing temperatures to look at the beauty all around. The tranquility of it all stood out, as the only noise you could really hear was the boat slowly cracking through the ice and the occasional gust of wind. It was a nice peaceful break from the relatively noisy Oslo city center my hotel was located in. After staying outside for as long as I could stand the cold, I went back inside, ordered a hot cup of tea and enjoyed the views out the windows as we headed back into the harbor as the sun was beginning to set.
Once I departed my tour, I decided to head up into the Akershus Fortress to get a view from a higher vantage point of the sunset over the fjord. While it may have taken me longer than I’d like to admit to figure out where I was going inside the fortress, I finally found an open view point and was stunned by the beauty of the sunset. The sun was a strong orange, with a bright reflection off the water. Days earlier I had explored an art museum and every painting of the fjord depicted a sunset with the reflection of what looked like a cross or a lowercase T over the water. I assumed this was likely an expression of Christianity, but when I was looking out over the water from the fortress, I realized that with the positioning of the sun that's what the reflection actually looked like. I guess the angle in the sky and the stillness of the water gave off two reflections, a lengthy reflection with a smaller round shape towards the horizon that gave off the impression of a cross when looked upon from the right angle. Needless to say I was surprised to see how accurate the paintings were.
I stayed at this viewing point until the sun went down, happy with a day of exploring the beauty of the Oslo Harbor and Fjord. I got a mix of great views of Oslo, the harbor, the islands in the fjord, and of course, the main star, how beautiful the sun looks over the water. It’s something that the photos don’t do justice to. It needs to be experienced in person to understand how beautiful it truly is.
