Walking on top of the Oslo Opera House

I'm not sure if you had asked me what might be one of the highlights of my holidays I would have even thought, let alone suggested: Walking on top of the Oslo Opera House, yet, like many natives of Oslo, as well as other tourists, I found it was a fun way to spend a Friday evening!!

But more of that a little later, let's take the evening in the order it happened.

Thon Hotel Opera

Having got to the room at just before 3pm we settled in, unpacked our cases and uploaded our photos onto Flickr up to this point. We left the room at 4.40pm and planned to head out.

As I mentioned in my previous post the hotel we are staying in is somewhat eclectic in its décor, what we hadn't noticed when we were checking in was the statue in the centre of the reception area. It is called the Kiss and is by the Italian artist Bruno Bruni, it is a little risque. With so many people in this area Drew wasn't taking this photo unless I was willing to be in the photo.

Immediately outside the hotel are two other statues. One of the owner of the chain Olav Thon, dressed as he was often seen as a seafarer, which was his work before he became a restaurateur and later an hotelier - Thon died in November last year.

On the other side of the hotel entrance is another statue called “The Traveller” this statue was created by the sculptor Kurt Laurenz Metzler. 

Deichman Bjørvika - Central Library

From the front of the hotel we could see the building opposite, Deichman Bjørvika - also known as Oslo Central Library. Deichman was founded in 1785 and is Norway's oldest and largest public library, it has recently been located in a new building, which is the one that draw the eye as you leave the hotel. 

The side is even more impressive, here seen with the sculpture called Art by Monyard in the foreground.

The Library provides a lively social dimension, with silent places for book reading, an area for book borrowing and another for special items in the library. Then there is a cinema, workshop area and two cafés. Across the six floors it is like a city in itself.

Operahuset Oslo - Oslo Opera House

A further few meters across the road and we were at the Oslo Opera House, home of the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet. While this may not be the Sydney Opera House, it has its own charms. 

 The fascinating design is created so that you can literally walk on the roof of the building and lots of people do. It is a relax place and everyone seems to be aware of and concerned for the wellbeing of the others walking beside, before or behind them. A sense of what given Norwegians that spirit of lykke of which they are so proud.

The opera house roof also gives great photos of the Oslofjord beyond. 

A digression: An explanatory point about Fjords

Mentioning the Oslofjord is a reminder of a discovery I made in the weeks before coming to Norway. This is that Fjord has a different meaning in Norwegian than it does in English (even though it is a word borrowed from Norwegian in English). 

In English and to me before this holiday, Fjord means a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. This sense of Fjord is the one used by Douglas Adams who puts into the character of Slartibartfast, in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a love for fjords "especially the fiddly bits". Whereas the Norwegian word has a much more general meaning, referring to any long, narrow body of water, inlet or channel. It is the Norwegian sense that the body of water around Oslo is known as the Oslofjord. The steep types of Fjord will have to wait for us to travel to Norway's west coast.

Street Art

Oslo is blessed with lots of street art, just along the road from the Opera House, before the Munch Museum is this intriguing set of statutory called Fellesskap, which in English is Community - they were designed by the Norwegian sculptor Nico Widerberg.

Munch Museum

Along the coast, next to the Opera House is the Munch Museum, Edvard Munch, the painter of the Scream and other famous works, is a native of Oslo and is well celebrated here. A whole museum is dedicated to him. It is a fascinating piece of arcitecture.

The M of Munch appears around the Museum and elsewhere around Oslo.

In addition to the museum this part of Oslo is home to a Tracy Emin piece of art/junk - you can choose the description based on your personal art appreciation or otherwise - called Moren, in English Mother. 

It turns out that not only the statue, but the meadow surrounding it is part of the artwork. I was never good at art in school and while I like a good rewilded meadow, I'm not sure it makes art - but given the money Emin makes as an artist I've clearly misunderstood!!

Then statue does look more effective in situ as its roughness stands in conflict with the clean straight lines of the museum itself as these photos show:

Operastranda - Opera Beach 

Walking back from the Munch Museum we noted around the back of the Opera House a busy area with people laying on the grass and going into the sea. This is Operastranda, the Opera Beach, which is another part of well loved Oslo life. 

The local teenagers seemed very enamoured by the diving board, but there were people of all age from 4 to 80+ having a dip or at least a paddle in the fjord.

I must admit, having spent hours in this part of the city, I was amazed to find that a hotel I booked to be close to the railway station turned out to be so near these four highlights of Oslo life. The library, Munch museum and opera house form three of the top ten sites of Oslo in all of the online sources I have read and all of them were within 500 meters of the hotel - amazing. 

Still, we have yet more to explore, the map of our plan for today ran like this:

So we began the longer part of the walk.

Oslo Havn - Oslo Harbour

Across the Fjord from the three 'big' sites is Oslo Havn, the main port of the city, but alongside the main port is also more social focussed areas and place for people to rod fish, as many were doing. 

The harbour was very busy all evening as we strolled along and we enjoyed watching the various people and the various boats messing about on the Fjord. 

Alongside the harbour was the Normandy Landing memorial

and the large fortress/castle known as Akershus Festning

also a memorial to event of which I have no recollection, the disaster of the Scandinavian Star

finally, at the end of the harbour we come across a funny little Police station and the Oslo rådhus (Town Hall)

The town hall is very impressive with lots of statues around it - all of them are represented on the Flickr page for today. Those interested are welcome to see them there. 

Dinner at Solsiden

At 8pm, after a lovely evening so far, we walked back from the Rådhus to our dinner booking for the evening. 

Given that today was a Friday and we were travelling I booked somewhere for slightly latter than we normally eat, to give us time to settle in, this worked well as we were both ready to eat at the time we got to Solsiden, the fish restaurant on Oslohavn that we had walked past an hour earlier just before arriving at the Rådhus.

Lots of our fellow diners were sharing the house speciality: Plateau de Fruits de Mer i.e.

Seafood Platter, this huge pile of shellfish including Lobster, shrimps, scallops, crab claws, mussels, Norwegian crayfish and snow crab looked imposing - you can see a photo of it here - and the reality was very like the image. Tempted as I was I knew we weren't going to share this. Drew, who likes his food, can be intimidated when it looks a huge amount, he prefers small and plenty of it, rather than a huge mound. So, our selection was from the main menu.

All guests were served Brød og Smør (bread and butter) to begin (and indeed it was replaced throughout the meal), a simple, but very fresh white loaf, this was good for mopping up sauces that might otherwise have been messy. 

For his starter Drew selected Grillet kamskjell med syltet sellerirot, karamellisert sellerirotpuré og XO saus (Grilled scallops with pickled celeriac, purée of caramelized celeriac and XO sauce). Drew enjoyed the sauce, though it might have been a bit sweeter than expected, but the scallops themselves were wonderful they had wonderful crunch to the bite and plenty of salty tang. The veg was also cruncy, yum. 

I opted for Havsalat med grillet blekksprut, krabbe, fennikel og vinaigrette (Seafood salad with grilled pulpo, crab, fennel and vinaigrette) - I liked the fact that their English menu translated blekksprut as pulpo, the Spanish word for the octopus, but I understood why when I eat the salad as the flavour of the pulpo had the same rich paprika flavour that pulpo alla gallega has in Spain. 

As well as the tasty soft pulpo and crabs, the salad leaves were a revelation. There were 12 different type of leaf, each bringing a different flavour to the dish, some very peppery, others were nettles - all in all a wonderful dish enhanced by the cruncy radish. 

For his mains Drew opted for Stekt laks med perlepotet, kremet purre og fennikelkompott med vin jaune (Pan seared salmon with pearl potatoes, creamed leek and fennel compote with vin jaune). The pearl potatoes were lovely and buttery, the kale was lightly boiled and crunchy, beneath the salad were a lovey bed of leek, garlic, onions and fennel in the jaune sauce. The Salmon remained the star of the dish, it was well cooked, crunchy and had a full flavour - a perfect choice as far as Drew was concerned.

I opted for the Stekt piggvar med potetpuré, ferskrevet pepperrot og kremet hummersaus (Pan seared turbot with potato purée, freshly grated horseradish and creamed lobster sauce). Turbot always brings back great memories for me, of the first time I ate it at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant, of the times I've had it in Puerta del Mar in Nerja, it is a robust, almost meaty, fish and all the better for that strength. Here served with a rich lobster sauce it was lifted to another level - lobster has a tangy sweetness that was present in this sauce and made the turbot taste even more turboty than normal - amazing. The crispy green beans and asparagus must have been shown the water and taken straight out to taste this crisp. They were lightly sauteed with garlic which again enhanced their flavour. The potato puree was much more finally mashed than I prefer, but this was made up for by the sharp earthy flavour of the horseradish which had been shaved over them. A lot of strong flavours on this dish, but ones that a robust fish like Turbot could easily accommodate. I know Friday is supposed to be a day of abstinence, but with fish this good, it seems more like a treat than a penance.  

For dessert Drew selected something new to him Operakake, lagvis med sjokoladecremeaux, kaffecremeaux og Creme Chantilly og kaffeis (Opera cake with layers of chocolate cremeaux, coffee cremeaux, Creme Chantilly and coffee ice cream). Apparently opera cake originates in France where it is called Gâteau opéra, it has layers of almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup. The coffee ice-cream was a zinger, Drew's mouth was ablaze with sharp dark coffee, the chantilly was smooth and designed to balance the ice cream out. The cake had more gentle flavours and textures too, each layer offering another gentle delight. 

I, not sure how big a risk it was, decided to order the Cheese Board - it was offered with various compotes and other sweet add-ons, but I was able to request they didn't come. 

The cheese was served as I like it, simple and with knekkebrød, that is rye crispbread, a perfect accompaniment to cheese in my mind. From left to right it was a Burgundian cheese I didn't get the name of, but which was gentle and lightly acidic; next comes the Morbier, a cheese with which I'm familiar, but with a strong earthy flavour which is pleasant. Next came Sprek Nordlænding a Norwegian hard goat's cheese much like Parmesan in texture, it was completed by a lively and delightful Norway blue called Kraftkar, like all the best cheese it felt like it could bite you back if you weren't careful.

We completed the meal with an Espresso kafé (espresso coffee) which was made with Italian Illy beans, the marketers had got to it and the cups wished that we would 'live happilly' using illy to join with the happ.

Having started the meal at 8pm we were finished by 9.45pm and walked back to the hotel.

When we got back there at around 10pm we found the three buildings we have visited earlier festooned with light as the darkness finally came down on Oslo.