Today I want to bring you my guide to spending 1 day in Oslo. The capital of Norway is one of the most exciting cities in Europe, and there’s a lot to see and do here.
1 Day in Oslo
My trip to Oslo was the last stop on a journey through Scandinavia and the Baltics. It included Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, and Lithuania’s Hill of Crosses.
When my flight from Riga arrived in Oslo it was 48 degrees Fahrenheit outside (9 degrees Celsius).
Waiting on the platform for the high-speed train to take me to the city center, I pulled the giant hood of my jacket over my head to keep warm. Wasn’t this supposed to be August?
After waiting in the cold for what felt like forever, I boarded the airport train. It dropped me and my boyfriend off in Oslo just after 9am.
There was construction work going on outside the station, and the empty streets were steeped in long shadows as we rolled our suitcases over the cobblestones.
It seemed like Norway might not be as pleasant a place to visit as I had hoped. Did I even want to spend 1 day in Oslo?
Hotel in Oslo
Things looked up a bit when we arrived at our lodging, a boutique hotel in the heart of Oslo called First Hotel Grims Grenka.
We ate a wholesome breakfast in the sleek dining area, then went up to our room, a trendy black-and-green cube with mirrors and windows everywhere.
1 Day in Oslo: Morning
The weather was warming up when we left the hotel. We spent a few hours walking around Oslo, visiting everything from the striking 20th-century City Hall to the ultra-contemporary Opera House.
It being Scandinavia, we couldn’t resist doing a bit of furniture shopping. Lured by the genius of Scandinavian-designed chairs and being in need of a couple of them for our flat in London, we visited several shops in the city center.
Alas, we didn’t purchase anything, as nobody seemed to know much about shipping oversized chairs from Oslo to London. Oh, and the chairs were really expensive.
1 Day in Oslo: Afternoon
At lunchtime we found ourselves in Grunerlokka, a neighborhood full of funky shops and restaurants with lots of outdoor tables.
Wanting to take advantage of the first sunny day we had seen in a while, we snagged a table outside one of the restaurants and feasted on an open-faced smoked salmon sandwich.
The day grew ever warmer, as did my attitude toward our 1 day in Oslo. We spent some time walking along the waterfront, picking up some local cherries to munch along the way.
We eventually made our way to Akershus Castle, which was bustling with late-summer wedding parties.
1 Day in Oslo: Evening
Exhausted, we headed back to our hotel for a drink on the roof deck and then went to dinner at a restaurant called Ekebergrestauranten in the hills of eastern Oslo.
Set in a 1920’s functionalist building overlooking city, the restaurant was a great find.
Oslo to London
The next morning we woke up early and begrudgingly acknowledged that our trip to Oslo was coming to an end.
We prolonged our breakfast at the hotel for as long as we could, then took the train to the airport. When we arrived we were informed that inclement weather in London was going to delay our flight. Go figure.
We got home to Hampstead just before a downpour of biblical proportions descended on London. The torrential rains and gale-force winds made Hurricane Gustav look like a nice spring shower.
It made us start looking forward to our next big trip to sunny Cape Town and Namibia. But for now I’ll look back on my 1 day in Oslo with fond memories.
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