Oslo downtown #1

Every Saturday morning my kids go to a private Russian school downtown. In the meanwhile we parents have some time off. This day we had different things on our agendas - my mission for the day was to look after my dhingy, which I now moored up downtown. I walk here every so often, but this time I decided to act like a tourist and take some photos.

On my way to the dhingy, there is one place with lots of big birds. Someone is feeding them there, so they have become pretty stuck. The big bird to the right is usually sitting or standing right in the walk path. I suppose such birds can be dangerous, so I usually do a detour around it.

I was quite annoyed seeing a photo of a big bridge and the sign "bikes must be walked" in a post the other day, so I was surprised to find the same sign here in Oslo today. However, this is a walking bridge, with stairs, not being very long, and bikers will probably find faster routes not involving this bridge, so not the same annoying.

There's my dhingy! Not stolen yet, nice. I do have a chain and a padlock for it, but I can't find the padlock at the moment. As some "security by obscurity" I left the chain going up from the boat and around one of the supports on the bridge, so people passing by should at least believe it was locked. Today I brought with me a new padlock, that was one of the main purposes with my trip.

It doesn't show very well on the picture, but the two nearest men are fishing with rods.

This is the outlet of Akerselva, probably the most important river in Oslo. There is no ice here due to the speed of the river and the significant waterflow. The river goes up to the train station, they've built a nice quay there, but unfortunately they've closed the river for traffic for three years now due to the construction works. If I understand it right, the only reason why it's closed is that there is a non-zero risk that they may accidentally drop something into the head of whomever would be passing the river. Very annoying. Further upstream, at the other side of the rails (river goes in a tunnel under the rails) there are some boats moored, so they are basically stuck there (between a water fall and the closed section of the river) for several years? Crazy.

I was surprised to see -9C on the thermometer when waking up this morning - I hadn't paid enough attention to the forecast! Another purpose of my trip was to check if it would be possible to get out at all with the dhingy - and yes, indeed, there isn't too much ice yet. Unfortunately I didn't have enough clothes with me for actually moving it to some less icy place.

Ducks walking on the edge of the ice ...

Hope the dhingy will still be there next time ...

The big bird had moved a bit out of the way as I walked back.

There are so much construction activity here (and it has been for a while!). This will be the new Munch museum if I'm not mistaken ... such a big building just to store some old paintings ...

Construction cranes everywhere ... and small temporary housing for construction workers. I'm not sure what that thing in the middle is. In the background, the opera building.

Backside of the opera building. Inside there is some workshop for costumes, lots of sewing machines to be seen, usually there are also quite some costumes and other props visible inside.

That bridge is going over the railways and at the other side there is the bus terminal - but that's probably Oslo's most pedestrian-unfriendly bridge! Perhaps I'll rant over it in another post later ...

Here is the panorama of construction works ...

And even more construction works!

The will be the new library - and look to the left, that's a part of my finger ...

Here is the Opera house, from the front side.

Oh, I think I should rant a bit about the Opera as well. Actually I've never been attending a performance there. I do remember it was quite much of a political debate before they built it, the building was very costly indeed, and quite some people from the districts were upset that so much state money was funneled to the capital (back then I lived 1200 km away from the capital, by the way ...)

Another thing is that it's quite big subsidies going to the richer part of the population - in addition that the building was built by state money, they are totally dependent on state money to keep the fat lady singing. Quite few Norwegians have an interest for going to operas, and despite the subsidies the ticket prices are still expensive enough to keep the lower middle class out from such experiences. Well, at least they have free toilets in the Opera ...

Enough ranting, next photo. Even in the summer time, there is no respect for this sign - the biking lane is quite often clogged up with pedestrians - and I think that today, most bikers would choose the walking lane. Indeed, there was no bike tracks but lots of foot tracks on the biking lane.

Train station, south side. The old building is Østbanehallen (east track hall, literally); there is also a Vestbanehall at the west side of the town centre, though the tracks there have been removed long ago. In the 80s they made a railroad tunnel through the city center, expanded the train station here, and it became Oslo Sentralstasjon (Usually just "Oslo S", some people also wrongly say "Oslo Sentralbanestasjon").

Turning around again, there is the new library and the opera in the distance.

Straight ahead here is the Karl Johan street, that's the main street of Oslo. Most of it is a pedestrian street by now. Those concrete flower pots are a new addition; it's a bit of a security theater, preventing terrorists from driving with a big truck into the square in front of the train station.

Jernbanetorvet - or, the railway station square, in front of the train station (west side of it).

Østbanehallen, the front side of it. Nowadays the old train station building is filled up with gourmet restaurants.

Parts of the new train station to the left. The temporary installation in the middle of the square is a big TV-screen showing the winter Olympic games in Korea. The winter Olympics is a quite big thing in Norway, perhaps even bigger than the regular Olympics.

Here we are again at Karl Johan, the main street of Oslo.

Can you spot some security theatre here?

The street goes from the railroad station, passes the church and the parliament, up to the University, the National Theatre (today, "Nationaltheateret" is quite synonymous with the metro station there, but the theater still exists - I've been watching a performance there once, I was surprised how small it is) and finally the Palace. The lowest section is quite narrow, the street widens up by the church, and then it becomes quite much wider again by the parliament. I could have gone on taking photos, but frankly this post is already too long, I ran a bit out of time, the battery on my telephone was quite low ... enough is enough. Or, nearly enough. I decided to take one more photo from another square, Youngstorget, there they have made some bigger installations celebrating the Olympics.

All photos can be found in full quality at IPFS QmXuEvG1VuF5gX1CrGQbsAsXb7uAxe9gbRHpeDQPVtwMyi