Oslo doesn’t beat you around the head with its beauty, as for instance Brussels does with its jaw-dropping Grand Place. Nor does it have a picture perfect waterfront – the hulking city hall rather puts paid to that – but it seems more real, with a well-used marina, boats selling fresh fish and small ferryboats arriving and departing. The older architecture is rather modest too – there’s a very custardy Royal Palace where even the AK47-wielding guards were posing happily with tourists. And this laid-backness even extends to its art galleries – there are signposts to Munch’s Scream everywhere, but the two rooms that must be worth several hundred millions with Picasso, Monet, Gaugin, Rubens, Van Dycks etc. are huddled unhappily at the end of a tour that not many finish, with ugly yellow fluorescent lighting that does its hardest to make even the most cultural of tourist hustle briskly on. But I quite liked this lack of shoutiness – look up and the buildings are beautiful and unique, the light over the fjord is very… well, northern, the people seemed outdoorsy, smiley, unpretentious. Of course, all this is my very touristy impressions, born of trogging around the city centre sights for just a couple of days – I’m sure the real Oslo is very different. But all I can say on this evidence is that it seems a real, hugely liveable city.
Highlights were the smattering of modern gems – the opera house on the water which you can climb up and over, the messed up Blue Peter ship in the harbour, the (S)laughter installation on the waterfront. The cathedral is quite the kitschiest Protestant church I’ve seen, with frescoes bordering on the psychedelic. (Clearly inspired, the choir was practicing some tricky modern sacred music in a time signature that needed the conductor to have an extra couple of arms.) The Viking ship museum was small but perfectly formed, and the Munch museum (impressive security post-theft!) had a great audio guide. There are amazing shops for ski and trekking stuff everywhere, in which Mr. R&R disappeared furtively only to be found, flushed and overexcited, in front of the new rucksack displays, and I tried to buy bobble hats in improbable colours.
And so to the important stuff, the food:
Our first meal, on Friday evening when it was peeing down, was at Lofoten. This is a fish restaurant in Aker Brygge, the part of the waterfront that does have a lot of shops, cafes and restaurants in a modern office/mall development along the busy marina. We had a bucket of shrimp (superfresh and full of roe, with mayonnaise, delicious) to start with and the smoked halibut with teriyaki, lime and coriander (smallish but interesting flavours). Then I had an absolutely stonking tranche of trout (they must run really big here) with cauliflower puree, capers and bacon and Mr. R&R had a much more delicate baked cod. We went all out chocolatey for dessert: a chocolate brulee and the chocolate mousse. The waiter looked seriously worried when I asked for an espresso – odd in 2010. Overall, a very decent meal with fresh produce, lacking a bit of polish.
Second meal at the Engerbret café. Solely tourists, but what else can you expect with a perfect storm of NY Times recommendation, historic building and local cuisine? Our starters were the best things we ate in Oslo though – Mr. R&Rs three types of smoked salmon were complexly gorgeous in completely different but undefinable ways, leading to lots of appreciative “mmmmm”s but nothing helpful as far as you’re concerned. My herring was amazing – silky chunks of smoked fish with wafer thin beetroot, new potatoes and cheese – flavours I’d not have picked as platemates, but that melded together fantastically well. Seconds were a bit disappointing – I had the salt cod, but in a microwave-hot stew with tomatoes, garlic and green olives which wasn’t so much Norwegian as Portuguese. Mr. R&R had the grilled pollock which was good, if not memorable. Desserts were much better – cloudberry brulee and a little Kilner jar of cooked apples layered with whipped cream. Overall: I would go back and have the herring for starter, main and pud, just to be sure.
For both we spent around 60 quid a head, without booze. Bit pricey but actually not as bad as I’d expected.
Lunchspots
A café called Baker-something on Kirkegata – for sandwiches on good bread stuffed with shrimp or eggs and ham, lovely mini apple cakes and the lovely waitress who welcomed us in and found us seats, even though we were drenched tourists showering her patrons with rainwater with every move.
People and Coffee – on a corner opposite the entrance to the fortress. Decent coffee, enormous bowl of soup, super friendly staff.
At the airport: Get your coffee after security but before passing through the International departures barrier, as the Upper Crust on the other side was the only, sucky, option. The Seafood Bar though was better – lovely open crawfish and salmon sandwiches. Also, the Fine Food shop is before International departures, so remember to stock up on herring before passing through.
Hotel
We would have booked at the designy Grims Grenka but since it’s got uniformly dreadful reviews on TripAdvisor we plumped for the Rica G20 instead. The location is great but even the Superior rooms are unfeasibly small if you have more than handluggage, as there is no wardrobe, only some clothes-hanger shaped hooks on the wall. Still, we slept brilliantly (double bed, single duvets, no noise from the trams below), the minibar was well stocked with Norwegian chocolate and breakfast was good too, with shots of carrot and lime juice, muesli with fresh raspberries, good bread and pastries with homemade blackcurrant and vanilla jam, smoked salmon and eggs… Must be a bargain too for Oslo as at the weekend the rate was about 120 quid a night.
