In November 2022, we took a 12 day Scandinavian vacation, first arriving for 3 nights/2 days in Copenhagen, Denmark, then flying up to spend 3 nights in Oslo, Norway, flying down to spend 2 nights in Stockholm, Sweden, and then taking the train to end up back in Copenhagen for 2 nights (to end up with a total of 4 days in Copenhagen).
Day 0: Arrival in Oslo, Norway
Travel to Oslo
To continue our 12 day November Scandinavian vacation itinerary after spending the first 2 nights of 4 days in Copenhagen, our flight from Copenhagen to Oslo was in the late afternoon, so naturally in November the sun was setting during our flight!
It was a quick flight, and when we landed we noticed there was snow on the ground!
It was just lightly flurrying but we were excited for some snowy landscape!
There’s are a few options to take a train from the Oslo OSL airport to the Oslo city center, Oslo Sentralstasjon. We chose to take the direct FlytoGet train from the airport to the city center, and we were on our way!
The city is very modern looking, and I was intrigued by the building on the left with the abstract-shaped windows.
We arrived at the Oslo Central Station and walked a few blocks to our hotel, the Revier Hotel Oslo. This begins our first night of our 3 nights in Oslo!
Dinner & Drinks
After checking in and dropping our bags, we were getting hungry for dinner so we scoped out the neighborhood for somewhere to eat.
We first went by Engebret Cafe, which is Oslo’s oldest restaurant dating back to 1857, as the chalkboard states.
We looked inside and while it was busy and had great reviews, the menu looked a bit too expensive and old-school fancy, and we thought maybe the experience wasn’t what we were really looking for.
We looked around on Google maps again and found a restaurant close by called Sentralen Restaurant.
We were pretty early for dinner so the place was mostly empty, but we were starving and it had great reviews so we sat down and ordered. This menu and atmosphere was a little more “our speed”.
The place filled up shortly and there were a few large parties as well.
We started off with an appetizer of local flatbread made with sour cream and served with more sour cream and horseradish sauce with bits of anchovy. This was really good and a nice way to begin our experience with Norwegian cuisine!
Next, we split a small plate of beef tartare on crusty bread, topped with arugula, mustard sauce, and parmesan. This was also amazing and quite filling!
Since we were getting full but not quite there yet, we decided to split a main instead of each getting our own. We got a delicious steak with a chive cream sauce, brussels sprouts, and a separate side of potatoes. This reminded me a lot of the saucy steak dishes in France, and we both loved it!
After dinner, it was still early so we found a pub nearby and went in for a nightcap!
This place was called The Whisky Bar, and it specializes in serving dozens of types of whisky, and has whisky tastings on the weekends. We decided to just get some local beers on tap. James got an IPA, and I got a peanut butter stout which made for a delicious dessert!
I really loved the aesthetics of this pub, it reminded me a lot of the cozy pubs in the UK and Ireland. I also loved the beer and whisky bottles scattered across the ceiling, which was super unique!
After our drinks at the pub, we headed to the hotel for a good night’s sleep to round out our first night of 3 nights in Oslo!
Day 1: Exploring Oslo Sights
Cake for Breakfast
One of our favorite things to do for breakfast in Europe is to have pastries and cakes, so that’s what we did on our first day of our 3 nights in Oslo itinerary! We found a cafe called The Cakery which is only a block from the Revier Hotel Oslo.
This cafe was so adorably decorated, and had a bunch of cake and pastry options.
We ordered at the counter and then sat ourselves and waited for our drinks and food to be brought out.
I would love for this wallpaper to adorn a room in my house!
James got a slice of chocolate cake and a glass of milk, and I got a slice of carrot cake and a latte. The cakes were so moist and delicious!
After breakfast, we headed out for the day, walking down towards the harbor, or the waterfront of the Inner Oslofjord, only a few blocks away. The Olso city center is pretty small but that makes it super walkable.
Inner Oslofjord
Once we got down to the harbor, I took out my nice camera for some better photos. This is the Oslo Operahouse, or Operahuset Oslo. One neat feature about this opera house is that it appears you can walk all over the angled ceiling!
On the left in this photo above is the Munch Museum, and on the right is a sculpture of an iceberg.
We decided to walk along the waters edge, and found this neat area called SALT. This is a space advertised as a “cultural village by the fjord”, and has saunas, bars, and food trucks. Unfortunately for us it was closed, and looked like it might have been closed for the winter season.
We made our way around towards the Akershus Fortress which is on the tip of the peninsula that contains Oslo city center.
We walked all around the outer walls trying to find our way in! We were searching for the Norway Resistance Museum (later found out this is also called Norway’s Home Front Museum), which was about the Norwegian resistance to Nazi occupation during WWII.
We found an entrance but it was for military use only. This is still an active fort, but there are museums inside that are open to the public, including the Norway Resistance Museum (Norway’s Home Front Museum) and The Defense Museum.
We followed Google Maps directions to where it looked like the museum was located, but it turns out it was also inside the fortress walls, which we hadn’t yet found the entrance to. We decided to walk over to the water’s edge on this side of the peninsula and check it out while we were there.
This side had a nice view of the other end of the harbor and a large marina.
While we were standing there taking photos, we noticed an aircraft carrier being moved by a tugboat! James was in awe, so we watched the tugboat pull the aircraft carrier all the way into the harbor.
There was a cute lighthouse in the distance, and I wanted to also capture the dimness of the scene. This was what it looked like at only about 12 pm!
Akershus Fortress
Soon after, we walked around and finally found the entrance to the Akershus Fortress, including a map for where we could find the museums.
We entered in and once we got to the Norway Resistance Museum, we found that it was temporarily closed (this was not what it had advertised on Google!), so we went towards the Defense Museum instead.
There were some tanks flanking the Defense Museum entrance and some military guys walking around. Also, some cannons which I assumed were not in use anymore.
We learned about the history of the fortress and its use in medieval Norway.
There were some other more modern exhibits and art installations as well, like this wooden structure with writing about WWII.
There was an American wall, which I thought was interesting, showcasing political leaders and pop culture figures, as well as events and even donuts?
After leaving the museum, we walked around the fortress grounds to check it out.
It was starting to get darker, and my photos were coming out pretty moody.
We had some nice views of the harbor again as the lights were coming on for the evening.
This was a view looking over towards some majorly large yachts!
I loved that you could also see mountains in the background, and what looked like some of the local ski slopes. There is a ski resort pretty close to Oslo called Skimore Oslo, and we wanted to go skiing/snowboarding so we kept looking to see if the mountain would open for the season while we were there, and it hadn’t yet opened. We found out later that the mountain was opening the day we were supposed to fly out, so we were pretty bummed since we probably would have spent our 2nd day skiing/snowboarding up on the mountain.
A closer look at some of the yachts in the water, and the twinkling lights of the city.
I took an artsy shadow shot of James walking through a tunnel in the fortress.
The fortress was up on a bit of a hill so there were some nice views even inside the walls.
My phone takes brighter photos natively than my camera (unless I set it that way) so this one is a bit different than the others, but still captures the dim lighting and gorgeous scenery.
After leaving the Akershus Fortress, we walked into the city center and down some lighted streets on our way toward the closest tram station.
Grünerløkka
We took the tram up to the Grünerløkka neighborhood to check it out since it was still early (it was not even 4pm yet!). This neighborhood is known for its vintage shops and breweries and brewpubs.
We were thirsty so we thought we would find somewhere nice to have a pre-dinner drink and snack. We headed toward what I expected to be a beergarden at a place called Vespa & Humla, but the garden part was closed for the season, so we went inside.
It was a cute place that had some of its own house brews, so we got some along with a nice cheese plate.
After our drinks and snack, we headed down the street towards Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri, which looked like a really cool place to grab more beers.
We entered into a courtyard and somehow found our way into the entrance to the pub (it was a little confusing!)
When you enter, you head downstairs to…
…a magical brick and chandelier lined cellar with cozy booths and a lovely fireplace!
It was a bit crowded so we weren’t sure we would get a spot, but I found one right next to the fireplace while James went to get us some beers.
It was so lovely sitting by the fireplace (which was pretty warm too!) and drinking delicious Norwegian beers.
We got another round and this time I got a yummy stout! We were starting to get hungry, as it was approaching dinnertime, so we looked up where we wanted to go for dinner and then walked to a tram station to get back to the city center.
Apologies for the blurry tram photo, but I wanted to take one of the tram but it was approaching!
Aker Brygge Promenade
We rode the tram down as far as we could, and then walked down to the waterfront again, this time on the Aker Brygge Promenade.
The trams are great in Oslo but they do not go into the main part of the city center. It is not that large so walking a bit after getting off the tram is not a big deal.
The waterfront was beautiful all lit up and with some glare on the street from the rain. This place on the right had what looked like a huge boat/ship propeller sticking out of the side of the building! I wondered if this was an old ship building factory.
We caught a glimpse of the Akershus Fortress all lit up at night behind the boats!
This part of the city is really beautiful, especially at night. It was really interesting to be in an ultramodern European city, as we haven’t had many experiences with them during our travels (we love old cities!).
The boats/yachts looked nice all lit up as well.
Thanksgiving Dinner in Oslo
We got to our destination: a restaurant called The Salmon, which has, you guessed it, lots of salmon on the menu! We chose this because salmon is really popular in Norway, and it happened to be Thanksgiving dinner and so we thought instead of having lots of turkey, we would have lots of salmon!
We walked in and greeted the hostess who asked if we had a reservation. We did not, and unfortunately the restaurant could not accommodate walk-ins that night because they were fully booked. I really wanted to eat at this place, so we made a reservation for the next night for dinner.
Unfortunately this also meant we had to find a new place to eat for dinner, and we were getting very hungry! We looked at the options via Google and found an Indian restaurant nearby with amazing reviews, so we made our way over there.
The restaurant, BENARES Indisk Restaurant and Bar, was really cute and crowded, but luckily we were able to get a table right away.
The restaurant was decorated with Christmas stuff everywhere, which I thought was cute.
They had some cozy Christmas decorations on the table too, including a lovely candle.
We ordered some beers and the waitress brought some crunchy flatbread and chutney along with it.
For dinner, I ordered fish curry, because I was still really wanting seafood, and it was amazing!
James ordered some tandoori chicken, and we got some rice and garlic naan to split. It was a delicious and filling Thanksgiving dinner to round out our second night of 3 nights in Oslo!
Day 2: Shopping, Museums, and Salmon
For day 2 of our 3 nights in Oslo itinerary, we had originally reserved this day as a possible skiing/snowboarding day on the mountain at Skiimore Oslo, but because the mountain was not open (for one more day! ughh!), we decided to make the best of it and see more of Oslo!
Cafe Breakfast
We started the morning off at a cafe called Baker Hansen, which has classic Norwegian pastries.
We got some pastries and drinks and sat down. I got a Norwegian orange cinnamon roll along with a latte, and James got a pain au chocolat (not Norwegian but still delicious) with a milk.
Grünerløkka (again) for Vintage Shopping
After breakfast, we took the tram up to Grünerløkka to spend some more time in the neighborhood and check out some vintage shops. I really wanted to try and get a vintage wool sweater, so I was looking specifically for that!
It was cool seeing this neighborhood in the daytime as well, it is super cute and trendy!
We passed by this sewing shop that was selling sewing materials. I also noticed a few sweaters in the shop window so I wanted to see if they were for sale and for how much.
They were handmade but pretty expensive (about $200 USD!) so I took some pictures in case I ever get into knitting and want to make my own (I crochet but these are knit. Knitting is hard!)
I loved all 3 of these styles (as well as the child’s style in front), but I really don’t buy expensive clothing, so it was hard to justify spending that much money on a sweater, even if it was handmade. I probably should have bought one anyway (because, “When in Rome!”) but I figured I would maybe find something else in an actual vintage shop. I did end up buying a few skeins of Norwegian wool yarn so I could crochet a hat or something out of it.
We popped into the store on the right, Vintage Wear, and I found a great vintage wool sweater, and turns out it was also handmade! This one was technically made in Germany (it had a custom label) but was only about $30 USD! I was sold, and it was soooo warm! Maybe too warm sometimes (and only a little itchy…) but a great winter sweater.
After purchasing the vintage sweater, we waited for a tram to take us back into the city center so we could check out the Oslo Christmas Market!
Oslo Christmas Market (Jul i Vinterland)
We got off the tram and walked a bit down to where the Oslo Christmas Market was going on.
The Oslo Christmas Market, officially called Jul i Vinterland, is located in the large park between the National Theater and the Norwegian Parliament building, the Stortinget. It also includes a large skating rink called Spikersuppa.
The round building on the right is part of the Norwegian Parliament, the Stortinget. The building on the left is the Grand Hotel Oslo.
We walked over to the entrance of the Jul i Vinterland, the Oslo Christmas Market. It looked more like a carnival fair with the various rides, but it was cute all lit up!
Here we are, at the Oslo Jul i Vinterland!
The market was small but very cute. We took a few laps to see what stalls they had. There was a line of gift stalls and another line of food stalls.
The merry-go-round was looking very festive!
The ferris wheel was festive as well, with the Jul i Vinterland logo in the middle and lights all around on the spokes.
This was one of the stalls selling treats!
In the center was a multi-level beer/gløgg garden. Hanging off of the top was an animatronic moose head that sang Christmas songs which was really cute and funny!
And of course, I had to get myself a nice cup of gløgg to warm up!
Unfortunately, the gløgg did not come in a cute souvenir cup like at other Christmas markets in Europe, and it was a bit sweeter than other European mulled wines, but it was still tasty. We sat up on the second floor so we could see the ice skating rink. I would have gone for a skate but James doesn’t like ice skating and I didn’t think it would be that fun to do alone.
After finishing up my gløgg, we got a sausage to split which was served in a nice toasty bun.
There was this cute firepit area and benches all around, but we just stood around to eat since the seats were all wet.
We didn’t really see anything we wanted to buy as far as gifts, so we finished up walking around and took some photos under these lighted archways for our annual Christmas cards!
This was a really pretty way to accent the Jul i Vinterland!
After leaving the Oslo Christmas Market, we had the rest of the afternoon to do something before our dinner reservation at 7pm at The Salmon.
I had seen that there was an architecture museum right near our hotel, so we took a tram over there to check out the museum.
The National Museum – Architecture (Nasjonalmuseet – Arkitektur)
We entered the Nasjonalmuseet – Arkitektur and went to the ticket counter. Apparently this museum was just a small subset of the larger Nasjonalmuseet which was over by the waterfront. The ticket we purchased included both museums, so we thought we might head over to the other one after if we had time before our dinner reservations at The Salmon, which was conveniently in the same area.
The museum was less technically-heavy on the architecture than I expected, and most of the museum consists of exhibits that change topics often.
When we were at the museum, the exhibits were focused on how women and LGBTQ+ people have influenced and contributed to modern architecture. The exhibits were interesting but small, so we only spent about 30 minutes or so there.
We still had some time to kill before dinner, so we decided to head over to the main Nasjonalmuseet.
The National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet)
The main Nasjonalmuseet is an art and art history museum. There was also an exhibit on interior design, which was a bit more what I was expecting out of the Nasjonalmuseet – Arkitektur. We went over to that exhibit first.
I enjoyed seeing the progression of interior design throughout history, including this display of different chairs.
This was a cool piece showing various gas stations destroyed by hurricanes. I thought just the frames and black and white photos alone were neat, but also the repetitiveness and different angles of the subject was interesting.
The Nasjonalmuseet is first and foremost an art museum, so there was a lot of classic and historical artwork as well, including this self portrait of Van Gogh!
There was also a Mona Lisa, which is not the original (which is in the Louvre in Paris) and is a copy painted by an unknown artist, but was just as nice of a painting. We saw the real Mona Lisa in Paris years ago and while it was neat to see, it was a little underwhelming due to its small size and the fact that it was so crowded we only got like 20 seconds to really look at it (and we were worried about being pick pocketed, which is a real concern in that area of the museum!). It was a much nicer experience looking at this Mona Lisa copy.
The museum also had a modern art section, which was intriguing. Sometimes I find modern art a bit too pretentious and “try-hard”, but some I do find to be nice. This painting had a funny name “Very Large Very Expensive Abstract Painting” and I thought it was not only a neat piece of artwork (showcasing the outline of Manhattan amongst newspaper and magazine cuttings saying “Privilege” and “Elite” and “Meritocracy” among others), but also a witty commentary on modern art itself.
We ended up spending a few hours at the museum until it closed, which was more time than I expected to spend there, but there were a lot of neat things to see.
Drinks at The Beer Palace
After the museum closed, we had about an hour left before dinner, so we walked around near the restaurant to find somewhere to grab a quick drink.
We saw a sign saying “Entrance to Beer Palace” and we knew we had to go!
The entrance was a mixture of old and modern, and I was wondering what the vibe would be like inside the Beer Palace.
It turns out, the vibe was pretty great. It was super crowded but we found our way to the bar and then to a single stool in the back corner of the pub.
We had just a tiny ledge to put our beers on, and James had to stand, but the beer was cold and delicious!
Eventually some seats cleared up at a side bar, so we moved over there and finished up our drinks.
I thought this sign below was funny: “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy”
Dinner at The Salmon
When it was time for our dinner reservation, we walked a few blocks over to The Salmon, where we had gone the night before to try and get dinner without a reservation.
This time, the restaurant was not quite as busy, which was surprising for a Friday night.
Right at the entrance to the restaurant is a cold case with different salmon filets, fish cakes, and what looked like salmon roe/caviar that you could get to-go.
We sat down and I had a nice view of this corner salmon hanger rotating around!
We got the menus, which were these cute “newspapers” called “The Salmon Post”. It also had information about the restaurant’s history and owners.
Our first course was a salmon trio platter, with cold smoked salmon, cured salmon, and hot smoked salmon, and three types of dipping sauces: a tartar sauce, a horseradish sauce, and a mustard sauce. This was incredible! I only wish we could have had more!
For dinner, we ordered a baked salmon filet with mashed potatoes and asparagus, and also some salmon sashimi. That was probably the best salmon sashimi I’ve ever had! (we’ve been to Japan but they specialize more in tuna than salmon, for fascinating historical reasons you should read about) I also really enjoyed the baked salmon, and the sides.
We were still a little bit hungry and saw this torched salmon sashimi on the menu so we decided to get it. It had a ponzu sauce with jalapenos on it and it was also incredible!
This meal was my favorite in Oslo, hands down! We had 6 different types of salmon, and I was not disappointed! I’m so happy we decided to go there again and make a reservation, it was definitely worth it.
We walked back to our hotel with full tummies and happy hearts to end our last night of our 3 nights in Oslo itinerary!
Day 3: Brunch & Travel to Stockholm
Cafe Brunch
Across the street from our hotel, the Revier Hotel Oslo is this cute cafe called Det Grønne Kjøkken where we decided to go for brunch on our last morning in Oslo.
I loved the garden aesthetic in this cafe. It was empty at first but filled in a bit after we ordered.
We ordered our meals and I ordered a latte as well.
James ordered an omelete and I ordered the croque madame which was out of this world delicious! I always forget how much I like croque madame. Both meals also came with a really nice large salad, which I welcomed because I hadn’t really had many veggies on this trip and didn’t realize how I was actually craving some greens.
Travel to Stockholm
After brunch, we checked out of the hotel and took the train from Oslo central station to catch our flight from Oslo to Stockholm. We decided this time to take the regional train rather than the express FlytoGet (which we took upon arrival) so we could compare the two. James wrote a nice post about the two train options from Oslo central station to the Oslo airport.
While on the train, I enjoyed a little Norwegian chocolate snack that I bought at a convenience store.
We saw the same building on the way out as on the way in, with the interesting abstract geometric windows. It looked cool in the daytime but definitely looked cooler at night.
There were a lot of really interesting looking buildings, and I wish I had been able to learn more about the modern Scandinavian/Norwegian architecture styles and their history in the museums.
While it didn’t snow much while we were in Oslo (except for a few flurries here and there), there was a dusting of snow on the ground when we were outside of the city a bit, which was really pretty.
We got to the airport in about 30 minutes, just about the same amount of time as on the express train. The airport is really modern looking and we loved the square wood ceiling decor.
We got through security quickly (and without showing any ID which we thought was odd as Americans…) and did not have to go through passport control. We got to the gate which was quite empty, but we enjoyed sitting by the window and taking in the modern aesthetics of the airport. I loved the lighted columns, because they were Christmas-y but I also secretly hoped they kept them up all year round for some extra cheer.
Shortly after, we boarded our flight from Oslo to Stockholm, and we were on our way, concluding our 3 nights in Oslo itinerary!
Final Thoughts
Overall, I really enjoyed spending 3 nights in Oslo! The city is very modern, which is quite a difference for us having been to mostly older and medieval cities in Europe, but it was a refreshing change. I loved the food, especially the salmon dinner we had with 6 different types of salmon! The Oslo Christmas Market, Jul i Vinterland, was really cute, although I wish there were more/better gift options. I always love going to Christmas markets in Europe, and it makes traveling there in winter a lot more appealing, and the Oslo Christmas market was no different in that aspect. It really wasn’t that cold either, even though we landed with some snow on the ground! It would have been nice to go skiing/snowboarding while we were in Oslo, but that will make for a good activity if/when we return, which I would definitely love to do!
Stay tuned for the next post on our 2 nights in Stockholm itinerary, the next stop on our 12 day November Scandinavian vacation itinerary!