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| City Guide - Oslo - Excursions | ||
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Excursions For a Half Day Vigelandsparken (Vigeland Park): On the western outskirts of the city, Vigeland Park can be reached on foot from the city centre in less than an hour, along Frognerveien. However it is tempting to linger longer by the cafés and boutiques of the attractive Frogner area. The Park is a monument to the artist Gustav Vigeland, who spent forty years creating the sculptures in granite, cast iron and bronze that adorn it. From the entry through the huge wrought iron gates, the first sculptures are the bronze figures on either side of the Vigeland bridge. There are 58 figures, the most famous of which is the Angry Boy, a chubby youngster stamping his foot. Beyond the bridge, the Fountain is a large saucer-shaped pool supported by six giants with water spilling down around them. At the centre of the park, the Monolith is a mass of human bodies, young and old, carved from a single column of granite 46ft (14m) high. Around it are groups of people relating to one another in various ways - playing, cuddling, comforting or talking. There are many more sculptures to be seen both in the park and in the Vigeland Museum (tel: 2244 1136; website: www.vigeland.museum.no), where Vigeland's sketches and plaster originals are on display. For a Whole Day The 'Norway in a Nutshell' excursion by train, boat and bus provides a spectacular glimpse of Norway's scenery in a day and costs NOK1090. The train departs from Oslo S Station at 0811 and reaches Myrdal station, at 866m (2841ft), with its snow-covered peaks, sheer rock faces and streams plunging down the abyss. The idea of taking a train down through this terrain is unimaginable but in a magnificent feat of engineering, the Flåm Line descends to sea level along around 24km (15 miles) of winding track, precipitous inclines and deep tunnels. From picturesque Flåm, the trip continues by boat to Gudvangen in the innermost reaches of the Sognefjorden, through the narrow passage of the Nærøyfjorden, the narrowest fjord in Europe. The bus to Voss then takes the mountain road with perilous hairpin bends through more magnificent mountain scenery, including dramatic waterfalls at Stalheimskleiven. From Voss, the train returns to Oslo for 2213. It would be impossible to get a more comprehensive overview of the Norwegian landscape in a day. |
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