Frognerseteren to Holmenkollen

Atop Frognerseteren

First of all, apologies for being so lazy in writing blogs, the truth is that when you have lot of time, you decide to do many things and you end up doing nothing. The past one and half month has went off just like that. I am more or less settled here (after my new house, fully settled), but I know what is ‘gratis’ and ‘tilbud’, the first words you learn in Oslo (they mean ‘free’ and ‘offer’!). I can blame my laziness on the huge number of photographs that I have taken. I have been to somewhere every weekend I believe, even though it rained for most of the days. The first lesson learnt from Scandinavian Summer is that ‘make hay while the sun shines’, never be at home when it is sunny, you never know when it will be that sunny again. Yes, all plans here depend on the weather, unlike the Indian rains (or Bangalore rains, which I enjoy most), rainy days here can be really cold and windy and disappointing. Hence, you plan your outings on good weather days. Everyone here keeps one eye on the Weather Clock, and plans everything from what they are going to wear to what they are going to eat.

National dress of Norway

Ok, coming back to the point, the decision was made when we saw that the weather is going to be fine on Saturday, the 17^th September 2011. It was a prompt decision, I read about a hike from Frognerseteren to Sognsvann but that was about 18 KMs walk, so I don’t think I will get company, hence decided on a toned down version of it (Actually, just a tiny version of it). We were five people in the team, Anil, Babaprakash, Kiran, Linesh and myself. The decision was made in the Friday party (more about parties in a separate post).

By 12 noon we were at the central station Jernbanetorget, almost everyone was on time. Took the metro number 1 to Frognerseteren, which was the last stop. As we went up the hill, the view of Oslo was nice. We could see the whole harbor, even the houses on the hills were beautiful, mostly wooden and a few with grass on the roof tops. The vegetation was also changing to mostly coniferous trees. It is amazing how close we stay to a beautiful hill station. In no time, we reached Holmenkollen, the ski destination, but our destination was further up. At about 1 pm we reached the designated stop, the last stop. It felt very much life we are in a small hill station. The platform was small and there was no houses in sight. On the way up we saw the TV Tower, hence decided to head that way first. There was a small lake which was awesomely still, hence provided a nice photo point.

Frognerseteren restaurant

People were asking me why we did not bring barbeque today, but after 4 drinks yesterday I was not in a mood to shop for groceries today morning, not at all. The weather was ok, not very sunny, soon the clouds took over and it was kind of chilly. I was missing my jacket, all my predictions for a nice weather (and hence not carrying a jacket) went wrong.

Frognersteren as such is a ski destination, soon we could see ski lift and downhill skiing tracks, and everyone decided to come back in winter. We could even see the shacks for renting skis and snow skating boots (the lake must be the platform). As we climbed up towards the TV Tower, we started feeling hungry. Since, this trip was not as well-planned, there was nothing in my bag except water. We reached near the Tower and found out that it belonged to Telenor. And the smaller tower was closed. There was some work going on, maybe they were fixing the ski lifts and the pathways. It was a winter park after all, and winter is just 1 month away.

Sweetest lunch?

A few children were learning roller skating in a parking lot there. The looks of it shows that ice skating also happens here, since there was a gallery on one side.

Now everyone was very hungry, so we decided to head back. We saw a restaurant sign near the station, hence our only hope was that. As we came downhill, becoming more and more suspicious if the restaurant exists at all, but to our relief it did exist and was costly as expected. But, the restaurant was a nice one. Full black coloured, with deer and bear heads on the walls. Though we sat outside, trying to enjoy whatever sun was available, it was a collect yourself café, hence we were inside. The choice was many, but most of it we could not understand, since the menu was in Norwegian. Finally, after about 15 minutes I came out with a huge blueberry muffin, and huge oatmeal cookie and a cup of hot chocolate. The bill was 99 NOK(!!!).

All of us got similar things, but the three were having a difficult time eating the apple pie, which for one spoonful was tasty, but a plateful was really a pain. Guess, this was their sweetest brunch ever! It was nice to eat outside, with the cool Sun trying to warm us a little. After brunch, as we were heading out, we saw an old couple dressed in Norwegian national dress arrive. Asked them for a pose, and they obliged very humbly. There must be some family party going on in the restaurant.

Ski Championship Cups

Hollmenkollen Sky Arena

After that, for a few minutes we were a bit stranded as to how to go to Holmenkollen, that was the plan, to trek till Holmenkollen and catch the metro from there. Thanks to Google Maps and its capacity to cache maps, we could see where we were and we found out a way downwards. Met a few people who were setting up their camps for the night, camping is free at any place in Norway law, till 2 days. Met a few children also who seemed to be on some treasure hunt. As we walked down thinking how it will be to ski all the way down, we saw a huge building on top of a hill. It was the ski jump. We first thought it was the great Holmenkollen ski jump, but as we found out later, it was just 1/4^th of the original one. Went up on stairs, no security guards, and the view from the top was, in my words, very painful. The ski jump was awfully steep and I was getting dizzy just by looking down. The steps had holes, which made it more difficult for me, also the steepness made the steps disappear. I was feeling as if I will fall on the slide. After 10-15 minutes of adrenalin flowing, we came down, and continued our journey downwards.

In a few minutes, we saw the original ski jump, the highest in the world, and it was like wow!

The stuffed bear

Rica Park Hotel, Holmenkollen

The whole place was  like a huge gallery, it seemed great even though it was not covered with ice/snow, neither there was any crowd. Wiki tells that in this area people have been skiing since 1892! But, the present avatar is just 1 year old. This hill has been rebuilt 19 times since 1892. And now the gallery hosts 30000 spectators. That is huge!

Here again we climbed huge steps of the gallery, to reach the Ski Museum. It was 4:30 pm and the museum closes at 5 pm. So, we did not go up (it was 100NOK) anyway. Instead, we rode a ski simulator, for 55 NOKs each. That was the usual time machine kind of experience from Science City in Kolkata, with the scene as a someone skiing on the mountains. Not a very good feeling, not bad either. There is a funicular lift, which takes to the top of the jump. We did not go, just roamed around in the shop. There is a huge stuffed bear inside. Other items were as usual in any souvenir shop in Norway.

By the time we started off, it was about 6 pm. We reached the Holmenkollen station in a few minutes. The station itself looked very new, maybe it was rebuilt too. By the time we reached home, we were really tired and spent. Anil was talking about jazz night in some pub, but I do not think anyone was interested.

At the end of it, a good Saturday, well spent and well enjoyed.