Day 3: From Sarpsborg to Harestua

Another early getting up in the morning since we wanted to do some sightseeing in Oslo.

Klaus is fond of the viking's history so we visited the Viking Ship Museum at first. Oslo is chaotic to drive. Road works everywhere around the city and I was happy that my navigation system found the way to the museum. You can find the Viking Museum (Vikingskiphuset) at the peninsula of Bygdoy. It's an amazing museum. You won't only find the "Oseberg ship" there but 2 other ships aswell. The Oseberg Ship is very well preserved. It was built around 800 and has been found in 1904 on a farm called Oseberg near Tonsberg. The archaeologists think that the ship never had been used for long distance travels. It's too frail.

The ship has beautiful carvings and was found in a burial mound and there were two female skeletons in it. The women must have had a very high status in the viking's society because they had such a selected grave. The grave-goods were exclusive aswell.

Later at noon we've been to the "Norsk Folkemuseum" - it's a museum of local history from Norway. You can find houses from all different areas of Norway there. I found it very interesting to see the variety of architecture. The Folkemuseum is located not far from the Viking Ship Museum.

In the afternoon we wanted to visit the "Vigeland Sculpture Park" but unfortunately I couldn't find a parking lot. There must have been an event and all parking lots were occupied. After cruising around a bit we decided to drive up to the "Holmenkollen". Finally at the top we had an unpleasent surprise. The ski jump was gone!!! The nordic ski world championships will take place in Oslo in 2011 and they broke down the old ski jump to replace it by a new and modern one. Well, after that 2 disappointments we said bye bye to Oslo and drove further.

About 50 km north of Oslo at the road no. 4 we found the only camp ground far and wide. You have to drive 1 km gravel road and then in the middle of a forest you have some houses and the camp ground. Sounds nice you might say. I thought the same until I saw the sanitary buildings. Klaus refused to have a shower there and to be honest I rarely saw a camp ground with so low sanitary standards. The place itself was covered with litter which is uncommon in Norway. But that's not the end. Right behind the trees you find the main railroad between Oslo and Lillehammer. We heard the train every 15 minutes. If we wasn't that tired we've never stayed there.