June 18 - Hello Norway 🇳🇴

We awoke today in Oslo, Norway the most populous city of the country. After being destroyed by a fire in 1624, during the reign of King Christian IV, a new city was built closer to the Akershus Fortress and named Christiania in honour of the king. In 1925 the city was renamed Oslo. It is a city of approximately 650,000 and the capital of Norway. The parliament building and the royal Palace are here too. We walked the full city centre & managed another 12,000 steps lingering on Karl Johan Street, named after the Swedish-Norwegian King in the early part of the 19th century. The oldest part of the university, dating back to 1813, lines this street too. There are several car-free zones downtown which make this a great city for walking.

The Royal Palace, Oslo, Norway. This building is 160 years old and was built by the Norwegian Government as a gift to the King in the 1830s. They ran out of the allocated funds before the palace was completed and construction stopped for 6 years until the government reappropriated more funds. The King died before he moved in but his heirs inherited a nice new home when it was finally completed!

Akershus Fortress