Browsed by
Tag: Oslomarka

October in Oslo

October in Oslo

Some photos taken in and around Oslo earier this month, when Michiel was visiting me 🙂

The Royal Palace at sunset…

The Royal Palace at sunset

In front of the palace with Michiel :)

On Saturday we went for a walk in Oslomarka, starting from Tryvannshøgda and ending at Holmenkollen. The weather was beautiful, and there were still some autumn colours left…

Autumn in Marka

Michiel in the forest 🙂

Michiel in the sunshine

At Skjennungen…

Skjennungen

We had a nice break at Skjennungstua with some very tasty cinnemon rolls. After that we continued our walk on “blue paths” (blåstien, hiking paths with blue markers, they don’t follow the dirt roads and are of variable quality 😉 ).

The path, or rather, collection of tree roots ;)

The clouds were quite special that day, and I noticed there was some cloud iridescence – rainbow colours in the clouds.

Cloud iridescence! Although not that visible in this photo...

At first I thought it was just an effect of my sunglasses, but it wasn’t! This zoomed in photo shows it more clearly…

Zoomed in it's easier to see the cloud iridescence!

We walked past Frønsvollen (which I first visited with Marie a year ago, see here). It is such a nice place…

Frønsvollen

Especially with the open views. The mast on the left is Tryvann, where we started our walk.

Frønsvollen panorama, with our starting point (the mast at Tryvann) on the left

My car was parked at Holmenkollen, so we continued down the hill. We took a path which wasn’t even signposted, but suddenly this view over Oslo opened up – fantastic!

Surprise: suddenly we had an amazing view over Oslo

For the last part of the walk we followed the roller skiing trail (yes that’s a thing, and really popular too!).

The view from the roller ski track

We walked past the Holmenkollen Chapel at sunset – so pretty…

The Holmenkollen Chapel at sunset

On Sunday we watched the very orange sunset from the roof of the opera house…

A very orange sunset from the opera house

They are building a lot around the Opera, a new library and the new Munch museum – lots of cranes!

Panorama with a lot of cranes, they are building a huge new library and the new Munch museum here

We also went inside the Opera, I love this building 🙂

Panorama inside the Opera - amazing building!

Great weekend! 🙂

Midsummer Night Ride

Midsummer Night Ride

Last weekend I did something crazy: I took the train to Grua and cycled all the way back to Oslo through the forest, nearly 60 km – in the middle of the night! It was beautiful: sunset at nearly 23:00, an orange moon rising, a sunset melting into sunrise, with beautiful twilight colours. I hardly saw anyone (except for a few people camping in the forest), but I did meet two big moose and heard the eerie call of the loon echoing over mirror-calm lakes. Oh and a billion annoying little flies, but let’s forget about that 😉

From Grua I cycled a long uphill to Mylla, where I took a short break to enjoy the views…

Evening views at Mylla

Perfect reflections

Mylla panorama

I cycled along the south side of the lake (Mylla), never far from the shore and pretty views…

A rowing boat in the forest

After leaving the lake and climbing up through the forest, this view suddenly opened up – magical!

Suddenly this view opened up - magical!

Moody skies around midnight. There was a lot of rain on the way, and I kept thinking it would start to cloud over, but it actually cleared up after this 🙂

Moody skies around midnight

I stopped very often, as I couldn’t resist taking photos of views like this…

The skies kept changing, but the colours were beautiful all night

The whole route was along forest (dirt) roads, but one small part went on a narrow track with boardwalks through the forest – fun 🙂

I mostly cycled on dirt roads, but there was a short part that went through the forest on a narrow path with boardwalks

At the end of that path I reached Gjerdingen Dam…

Gjerdingen

There were a couple of cabins here, and the light was on in the house. There were also two tents used by cyclists at the shore of the lake.

A couple of cabins at Gjerdingen Dam, and if you look closely there are two tents in use by cyclists

More pretty views…

Such fantastic views...

And some really magical views at Hakkloa. If the little flies weren’t driving me crazy, I would have stayed here much longer!

Magical moments at Hakkloa

After that there were some gruelling climbs up from Bjørnsjøen (I skipped Kikutstua as I was getting tired by now and wanted to get home), but after that it was mainly downhill all the way home. I finally got home at 4 in the morning. I met a lot of people on their way home from a night out, which is always surreal when you’ve been in the quiet forest for hours.

If anyone is interested in this route, it’s described here: Til byen fra Grua. Recommended! You need to book and pay to take your bike on the train from Oslo to Grua, but this is easily done online, even last minute.

Cycling around Maridalsvannet

Cycling around Maridalsvannet

Today I went for a long bike ride (nearly 35 km) through the forest and around Maridalsvannet, a large lake north of Oslo (and the source the city’s drinking water).

This is before I got to Maridalsvannet though, a much smaller lake in the forest…

A small lake in the middle of the forest

Spectacular view over Maridalsvannet – so pretty!

Great view over Maridalsvannet!

I wasn’t the only one out for a bike ride on this sunny Sunday 🙂

Lots of cyclists around on a sunny Sunday

Parts of the ride went through farmlands, I loved it! There were lots of flowers around as well, and I particularly enjoyed cycling downhill with the wind in my hair and the sweet smell of flowers in my nose – life is good 😀

Cycling through farmlands