The Party Has Just Started in Oslo

Shedding its industrial past, Norway’s compact capital has come alive.

Until a few years ago, Oslo was looked upon as Europe’s Philadelphia: a city that rolled up the sidewalks at 10 each night. It was a somber, hardworking city whose harbor hissed and pounded to the beat of shipbuilding, and whose downtown center droned with the doings of government bureaucrats by day and fell silent at night.

How times have changed. Oslo is alive these days. You might even say it swings--in the Scandinavian sense, at least, frolicking forth to rival its larger, more cosmopolitan cousins, Copenhagen and Stockholm, in visitor appeal.

The normally vibrant city took on a somber tone last month when the country’s popular King Olav, the world’s oldest reigning monarch, died of a heart attack on Jan. 17 at age 87. Olav was known as Folkekongen , the “people’s king.” He was succeeded by his only son, 53-year-old Harald V.

New bistros, bodegas, discos, pubs and sidewalk cafes have popped up left and right along Karl Johans, the city’s pulsating, park-lined main thoroughfare--where the avant-garde mingles comfortably with the old guard.

Among the latter establishments there’s Blom, the city’s century-old artists’ restaurant. Condemned in the early 1980s to make way for a new theater complex, it was saved at the insistence of the local Society of Artists. Carefully disassembled, Blom was rebuilt, piece by numbered piece, within the new development where it remains today as an Oslo institution.

Diagonally across Karl Johans is the elegant, Viennese-style Theatercafeen. It first opened in 1900 to accommodate actors and audiences of the newly established Norwegian National Theatre, which still functions just across the street.

The Grand Cafe is another Oslo landmark. On the cafe’s back wall, an epic mural by Per Krohg, painted in 1928, illustrates in full scale a scene from the room during the 1890s. Prominent characters in this historic tableau include dramatist Henrik Ibsen and Norway’s best-known artist, Edvard Munch.

Krohg’s marvelous rendering reminds us of an earlier renaissance in Oslo--a time, before the ravages of Europe’s two great wars, when a cafe society equal to any on the continent flourished here. Inspired by the likes of Ibsen and Munch and sculptor Gustav Vigeland, a large and prolific community of artists, writers and actors evolved in Oslo, and played a leading role on the city’s social stage.

Ultimately it was the long, cruel Nazi occupation, from 1940-45, that put the real damper on a spirited society. A hardworking and more somber Oslo emerged from Adolf Hitler’s grip. The city turned its attention to the reconstruction of industry and commerce.

Blom’s managing director, Tim Holm, sees several reasons behind the city’s latest renaissance--one that has triggered an explosion of new retail, food and entertainment outlets.

“Norway’s older, ‘60s generation is much better educated and more widely traveled than preceding generations,” says Holm, who studied at Lausanne’s Ecole Hoteliere and apprenticed under the renowned Roger Verge in Mougins. “As adults they have more money and more freedom and they’re looking to dress smartly and have a good time. Along with a growing number of tourists, they’ve forced Oslo to open up.”

Holm notes, too, that the North Sea oil boom of the ‘60s and ‘70s boosted not only Norway’s coffers but its confidence. “Big oil money loosened investor’s purse strings and you began to see development taking place in Oslo,” he said.

That development has continued, and goes far beyond the spate of new shops, clubs and restaurants. Oslo has begun to implement an urban redevelopment plan of enormous scale. The die was cast in the ‘70s when local shipbuilding and other heavy industries began losing the long battle for contracts to Japan and Korea, signaling a shift in the city’s economic balance from industry to high-tech products, tourism and service-oriented businesses.

Planners were ready with their Kommunedelplan , designed to tie city and fiord more closely together by removing some of the barriers at their meeting point. Shipyards were dismantled and cargo docks moved away from the city so that the most central areas could be used for development. In addition, the main road through the city and along the waterfront is being put in a tunnel, which will help connect the city center to its harbor.

Already the fruits of Kommunedelplan are evident at Aker Brygge. The old shipyard, which sits within sight of the Radhuset, or City Hall, has been given new life. Its towering red brick shipbuilding halls now intermingle with modern steel-and-glass structures of housing, shops, restaurants, entertainment facilities and offices. Where welders and shipwrights toiled not too many years ago, Oslo residents and visitors alike shop for clothes and cosmetics, slurp ice cream cones and crowd quayside cafes where jazz groups, mimes and jugglers give spontaneous performances.

Another component of the plan was unveiled last summer upon completion of the strikingly modern Vaterland/Gronland development in the city center. It features a 34-story hotel, office complexes, a 9,000-seat cultural/convention hall and Oslo City, an indoor shopping arcade that rivals most American malls for size and glitz.

When Kommunedelplan is completed in the year 2000, Oslo will boast a dynamically integrated harbor and city center much like those of Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco.

Many of the city’s leading attractions--along with its close-knit enclave of hotels, restaurants, cafes and nightclubs--are centrally located, strung along an idyllic green strip flanking Karl Johans, between Parliament and the Royal Palace.

Lined by grand-style 18th- and 19th-Century buildings and laced with flower gardens, fountains and monuments, Oslo’s cozy city center is a walker’s delight. From a downtown base, you can easily walk to the harbor, with its new Aker Brygge development and medieval Akershus castle, which dates to the 14th Century. It is within the castle’s royal crypt that King Olav was laid to rest.

Excursion boats and ferries leave regularly from city quays for nearby Bygdoy Peninsula, home of Oslo’s most extensive museum complex. You could spend an entire day exploring the Norwegian Folk Museum, with its village-like arrangement of traditional Norse architecture.

A group of maritime-related museums nearby is most notable for the Kon Tiki Museum containing explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s famous Kon Tiki and RA II rafts.

Walk in the other direction up Karl Johans to the Royal Palace. You’ll pass the National Theatre and university en route, but time your stroll to arrive at the hilltop palace for the changing of the guard--promptly at 1:30 p.m. daily.

Catch Tram 2 at the National Theater for a 10-minute ride to Vigeland Park in the forested suburb of Frogner. Go directly to Gustav Vigeland’s famous sculpture park, where 192 works from Norway’s preeminent sculptor are sprawled across 80 acres of greenery and gardens.

Take an equally short subway ride (Oslo is the world’s smallest city to have an underground system) to Toyen and the Munch Museum for a look-see at the master’s own collection of originals, bequeathed to the city on his death in 1944.

High above Oslo,in the mountain suburb of Holmenkollen (via subway line 15) is an unusual museum, dedicated to the history and development of skiing. You can take an elevator to the top of the renowned Holmenkollen ski jump, site of numerous world championships, for a panoramic view of Oslo and its cool, blue fiord.

Back in Oslo’s city center is the brand-new Museum of Contemporary Art, housed in a renovated turn-of-the-century bank building. Norway’s newest national museum houses an exciting and eclectic international collection of sculpture, painting and graphic art.

Not confined to parks and museums alone, public land is found everywhere in Oslo. Take the Radhuset, where a spectacular series of murals by Norwegian artists All Rolfsen and Karl Hogberg depict the life and times of the city--most poignantly, its survival of the Nazi occupation.

Dining in Oslo can be both a pleasant surprise--and something of a shock--for visitors. The pleasant surprise comes when you discover the variety of good restaurants and the high quality of food and service. The shock occurs when you get your check. Prices for food and drink here and throughout Scandinavia rank among the world’s highest.

Restaurateurs say that it’s due to the high cost of imports and labor. Regardless, you’d best be prepared for a minimum outlay of $30 per person for dinner in even a moderately priced Oslo eatery.

Prices, in fact, seem steep on just about everything in Oslo. Here’s how the city’s tourist handbook, “Oslo Guide,” leads off its shopping information: “We may as well get one thing clear from the start: You can find cheaper places in the world to shop . . . “ Indeed.

Shopping in Oslo is something akin to committing financial suicide, though value-added tax (VAT) refunds help reimburse shoppers 10% to 14% of their purchase price.

Best values seem to be on take-home quantities of delicious Norwegian salmon, furs and traditional hand-woven woolens. Ski sweaters are popular, with prices starting at about $150.

Oslo’s very best value may be its Oslo Card. This handy pass permits free travel on virtually all public transportation in the city, free admittance to most museums and historic attractions, and half-price on a variety of sightseeing tours by boat or bus.

Valid for one, two or three days, at a cost of about $13, $20 or $25, the Oslo Card can be purchased at tourist information offices, hotels and the train station. It’s the most economical way to explore all that the “new” Oslo has to offer.

GUIDEBOOK

All About Oslo

Getting there: SAS, Pan Am and Continental offer flights from Los Angeles to Oslo, though none are direct. Round-trip fares range from about $850 to $1,150, with some restrictions. SAS has daily service, except Tuesday and Thursday, from LAX to Oslo via Copenhagen.

Call SAS at (800) 221-2350, Pan Am at (800) 221-1111 and Continental at (213) 417-8008.

Where to stay: There’s no shortage of excellent, centrally located hotels in Oslo. The 169-room Hotel Continental remains the city’s ritziest address and is Norway’s only member of the elite “Leading Hotels of the World” group. It’s connected to the historic Theatercafeen at Stortingsgaten 24/26, 0160 Oslo 1. Rates range from $150 to $300 per night, double occupancy.

The 112-year-old Grand Hotel is a mid-city landmark and is noted, too, for its famous cafe. Ideally situated at Karl Johans 31, 0159 Oslo 1. Same price range as the Continental.

A good, moderately priced hotel ($70-$115 double) is the 180-room Hotel Munch at Munchs Gate 5, 0165 Oslo 1. As is the custom throughout Scandinavia, a grand-scale buffet breakfast is included in the room rate at all hotels.

Where to eat: Oslo’s historic artists’ restaurant, Blom, at Karl Johans 41, surrounds patrons with valuable paintings and coats of arms and emblems of a century’s worth of leading cultural personalities. Menu features dishes from Blom’s own cookbook of traditional Norwegian fish and game favorites.

Gamle Raadhus at N. Stottsgate 1 occupies part of Oslo’s original city hall (1641-1734), and is favored among locals for its seafood specialties such as marinated salmon, turbot with lobster sauce and stuffed salmon with herb sauce. A 5,000-bottle wine cellar is the city’s best.

Theatercafeen, also at the Hotel Continental, is a classic old European-style cafe and definitely the place to see and be seen in Oslo. Much like Sardis in New York or Beverly Hills’ Polo Club, it isn’t the food (which is quite good) that matters so much as getting the right table for celebrity-watching.

Expect to pay $30 and up for dinner at most Oslo restaurants.

For more information: Contact the Norwegian Tourist Board, 655 Third Ave., 18th Floor, New York 10017, (212) 949-2333.