The second day of our trip to Oslo got off to a later start than originally planned due to a case of over-sleeping. Apparently our baby alarm Lucas wasn’t ready to get up either.

We made up for the things we had planned to see later on during the trip due to our visit being extended thanks to an upcoming winter storm.

Sleeping the extra hour or so got all of our sleep schedules back on track and we still had a very productive day.

We headed on over to Bygdoy peninsula, home to many great museums about a 20 minute bus ride from the city center.

Our Oslo Pass went to great use covering our roundtrip bus rides as well as admission to the three (very different) nautical related museums that we visited during the day.

Here are the museums we visited:

• The Viking Ship Museum
• The Fram Museum
• Kon-Tiki Museum 

The Viking Ship Museum (Vikingskiphuset) is the attraction that I most looked forward to checking out during our visit to Oslo and it didn’t disappoint!

The museum is home to three viking ships, 2 which are in excellent condition. They were built around 800-900 A.D. and used as burial ships. They were discovered along the Oslo fjord, pretty cool that they are local finds. I loved the way the museum was set up. When you walk in, you immediately see the front of the first ship and as you walk further along, it branches off in a T-shape, with each side being the location of the other ships. The museum is mainly on one level. To allow visitors to view the ships from overhead, there are staircases leading up to small balconies. Without the balconies, I wouldn’t have been able to get the photo shown above.

Along with the three viking ships, there are other impressive artifacts on display. Skeletons found on the ships, other small boats, sleds with amazing detail, tools and more.

The Viking Ship Museum is a must visit if you ask me.

There’s a famous polar ship housed inside the building above, the Fram Museum (Frammseet) and I’m jumping for joy since I can’t wait to see what is doing inside!

The Fram is the world’s most famous polar ship according to the museum’s website. It is built from wood & made to withstand the pressure of the ice (something that could crush a ship) during expeditions to the Arctic.

It was also the first ship to reach the South Pole.

Once inside, the Fram is right there in front of you to look at in awe. The first thing I wondered was how in the world they got such a huge ship indoors!

The ship is massive- tall and narrow. You can walk all around the ship and even get to go onboard to check out the top deck, and below to see the cabins, engine room and more. There are lots of artifacts onboard including many of the small cabins still furnished with clothing, tools and weapons used by the explorers. I assume all of these things were original although I am not positive.

All around the Fram, on the second and third floors are displays featuring a ton of information about the polar explorations. They discuss the key people involved in building and going on the expeditions. There is also lots of interesting things on display like weapons, clothes, stuffed polar bears, ship models and more.

It was a lot to take in but we still enjoyed our visit. Lucas also enjoyed running around on the Fram!

I first heard about the Kon-Tiki voyage and Thor Heyerdahl when we visited Easter Island a few years ago.

The Kon-Tiki Museum tells the story of Thor Heyerdahl and his various expeditions to test the sea-going abilities of the South American balsa raft and to investigate whether it would have been practically possible for the original native population of Peru, the Incas and their remarkably cultured predecessors, to have reached the islands out in the open Pacific.

The story was fascinating. Heyerdahl proved it was possible to sail from South America to the Pacific by doing so during a 101 day journey.

Along with the Kon-Tiki, the museum also is home to another of Heyerdahl’s rafts, the Ra II along with information about his other expeditions.

I would’ve liked some more time at the museum but thanks to early closing hours during the winter, that wasn’t possible.

That wraps up day 2 of our trip to Oslo. If you haven’t done so already, check out my post about Day 1 here.