The Palace Square (Slotssplassen) is at the end of Karl Johans gate, one of the main streets in downtown Oslo. In the middle of the Square is the Royal Palace (Det kongelige slott), built in the first half of the 1800s. It is guarded by Royal Guards, and surrinding it is the Royal Palace Park (Slottsparken) that is open to and for the public. In front of the place is a statue of Charles John of Norway and Sweden (Karl Johan). Public tours of the palace have been running since 2002. The park has a children's sculpture garden. Saturday April 20, 2019 000-DSC_3358-header: The Palace Square and Royal Palace 000-DSC_3358-headertext:
We walked around the outside of the palace enjoying the weather. The Wiki page on the Oslo Royal Palace has details on the palace history. 000-DSC_3358: The steps leading up to the Royal Palace in Oslo. 001-DSC_3359: Looking back from the Royal Palace down Karl Johan gate (street) in Oslo. 002-DSC_3360: Viking bikers (bikings?) by the statue of King Karl Johan. 003-DSC_3361: Statue of King Karl Johan at the Royal Palace in Oslo. 004-DSC_3362: More biking vikings (though sadly they aren't riding 10 person bikes). 005-DSC_3363: Statue of King Karl Johan at the Royal Palace in Oslo. 006-DSC_3366: 007-DSC_3367: People pose for pictures next to the guards. They don't mind. However, they do guard the entrance to the place. They are constantly looking around, guarding the place. (As compared to the Buckingham Palace guards who seem to be more known for not reacting to anything, unless someone is a complete jerk.) When someone got too close to the doorway, a guard told the person in no uncertain terms to move away. Their guns are big and real and have pointy things at the end. too close 008-DSC_3368: Ornamentation on the palace. 009-DSC_3370: A girl poses next to the royal guard. 010-DSC_3371: The guards patrols and don't just stand in front of their box. 012-DSC_3373: On the right side of the palace there was another guard (who happened to be female and could easily kick my ass, with or without weapons). 013-DSC_3375: The guard is on her patrol while people pass by on foot and on electric rental scooters. 013a-DSC_3390-header: The Palace Park (Slottsparken) 013a-DSC_3390-headertext:
The Palace Park (Slottsparketn) was opened in 1847 two years before
the palace was completed. It is open to the public.
The Sculpture Park was opened in May 2016 and will be completed in 2019
containing 12 sculptures. The designs were selected from a nationwide
competition of 6th graders.
The park is a cool place with some interesting and trippy sculptures.
But let's be honest here, some of them are pretty messed up.
013a-DSC_3390: Information on the Palace Park.
014-DSC_3376: A hand with a tree growing out of it. Almost Andy
Goldsworthy-esque.
015-DSC_3377: A geometric origami-ish fox.
016-DSC_3378: Information on Princess Ingrid Alexandra's Sculpture Park.
017-DSC_3380: A person with a weird, muppety hand puppet.
018-DSC_3381: Roggbif, the Norwegian acronym for the colors in
the rainbow.
019-DSC_3382: A hideous gibbering amorphous amalgomation of body parts
nightmare creature.
020-DSC_3383: A highly reflective, shiny metal kind of stick figure on a
park bench.
021-DSC_3384: Follow the rainbow.
022-DSC_3385: Faith and Frank under the rainbow sculpture in the Oslo Palace
Park.
023-DSC_3387: A sad deformed rabbit head...
024-DSC_3388: ...that is sad becaue it has not killed you yet, though it
really wants to.
025-DSC_3389: A statue of Camilla Collette, a Norwegian writer from the 1800s,
regarded as the first Norwegian feminist.
027-DSC_3391: Looking across the park to the north side of the Royal Palace
in Oslo.
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