It was the second time I’d been in Oslo, and I’ve decided that it is my favourite of the Scandinavian capital cities.

I have already mentioned our visits to some of the museums and historical sites in my earlier posts.

And the harbour with its Striking Opera House is a stunning sight in both winter and summer.

But the visit to the Ekeberg sculpture park was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

It was quite surreal wandering through a snowy forest, sometimes on a track, but often simply pushing through the snow drifts between the trees, searching for works of art. We did have a map. And there were the occasional other visitors to provide clues to where the pieces were. But otherwise, it was often it was just a mystical voyage of art discovery.

The park opened in 2013, when Christian Ringnes, a Norwegian businessman and art collector, collaborated with the city council to create a free sculpture park. The city still owns the park, while Ringnes owns the sculptures. In addition, Ringnes established the C. Ludens Ringnes Foundation to finance the venture on an ongoing basis. There was some resistance to the project at the beginning as the area had a long history as a public park and protected natural space; in the late 1800s the area had been established “for the people of Oslo’s spiritual and moral well-being”.

Today it is internationally renowned, as both an art institution and a nature park.

We saw works of art by Rodin and Salvador Dali.

And others which were dramatic… or unexpected…

… or humorous….