Visiting Oslo: Remembrance, Reflection and the Road North

Oslo is an important point on The Long Road to Nordkapp. By the time I arrive in Norway’s capital, I will already have ridden a considerable distance from Plymouth and crossed several European countries. Yet Oslo represents something different. It is where the journey begins to turn decisively north and where the scale of what lies ahead starts to become very real.

My time in Oslo will not simply be about sightseeing. There is one visit that matters to me more than any of the city’s traditional attractions. I will be visiting Vestre gravlund, Oslo’s Western Civil Cemetery, to pay my respects.

Throughout The Long Road to Nordkapp there will be places where I want to stop, get off the motorcycle and remember those who came before us. These are not tourist stops or opportunities for another photograph. They are moments of remembrance and reflection, and my visit to the cemetery in Oslo will be one of them.

Paying My Respects at Western Civil Cemetery

Western Civil Cemetery is one of Oslo’s largest cemeteries and is also home to Commonwealth war graves. For me, visiting places such as this is an important part of travelling through Europe.

It is very easy when riding across borders to think about countries simply as destinations on a route. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the other countries I travel through can become names on road signs and lines on a GPS screen. Places of remembrance provide a very different perspective.

They remind you of the history beneath those roads.

When I visit Western Civil Cemetery, I intend to spend some quiet time paying my respects to the servicemen who never made the journey home. There is something particularly powerful about standing beside the grave of someone who died far from their own country. Behind every headstone is a person, a family and a story that continued long after their death.

As a veteran myself, remembrance is something I feel strongly about. The Long Road to Nordkapp is being ridden in support of Veterans in Action, so stopping at places connected with those who served feels entirely appropriate. The expedition is about adventure, but it is also about veterans, remembrance and recognising the sacrifices made by generations before us.

I do not intend to rush this part of my visit.

There will be thousands of miles ahead of me and plenty of opportunities to worry about schedules, fuel stops, campsites and the next day’s route. For a short while, those things can wait.

Sometimes the most important thing you can do on a journey is simply stop.

Discovering Oslo

After paying my respects, I want to spend some time experiencing Oslo itself. Norway’s capital sits at the head of the Oslofjord, surrounded by water, forests and hills. It is a modern European capital, but the relationship between the city and the natural environment is immediately apparent.

One of the places I want to see is the Oslo Opera House on the waterfront. Its distinctive architecture has become one of the symbols of modern Oslo, and visitors can walk onto the roof for views across the harbour.

The surrounding Bjørvika waterfront is another area I want to explore. It combines modern architecture, cultural attractions and public spaces with views across the fjord. After several days on the motorcycle, simply walking around without having to think about the next junction will probably be welcome.

I also want to visit Akershus Fortress. Standing above Oslo’s harbour, the medieval fortress has witnessed centuries of Norwegian history. It is another place where the past and present sit alongside one another and should provide a very different perspective on the city.

If time allows, Vigeland Sculpture Park is also on my list. More than 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland depict people at different stages of life and explore relationships, ageing and human emotion. It is unusual, thought-provoking and very different from the scenery that will dominate much of the journey ahead.

Things to Do in Oslo

Anyone following The Long Road to Nordkapp or planning their own visit to Oslo will find considerably more to do than can realistically be fitted into a short stay. There are walking tours, fjord cruises, museums, historical attractions and numerous ways of exploring the city and surrounding area.

If you are planning your own visit, you can check what is available before you arrive.

Explore Oslo tours, attractions and experiences with Klook

Booking activities in advance can be particularly useful if you only have a day or two in the city. Rather than spending valuable time deciding what to do after you arrive, you can identify the places that genuinely interest you and build them into your itinerary.

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Oslo by Motorcycle

Arriving in Oslo on the motorcycle will also mark an important psychological point in the expedition.

The roads behind me will have brought me from Plymouth and across Europe. The roads ahead lead into an entirely different environment.

Norway is enormous when experienced from the seat of a motorcycle. Distances that appear manageable on a map can translate into long days on the road, and as I continue north the towns will become smaller, the gaps between services will increase and the landscape will increasingly dominate everything around me.

That is exactly what I have come for.

There is a temptation with a long-distance expedition to concentrate on mileage. You begin thinking in terms of how far you have travelled, how far remains and how many miles need to be covered tomorrow.

I want to resist that whenever possible.

The Long Road to Nordkapp is not about reaching Nordkapp as quickly as I can. If that were the objective, there would be much easier ways of getting there.

The road is the expedition.

The people I meet, the places I visit and the moments when I stop the motorcycle are every bit as important as the miles I spend riding it.

From Remembrance to the Road North

There will be a particular contrast to my day in Oslo.

Part of it will be spent exploring a vibrant modern capital. Another part will be spent standing quietly among headstones at Western Civil Cemetery.

I think that contrast matters.

Travel has a habit of reminding us how large the world is, but places of remembrance remind us how personal history really is. Behind the dates, battles and statistics are individuals whose lives were interrupted and families whose lives were changed forever.

After paying my respects, I will eventually return to the motorcycle, put the helmet back on and continue my own journey.

That is a privilege worth remembering.

From Oslo, the road continues north through Norway towards increasingly remote landscapes, the Arctic Circle and ultimately Nordkapp. There will be long riding days, unpredictable weather, wild camping and undoubtedly moments when I question the wisdom of riding thousands of miles across Europe on my own.

But there will also be moments like Oslo.

Moments when the journey stops being about distance.

The Long Road Continues

The Long Road to Nordkapp is a solo motorcycle expedition from Plymouth to the far north of Norway and back, undertaken in support of Veterans in Action.

The expedition will cover thousands of miles and take me through multiple European countries, but I want the story to be about more than motorcycles and spectacular scenery. It is also about the people, history and experiences found along the road.

My visit to Western Civil Cemetery will be a small but important part of that story.

I will arrive as a traveller and a veteran.

I will stand quietly and pay my respects.

Then I will return to the bike.

Oslo will slowly disappear behind me, the roads will stretch further north and the landscape will begin to change.

And somewhere, still a very long way ahead, Nordkapp will be waiting.