Holmenkollen Ski Jump, Frognerseteren and Nordmarka Forest Trails

In Oslo, the wilderness does not begin an hour outside the suburbs; it starts at the end of the metro line. Board T-bane Metro Line 1 (towards Frognerseteren) underground at Jernbanetorget, Stortinget or Nationaltheatret using a standard Zone 1 Ruter ticket, and within ten minutes the train emerges into daylight at Majorstuen and begins a winding, scenic 25-minute climb through timber villas and spruce forests up to 470 metres above the fjord.

Holmenkollen Ski Jump and the Ski Museum (Holmenkollen station)

Step off at Holmenkollen station and walk five minutes uphill to the foot of Holmenkollbakken, a sacred site of Norwegian winter sport that has hosted ski jumping competitions since 1892 and the 1952 Winter Olympics. Rebuilt in 2010 by JDS Architects as a 60-metre cantilevered stainless-steel lattice arc jutting out into mid-air without a front support pillar, the jump tower is open to visitors year-round:

• The Jump Tower Observation Deck (Jump Top): a diagonal glass lift inside the steel spine carries you up to the very top platform above the jumpers' start bar, delivering the highest panoramic view over Oslo, the islands of the inner fjord and the forested hills of Bærum. On weekends from spring to autumn, daredevils can also ride the 361-metre Kollenveien Zipline straight down the length of the ski jump to the landing bowl.
• The Ski Museum (Skimuseet, carved into the rock beneath the jump): founded in 1923 as the oldest specialist ski museum in the world and freshly redesigned, it displays 4,000-year-old prehistoric rock carvings and wooden skis preserved in bogs, the original sledges and equipment from Fridtjof Nansen's 1888 Greenland crossing and Roald Amundsen's 1911 South Pole expedition, and royal skiing history.

Frognerseteren (1891) and Hiking into Nordmarka

After visiting Holmenkollen, get back on Metro Line 1 for the final five stops up to the terminus at Frognerseteren (469 metres elevation). Two minutes from the platform stands Frognerseteren (Kafé Seterstua), a magnificent 1891 dragon-style (dragestil) log lodge designed by Holm Munthe with carved wooden gables, open stone fireplaces and a wide terrace overlooking the entire Oslofjord. Joining Oslo hikers here for a slice of their famous tall apple cake with whipped cream (eplekake) and hot chocolate is a local institution. Right outside the lodge door begin the signposted gravel trails into Nordmarka (or walk 20 minutes along the ridge to the wooden television tower of Tryvannstårnet and downhill back to Holmenkollen).