Polarship Fram Museum

Lonely Planet review

Nature is often the best architect. Which is why, when the well-known ship builder Colin Archer was asked to design a ship whose hull could withstand the crush of the polar ice, he looked no further than an egg for inspiration. Launched in 1982, the Polarship Fram Museum, captained by both Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, spent much of its life trapped in the polar ice.

From 1893 to 1896 Nansen's North Pole expedition took the 39m schooner to Russia's New Siberian Islands, passing within a few degrees of the North Pole on their return trip to Norway. In 1910 Amundsen set sail in the Fram, meaning 'forward', intending to be the first explorer to reach the North Pole, only to discover en route that Robert Peary had beaten him to it. Not to be out done, Amundsen turned the Fram around and became the first man to reach the South Pole. Otto Sverdrup also sailed the schooner around southern Greenland to Canada's Ellesmere Island between 1898 and 1902, travelling over 18,000km. You're allowed to thoroughly explore the ship, peek inside the cramped bunkrooms and imagine life at sea. In addition, there are detailed exhibits complete with maps, pictures and artefacts that bring the various expeditions to life, from Nansen's attempt to ski across the North Pole to Amundsen's discovery of the Northwest Passage and the fateful rescue attempt that ended in his disappearance.