Oslo: Norwegian Folk Museum: Fram Museum: Kon Tiki Museum

 Coffee and a crumpet, a brisk morning walk and we were at the public ferries to the Bygdøy peninsula, home of some of Oslo's best museums.  We first visited the Norwegian Folk Museum a collection of buildings from all over Norway representing life in Norway from 1500 to 1900.  It was during this time that the Norwegians were under continuous pressure from larger, more powerful countries.  For a while it was Denmark-Norway and then after Denmark lost a war it was Sweden-Norway.  The Norwegians did not want association with Denmark or Sweden.  They felt they were a stand alone country.  So much so, that when Norway was ceded to Sweden, the Norwegians ignored what the great powers were doing and wrote their own constitution and "book of laws" completely ignoring the fact the Swedes were internationally accepted as their overlords.  Finally in 1904, the Swedish King gave up and Norway was independent.  Another interesting fact is that since Norway never had a strong Noble Class, the important persons became the merchants and high government officials.  This was one of the characteristics that allowed Norway to become a stable country so quickly.

Stave (pronounced St-aah-v) Church

The namesake staves

 With dragons as prominent as crosses, 

the church appears almost as much Pagan as it does Christian

Every Norwegian Law in this one book

Sami exhibit

A sod roofed outbuilding

This pen jente wanted her picture taken with me

This pen jente was happy to have her picture taken without me

The Fram Museum is centred principally on the original exploration vessel Fram.  The original interior of Fram is intact and visitors can go inside the ship to view it.  Fram was commissioned, designed, and built by Scots-Norwegian shipbuilder Colin Archer to specifications provided by Norwegian Arctic explorer Nansen, who financed the building of the ship with a combination of grant monies provided by the Norwegian government and private funding in 1891.  The three great Norwegian Polar Explorers, Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, and everyone's favorite, Roald Amundsen, were presented in exciting detail.  This is a good museum and I am glad we did not miss it.  The Fram itself is on display, this boat built in 1891 deliberately sailed into arctic waters where it became frozen into the arctic ice mass in the hopes of drifting with the ice near to the north magnetic pole.  It was later used as Amundsen's home base, this time frozen into the Antarctic Ice in his successful exploration to the South Pole.

Show me the 14 year old boy who in 1954, like me, read Thor Heyerdahl's account of crossing the Pacific east to west on a balsa raft and did not imagine himself to be sailing with Thor.  This was archeology at it best, way before Indiana Jones ever showed up. Thor, and in my imagination me, right beside him, were unequivocally proving that the Polynesians were the direct descendants of the Pre-Incan-Americans descended from the Caral Culture in Peru.  Of course I know now that the Kon Tiki proved none of that, that the Polynesians did indeed island hop west to east starting in Southeast Asia.  DNA tracing has proved this conclusively.  Sadly, Thor only proved that the raft could make the journey.  Thor was not a scientist, but an adventurer.   But it doesn't change my opinion of him or my memories of imagining myself on that raft.  The world has plenty of scientists but adventurers, they are rare men.

This is the actual Kon Tiki

He also sailed this, the Ra II across the Atlantic speculating that Egyptians did the same.

After a day of walking and museum touring we were ready for a sandwich which we picked up at a corner café.  Once again I was a little slow on the picture taking, but this quick and comparatively inexpensive meal was exactly what we needed.

   

Oslo Munch Museum and Nord

 While Carl had a crazy urge to climb all over the Oslo Opera House, I chose to spend time in the Munch Museum, a brand new museum (2021) that houses all the paintings, notes, sketches, letters, diaries that Norway’s most renown artist gave to the city before he died.  Everyone seems familiar with his “The Scream” (even Apple emojis 😱 ).

The outside of this designated museum to Munch

As a child, paging through our family’s Comptons encyclopedia…I was always awe struck by “The Scream”.  It left a lasting impression and it was overwhelming to see his other works, some just as dramatic and emotional as The Scream.  

I was thrilled to take photos of any and all of his works on permanent display. Of course, I was also anxious to find “The Scream” but held off until the end of my wanderings.  Here are some of my favorites…

Jealousy 

Separation 

Starry Night

Yes, while in Paris he hung with Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse Letrec…the Impressionists.  He, however, is differentiated as an Expressionist.  The emotion displayed through his paintings resonates human emotions to such a degree that it certainly sets him apart from other artists.  I find his life story is almost  as interesting as Van Gogh’s.   I have appreciated seeing the individual brushstrokes of Van Gogh’s and now Munch’s masterpieces.  

Back to the sad ending of my afternoon with Munch…the gem of the collection are three versions of The Scream.  However, since Munch painted them on cardboard or paper, the museum only opens the vaults they are hanging in on a rotating basis.  Apparently light harms the color pastels’ pigments and the colored original Scream was hidden to me today.  All that was on display was the black and white woodblock print below.

The two vaults holding the precious colored pastels on paper and cardboard.

In my opinion, they just want to prevent further thefts of The Scream.

At least Nord was able to sneak a peek!

Oslo: Central Station: Opera House

 Found a bakery for coffee and a crumpet.  I had some administrative things to take care of regarding our train travel so Sandy and I walked the seven minutes to the central station (Sentralstasjon or Oslo S).  The station is a marvel, more of a mammoth mall than a station.  Clean, well organized, about 50% shops and department stores and 50% eating establishments.  I know that we will yet be going through several stations that the tour books rate even higher, but this is the nicest one we've been in for a while.  U.S Amtrak stations, even the best of them, are not near in the same league as these.  I got the answers I needed from Carine. She printed a couple of reservations that we were not able to get from the U.S., and we were set.

Oslo's Tiger, commemorating 1000 years of the city

Oslo's train station

Sushi on a continuous conveyor belt, this could get very expensive

Getting some missing reservations for train seats 

I then set my goals on the Munch Museum.  According to Apple maps it was about one half hour away, and it was a beautiful day, so why not walk it.  Worked fine, except the Munch Museum has been moved to right next door to the train station.  We did not walk back.  A kindly bus driver gave us a free ride to the museum and then when we got off he went out of way twice to make sure we got to the right place.  

Before reaching the Munch Museum we stopped at the unique opera house.  It is a building that you look at and walk upon.  I walked on it, bottom to top and top to bottom while Sandy was enjoying the Munch Museum.  Perhaps it's not as famous as the Sydney Opera house, but they are working on it.  I have heard it described as emulating a beach, or an iceberg, or a shipwreck.  It is massive and with so many different slopes and angles the buildings shape changes every few steps that you take.  

A glass bridge

Bergen Morning Walk: Train Bergen to Oslo

This morning we walked to a bakery that we had seen the prior night.  Cinnamon Rolls and coffee!  A foolproof way to start a day.  Again, it was an unusual day for Bergen, a sunny and warm (55°F) morning. So after the bakery we walked around the giant pedestrian squares that connect throughout the downtown.  We found the "posten" (post office) and St. Mary's Kirk (church).  Mostly we just walked around enjoying this pleasant city and watching the business men and women head off to work and appreciating that we were not.  We finally headed back to CityBox to check out of our room and catch a midday train to Oslo.  

The first portion of our travels were basically a roadtrip through the Scottish Highlands.  The second part was an air trip using LoganAir's small planes to hop from island to island all the way to the Shetland Islands and on to Norway.  Third leg was the mail ship for 12 days up to the Norway/Russia border and back.  

And now, we start the next phase which will be via train starting with traveling from Bergen to Oslo.  Today's train was a regional.  There is no fast train between these two cities.  It took about eight hours traveling past glaciers, mountain meadows, little towns, and towering mountains.  It was a long day on the train, but the view out the window was always good, excepting when we were in those long tunnels that the Norwegians love to build.

Looks like waves crashing to shore, actually two glaciers topped with clouds

Bergen Norway: CityBox Hotel: World Triathlon Cup

 We lazed away our last half day on the Castor.  The sun was beating down in southern Norway and I spent that time on our cabin balcony sort of watching the radiant shoreline and sort of dozing off.  It was a good way to end a good 11 days of negotiating the fjords of Norway.  

Scandinavia is not cheap, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are expensive.  That goes doubly for the places that tourists visit and the products and services that they use.  Hotels, are notoriously expensive.  To counter this, a Hotel chain called CityBox has established itself in the larger cities.  We are staying at one in Bergen and will stay at another in Oslo.  Their business plan is to create a low cost business quality hotel.  They have done it by providing clean simple rooms and cutting down on employee costs which is very high in these countries.  There is no front desk, you can only reserve a room online.  Checking in and out is done at an unmanned kiosk which provides your keycard for entry to the building, elevator and room.  The room is spotlessly clean when you check in.  If you want it cleaned during your stay, you order it online and pay for it.  The concierge is electronic.  Need an umbrella?  They'll rent you one without any interaction with staff, which, of course, they don't have.  This is the first time that Sandy and I tried one of these establishments.  If two old travelers like us can do it, I think most anyone can.  We saw businessmen, backpackers and vacationers checking in, though truth be told no-one except Sandy and I gave each other a high-five when the Kiosk spit out our keycards!

A beautiful sunny day like this and the people of Bergen were going to be out.  The city is safe, historical and attractive.  Wish we were staying longer

Composer Edvard Greig, Sandy has been humming his "In the Hall of the Mountain King" since we got to Norway

Sandy and I have always been lucky travelers.  Today was no exception.  I had not planned it but today Bergen was hosting a major qualifying event for the Ironman Triathlon.  It is a part of the World Triathlon Cup Series and athletes from all over the world were participating.  Sandy and I positioned ourselves so that we could watch the bicyclists and still caught some glimpses of the runners.  This was a "sprint" event.  The winner was from France, second place went to the crowd favorite and current Olympic champion who represents Norway and is from Bergen.  The highest US triathlete finished seventh.  We were watching the cyclists at a high speed straight away over cobblestones.  Very exciting!

Sandy and I have been on the boat for 12 days, 11 nights.  They served well prepared meals which I thoroughly enjoyed.  But they did not serve pizza.  I needed a pizza.  We found Peppes Pizzeria, (we have seen several Peppes around Norway).  I was so excited about finally getting a slice that I forgot to take a picture until is was about half gone.  I thought this was a good pizza, though at the moment of consumption I would have been hard pressed to say that any pizza was bad.  To add to the romance of eating pizza (as if any romance need be added) Sandy noted that Peppes opened their first shop in May of 1970, the same month and year that I met Sandy.  It looks like both arrangements have worked out so far.