From yesterday. After Erik, Liz and I met up, Erik left to meet up with Eliza and Liz and I were going to take the train up to the Holmenkollen Resort. The station was about a quarter mile from the resort, and then I decided to take an Uber. It was a good choice. While we would have been able to see the resort from the station, we would have not found the way there. Instead, the Uber dropped us off right at the entrance to the hotel.....after passing through the armed military guard at a fenced gate. When we walked into the lobby, it was full of military uniforms of all kinds. It turns out there was a NATO meeting that weekend. We learned that the entire area was fenced off, there was no hiking or wandering around the area and that we HAD to be out by noon on Friday. It somewhat limited the pictures we could take also. However, we could walk up to the ski jump which we did the next morning. There may have been one other group at dinner that didn't have on uniforms. And armed guards standing around the dining room. I did walk out and took some pictures of the lodge and of Oslo however.
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It was a beautiful sight, with the lights reflecting off the low hanging clouds.
The Holmenkollen ski jump is one of the Oslo attractions. It is an incredible structure, and even several pictures don't give you the scale of it.
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| The Landing Bowl |
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| The Middle Section, about to jump! |
Liz and I did take the train down into downtown and located our AirBnB. It was a bit of a guess because the entrance to the apartment was from the parking lot behind the front of the building. However, it fit the seven of us very comfortably.
We all met up at the AirBnB in the afternoon. It was very conveniently located three blocks north of Karl Johans Gate (the main street in Oslo) and about four blocks from the Royal Palace. It was rainy/drizzily that day, and we weren't terribly inspired to sightsee much, but we did get hungry. We found a grocery store to pick up supplies, mainly breakfast stuff and coffee. Then, we located a large food court about a mile east and walked over in the lifting drizzle. Afterwards, I wanted to walk back through downtown and Jaye walked with me. Two of the places I wanted to see were the Domkirke and the Storting. It was getting late and we didn't want to waste too much time, so I didn't go in to the church, but did get a picture of it. Maybe next time.
The Storting is the Norwegian Capital Building. The "Ting" is an old norse term for a gathering of local land owners for making local laws and for courts. "Stor" means large in Norwegian, so the "Stor Ting" is the large gathering of officials from around the country.
We got back, everyone was pretty mellow, but we finally decided that we would go to the Norwegian Folk Museum first thing in the morning. We went passed the Oslo City Hall on our way to the Folk Museum. Oslo's city hall is a popular attraction because of the beautiful murals and paintings inside. The two main murals are in the assembly hall (where the Noble Peace Prize is awarded) and they are enormous. However, it was closed that day due to national elections, so I got some pictures off the "VisitOslo.com" web site.
The back (harbor side) and front of the City Hall
As you walk to the front door, you pass a series of 16 wood carvings of the Norwegian Myths. (No, I won't show them all, but I could.)
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| Jere and Arthur in front of Odin on Sleipner |
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Tyler, Jaye and Lyndon in front of the Thom and Liz (and not Erik)
main doors into the city hall. |
It really is a beautiful building on the inside also. For more information about the art in the city hall, The Oslo Book is a good source. Make sure to go both up and down the page.
The Oslo Marathon was being run that morning and we had to walk over the path to get to the ferry.
This also gave us a good view of the Nobel Peace Center. While all the other Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm, the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. It was closed, as it has been the other times we've been in Oslo. Also, the gray building behind both sides of the Peace Center is the National Art Museum. We'll go there later.
The Folk Museum is in Bygdøy, a large peninsula into the Oslo fjord and one easy way for a group to get there is to take a ferry across the harbor and walk the half mile (uphill!) to the museum. The Folk Museum has 160 buildings from across Norway and from the 12th century up to the 1940's. It consists of primarily farm homes and buildings and has pastures and pens for animals, since that's where most of the Norwegian people lived.
(A page from my powerpoint after our first Norway trip in 2017)
The first building at the museum was a stavekirk, or wooden church, from the community of Gol in Hallingdal, the valley in the center of Norway. It is personally interesting to me because almost a quarter of my family come from Gol and the adjacent towns of Nesbyen and Torpo. I have copies of records of baptisms, weddings and deaths from this church.
I used this picture from the VisitOslo website because it shows several of the features of the building better than my pictures. The most striking features are the dragonheads on the roofs. This church was constructed in the 1150-1200s. Christianity was still new to the pagan Norwegians, so the dragonheads were to scare off the evil beings of Norse mythology. The multiple roofs were necessary because of the construction techniques using staves or long trunks of Norwegian pine trees. When this picture was taken, the building had just been repainted with a mixture of pine tar and ashes to weather seal and to retard fires. The bottom roof covers a walkway around the building which protects the inner wall, which is the interior wall of the church, which is covered by the second roof. The apse (where the altar is located) is in the curved section on the left side and the main entrance is on the right.
Liz, Thom, Erik, Eliza
The Apse of the church showing some of the structure. (from 2017)
The Central Painting in the Apse of the last supper. Done in 1650's, never retouched.
The left and right sides of the Apse
It is just a magnificent structure and being inside (and outside) really has a personal feeling for me.
As does the rest of the museum. Just a few of the other buildings...
The house and the story of Fanitullen. (Click on the picture to enlarge.) The tune Fanitullen is one of the best known on the Hardangerfiddle. The tune is as wild as the story.
A stabbur, or loft barn, from the area of Nes in Hallingdal, where my Viken farm is located.
A hotel cabin with the walls and ceiling covered in Rosemaling. Notice the bed on the left and the couple on the right. They show up better if you click on them.
A liquor store and a gas station in Old Town, buildings that were collected from around Oslo as they were being taken down as new buildings were being built. Wouldn't you know I found Erik and Liz there!
The cousins on a rope swing. They Do have fun!
On the ferry back into downtown Oslo.
When we got back to town, we split up into shoppers and museumers. I opted for the museum, big surprise. The National Museum is located behind the Nobel Peace Center right on the harbor. The building is big and new, opening in 2022. It has double the exhibition space from the old building and it will take a second visit to get the geography of it down. But I knew where I wanted to start. I'm a good tourist, so I went directly to
Hey, if you are only going to see one painting in Norway, it's got to be the Scream, or Skrik, by Edvard Munch in 1893. It is actually one of six versions that he made, but this is the "real" version. His original title for it was "Despair". Munch is Norway's most famous painter and there is a room and a hallway with his artwork.
Inger is his wife.
There are paintings by other artists as well. Just a few.
Notice the Hardanger Fiddle playing from his chest.
If you don't read the caption, you'll miss the point of the painting. It is a picture of Jesus as a historical figure, in Norway. He is in the brown suit. Most people are watching him, they are placing flowers and a carpet in his path, and a father is bringing his sick daughter. At the time of the painting, there was a philosophical discussion whether we would recognize Jesus if he came today, was he a real historical person and showing him as a craftsman, a carpenter, rather than a religious figure. I liked the picture and the sentiment.
I've got about 20 more Munch paintings I could show, and the museum has more than just paintings of Norway. This was all the time we had. I'll be back.
Erik found a neat place for dinner and games that evening. It was a curling bar, with table top curling lanes. We played, drank beer and ordered pizzas in. We had a great time.
As we were walking home from dinner and curling, I had one of those crazy moments when I saw Sally in front of me. Jere had claimed Sally's long coat that she had gotten for Norway in 2018, and the slacks, and shoes and the cut and color of her hair really threw me for a loop. And I saw it every time I walked behind her and every time I see this picture... And that Jere and Sally were so similar in personalities really reinforces the image. Really, thanks Jere.
YCGL - Sunday, Sept 17, 2023 - Oslo - Naked People and a Hot and Cold Bath
YCGL - Wednesday/Thursday, September 13-14 - Radda in Chianti to Oslo!
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