YCGL - Sunday, Sept 17, 2023 - Oslo - Naked People and a Hot and Cold Bath

OK, I've skipped a WHOLE LOT, but I want to get up to date and hope to catch up what's inbetween. There has just been so much going on, day and night, and I'm really having trouble finding time to write. But here goes.

This morning, we were going to Frogner Park and the Vigeland Sculpture Arrangement. Gustav Vigeland was a Norwegian sculpture who made an agreement with the city of Oslo to build a sculpture garden in exchange for every work that the artist would create in the rest of his life, over 200 sculptures.

When you enter the park, you see a large formal garden leading to a bridge, another formal garden, then to a fountain and finally, a raised platform with a large monolith in the center.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frogner_Park_with_Vigeland_Sculpture_Arrangement.jpg

The bridge is lined with bronze sculptures, including some of Vigeland's most famous.

Angry Baby (It had been damaged and when it was

repaired, they put a bronze patina on the baby's hand

and another part which has been touched, a lot!)

Walking further, you come to the fountain.

The fountain is a large bowl held by six men of different ages with the water cascading down into a large pool surrounded by a bronze base and statue groups on the four corners.

The statues appear to be people floating through a forest, almost like diving through a kelp bed. They are incredibly graceful.

There are panels around the base of the cycle of life, of babies to skeletons.

And then you walk up to the Monolith.

https://vigeland.museum.no/en/vigelandpark/monolith

It was carved in place over a period of 13 years.

Around the base of the Monolith are a series of granite sculptures, again showing the ages of people, from a man and a pregnant wife to an old couple staring in to the final sleep. There are children and mothers playing, and children playing, and teens starting to notice other teens, and romance, and trouble, and mother consoling her son, and finally, a couples growing old. And there are hetero couples and bi couples, Vigeland is being very honest here, with sculptures carved in the 1930s and 1940s.

And whenever I leave, it is these sculptures that echo in my mind. Their image is as heavy to me as the granite itself. And, I have to admit, there is one that has always captured me the most.

Vigeland Park was Sally's favorite place in Oslo and the Folk Museum was mine. I wouldn't think of going to Oslo without visiting both.

Afterwards, Liz and I decided to visit the cemetery behind the park while everyone else wanted to go shopping or more sightseeing. We wandered through, looked for war memorials from different countries, and finally walked out by a hospital complex. We were about two miles from our apartment and decided we would rent some e-scooters to go back. I had never ridden one, so Liz gave me some pointers, including to point into the parking lot when you are starting and not into the traffic! Good advice. But once I got the hang of it in a couple of hundred feet, I was ready to go. Unfortunately, Liz's scooter was low on batteries and she couldn't keep up with me. So I'd stop and let her catch up and then take off again. Her's finally died about two blocks from the apartment, but she didn't want to tandem with me so she walked.

That afternoon, Erik, Liz and I walked down to the harbor and took the city ferry around to five islands in the fjord. It was a nice way to sight see (and cheap!).

Medieval Akershus Fortress Hovedøya Island

A yacht club in the harbor and the Holmenkollen The new Astrup Fearnley Museum of

ski jump on the mountain where Liz and I stayed. Modern Art.

Erik had another surprise for us in the late afternoon. He rented an sauna on the harbor in front of the Oslo Opera house and the new Munch Museum. Good Times and Beautiful Sunset over the harbor!