Oslo Norway
Really the last full day of our vacation. We got up, did our on-line check in for
tomorrow’s 6:30 am flight, checked out of the hotel while leaving our luggage
until evening. We have got this down,
but Patti is getting tired of all of the logistics. Just getting ready to hop in the car and
drive somewhere that she knows where it is.
We went to the transportation center and bought an “Oslo
card” which allows us free entry to all kinds of museums and free transportation
for 24 hours. We have our "plan” to walk
down to the harbor, take the short ferry across to a nearby peninsula, and then
visit two or more museums. Worked like a
charm. We cut through the ancient city fortress on the way to the harbor. It was old and sturdy looking. We were thinking that no one would try to get
through it. It turns out that the Nazis
did, when they took over the country in 1939.
The first museum we went to way The Viking Ship Museum http://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum/index.html This museum focuses on three ships built in
about the 900’s which were found as burial sites on farms. Two of them were in fantastic shape. There also was a lot of different jewelry and
sleds and other Viking artifacts. Small,
but really well done.
Then we walked over to our main event: The Oslo Open Air Museum of Folks Museum http://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum/index.html. This was originally started when a Norwegian
king in the late 1890’s decided to bring some old buildings into the city to
show the city folks how country folks lived.
This included a traditional stave church built in the 1200’s. Eventually
it expanded and expanded to now included over a hundred traditional farms,
houses and other buildings, plus a collection of very well interpreted art and
artifacts. It was well staffed with lots
of living history interpreters, musicians, farmers and other staff. We so enjoyed to talking with them and
finding out more about life in Norway from several hundred years ago to quite
recent times.
There was a great exhibit about the Sami people (who we
always heard of as Laplanders). This
really showed how another indigenous group of people were pushed off their
land, and forced to abandon their native language. Some very good politic and
cultural work has been happening in the past couple of decades to preserve the
language and way of life.
There was another amazing exhibit showed an apartment
building set up with 8 apartments showing how various families lived from
1979-2002. Very cool. Dick was especially interested in how the kitchens
changed through time. Here is a panorama
view of the apartment from 1965. http://www.123media.no/fileadmin/editor/360/Norsk_Folkemuseum/14/360.html
We saw some dancing and heard a special Norwegian fiddle
with extra strings. The whole museum was
filled with really great stuff. Thank
goodness that someone thinks of preserving these great historical things and
places.
We hopped on the ferry and were quickly on the other side of
the harbor. As we walked back, we
stopped for a powerful, but sobering visit to the Norway Resistance Movement
Museum http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g190479-d206467-Reviews-Norway_s_Resistance_Museum_Norges_Hjemmefront_Museum-Oslo_Eastern_Norway.html It focused on the impact of the Nazis on
Norway and the ongoing battle both overtly and covertly that happened over the
five years that German dominated Norway.
It was hard to watch and read some of the things, but it was a gripping
story. One area that was very powerful
was, they tried to make the teachers use propaganda in the classroom and they
refused, and the parent backed them up.
That would have taken some serious courage in the face of the
Nazis. We left feeling quiet, but appreciative
of all of the suffering that war has brought to Europe and the world.
We picked up our suitcases, made the way one more time to
the train station, then off to the Oslo airport. Not leaving QUITE yet, but need to get there
by 4:30 in the morning, so we thought it was wise to get out closer to the airport
tonight. It took a bit of figuring out
which bus to take to the hotel…but we did it again. We had had sandwiches earlier, but Dick as in
the mood for a bowl of soup, which wasn’t on the hotel restaurant menu. The waiter and chef conferred and they
whipped up tomato soup for us both…pricey $14/bowl (this is Norway after all), but good
and really nice that they did it.
Dick then packed up the suitcases for the early morning wake
up call. How does 3:30am sound? Then we are seriously “off”. Several hours to get to Paris, a quick change
and then on to LA. Home, here we come.
“When
it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”
Mary
Oliver
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