AngellTravels: Oslo, Norway

It is Tuesday, May 13 - Oslo, Norway

Upon leaving Copenhagen, we are now on the Baltic portion of our cruise. We will be busy as we visit 9 ports in 11 days.

Compared with other Scandinavian capitals, Oslo is a cozy, somewhat provincial city. Located on the Aker River at the head of the 60-mile Oslo Fjord, Norway's capital has modern architecture, hundreds of lakes, lots of parks, world-class museums and public statues nearly everywhere (including a lot of notoriously naked ones).

In the fjord, nearing Oslo

Internet photo: view of Oslo from the ship

Oslo covers 175 square miles within its city limits and ranks as one of the world's largest capitals. However, with a population of 600,000, it is the least densely populated capital city in Europe. Norway was once part of Denmark and later part of Sweden, and many of Oslo's buildings -- including the Royal Palace and House of Parliament--stem from Swedish rule. The country became independent in 1905. Later, Norway was occupied by German forces for five years during World War II. There is a high standard of living. It's so expensive many Norwegians go to Sweden to shop. Still, Norway is one of the richest countries in the world, thanks in no small part to its North Sea offshore oil.

Linda from our cruise critic group makes us “3” today. We are happy to have Linda siteseeing with us today as we navigate Oslo on our own at a fast pace—there is a lot to see. Linda ran the Boston Marathon in 2013, finishing just seconds before the bombs went off at the finish line. She returned to Boston this past April to run the marathon again. An emotional day for sure. Over the course of the cruise we have become good friends and really looked forward to seeing Oslo with her today.

Our first stop is the Tourist Info office to purchase the Oslo Pass. This pass will give us entrance to all the museums we plan on visiting today as well as all our transportation via train, ferry and bus. It cost approximately $46 USD per person but will save us at least $25 USD per person today.

The National Gallery is just a couple blocks away from the TI so we head there first to see the famous painting by Edvard Munch, The Scream. The National Gallery focuses on paintings that are uniquely Norwegian as well as some Picassos and Van Gogh’s. We browsed through just a few of the art works as we headed to see Edvard Munch’s most famous work, The Scream. It shows a man screaming, capturing the fright many feel as the human race does just that. Munch made four versions of this scene, which has become THE textbook example of Expressionism. He explained that the painting “shows today’s society, reverberating within me…making me want to scream.” Two of the paintings are in Oslo; two are in private collections.

Self portrait of Edvard Munch

Taking a few minutes to admire the art

Then it is off to take the train to Vigeland Sculpture Park. It is an outdoor sculpture garden featuring the work of Gustav Vigeland who created life-sized, as well as larger than life, pieces that depict the cycle of life from birth to death. Vigeland was an admirer of Rodin and Michaelangelo and it shows. There are more than 200 granite, bronze and iron sculptures representing 600 figures exhibiting an array of human emotions.

Gustav Vigeland

Joyce and Linda

The centerpiece of the park
a monolith of life surrounded by 36 granite groups featuring
the circle of life

Close up of the monolith
121 figures carved out of a single block of stone

Reminds me of a runner crossing the finish line.

We then take the bus to Bygdoy for the Outdoor Folk Museum, Viking Ship Museum, Kon Tiki Museum and Fram Museum.

The Norwegian Folk Museum is an open-air collection of some 150 buildings dating to the 17th and 18th centuries. One gets the feeling of actually wandering through a Norwegian town of yesteryear.

The church

The Viking Ship Museum shows off the best preserved Viking longboats in existence.

The Kon-Tiki Museum houses the Kon-Tiki and the Ra II, in which Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl proved that early civilizations, with their existing technologies, could have crossed the oceans.

The Fram Museum houses the ship that took 19th century explorers to the South Pole and the Arctic.

Terry at the wheel

Then we boarded the ferry back to city center. We pass the Oslo Opera House opened in 2008. It looks like two icebergs rising from the fjord. It is constructed from 36,000 slabs of white Carrara marble.

A photo from the internet

We stop at Nobel Peace Prize Museum, The Nobel Peace Center contains exhibits celebrating the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize and the lives of those who have won it. The prize is named for Alfred Nobel, a scientist who accumulated 355 patents (he invented dynamite among other things) and became one of the richest men in Europe before giving his fortune to a fund. The remaining Nobel prizes (physics, chemistry, medicine, and literature) are awarded in Nobel’s native Sweden. We walked through the Hall of Fame, featuring the many Nobel Prize winners.

The "Hall of Fame"

City Hall (Radhuset) is the building where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented. It is full of great art contributed by Norway’s leading artists. One of them is Henrik Sorensen—I wonder if he is a relative of mine! The tables were being set for a reception dinner for Israel’s visiting dignitary.

We head to the harbor to view Akershus Fortress.

Ship is docked right next to the fortress

It houses a castle, a prison, war memorials, and the Norwegian Resistance Museum. The Nazis made Akershus their headquarters during the WWII occupation. Many patriots were executed by the Germans right outside the museum’s front door. By this time, the museums were already closed for the day so we simply walked the exterior. The cannons are pointing directly at our ship, which is docked just yards away from the fortress.

We 3 in the land of giant tulips!

We stop at the Oslo Cathedral (Domkirke), a Lutheran church dating back to 1697. This is where Norway commemorates its royal marriages and deaths and where in July, 2011, seventy-seven deaths were mourned here following the tragic shootings and bombing (remember the car bomb in Oslo followed by a summer camp shooting).

Next to the cathedral is the Stortorvet, a large square where produce and flowers are sold. In the 17th century it was the location of Oslo’s wall and where farmers were allowed to enter to sell their goods.

The statue is of Christian IV, the Danish king who ruled Norway around 1600. He renamed the city Christiania, which held until Oslo took back its old Norse name in 1924.

Karl Johans Gate is a parade ground from here to the palace. Each May 17th, Norway’s Constitution Day, an annual children’s parade is held here. Since 1814, Norway has preferred peace. Rather than celebrating its military on the national holiday, it celebrates its children.

The Royal Palace can be seen at the end of the street.

Norway’s Parliament Building (Stortinget). If the flag is flying, Parliament is in session. Today the king is a figurehead and Norway is run by Parliament and a prime minister. The building is being decorated and flags are being flown in honor of the Israel visit.