Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Travels In Norway
Yesterday, we did a gruelling 4-museum dash. The first was the Norwegian Folkemuseum - a sprawling collection of exhibits and building from various parts of the last 300-400 years. The Sami exhibit was very well done in particular (I took a picture of a Tuktu pulling a sled for my students. Outside, the was an amazing replica sod hut, like those they used traditionally during the cold winter months. Other interesting exhibits included one on folk dress, another discussing folk clothing, and one on the home for juvenile delinquent boys called Bestoy. There was also an impressive stave church in the open air exhibits along with a variety of buildings that you could peer into and try to imagine how folk lived in one-room farmhouses. I remain impressed with Norwegian wood carving. It did seem that not everything was open, but even so we were at least 3 hours at wandering and reading.
Next we went to the Vikingskiphuset (Viking Ship Museum) where, we treated to a fascinating experience of learning about the archeology of their finds. We appreciated the smaller size of the museum after the huge folk museum.
Next, a little walk down to the Kon Tiki museum showcasing the boats and travels of the renowned Thor Heyerdahl. Having read some of his books (albeit during High School), it was really neat to see the Kon Tiki raft and Ra reed boat. The background info was short and interesting and has renewed my interest in reading some of his books.
The last museum of the day was the Fram Polar Ship Museum highlighting the polar expeditions including those of Roald Asmunden. We were pretty museumed out at that point so we skimmed through the 3 stories of background I formation, but were surprised and delighted to be able to tour the inside of the ship.
Returning by ferry boat from Bigdoy - we immediate went hunting form Concerta, the pizza restaurant we visited the first night and proceeded to enjoy a delicious veggie pizza with artichokes on it. Then it was onto the train and out towards the airport, where we stayed at our first hostel. After paying as much for out shuttle bus fare as we did for our discounted Oslo pass train fare we gave in to tiredness, and slept or read quietly.
This brings s to the present - flying north to Tromso. We are looking forward to being in amuck smaller city surrounded by ocean and mountains. I believe that Norwegian Airlines has free wireless, if so this will be my first blog post from 30,000 ft.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Up up and away
The flight was long and cramped and they ran out of chicken before I got my meal- leaving me with the fish- which I couldn't eat. We didn't sleep as much as hoped, but there is still the next leg...
I slept through most of the plane ride to Norway. It was raining heavily when we arrived though it made an impression of verdant farmland of hills and overgrown creek valleys. The train ride into town was uneventful being only marginally awake and was followed by a 3 hour nap. The rest of the evening was spent wandering the downtown area marvelling at the detail of the finishings on the buildings.
There was some kind of concert near the waterfront, but we opted for a stroll through the grounds of the old fortress. Actually it is the largest concert in Scandinavia The VG Lista, complete with slightly overwhelming throngs of enthusiastically noisy youths. The pictures include a view of one of the buildings and the other of some kind of shadow art in a cave.
Dinner was some most excellent thin crust at a pizzeria on Karl Johans Gate. It was a bit of a challenge to order having finally to cave in and check that ost was indeed cheese and ask what skinke was - ham.
This morning we hiked up to Frogner and Vigeland parks to see an interesting select of sculpture in plaster, bronze and granite. We also visited the Oslo museum which was incredibly well done. We are just finishing our lunch now.
Our next stop was the museum of history showcasing the history of civilization in Norway from caveman to Viking to now. There was also a nice bit on cultures from around the world including the Inuit. The evening was spent sharing a lovely dinner with two of S.'s family friends and their kids. Today is a full day and I am going to try to post this before I am without Internet.