Oslo and the Nobel Peace Center

Thursday, June 30  Oslo

Our hotel room faces the National Theater, but has excellent soundproofing and great blackout curtains, so it is both quiet and dark.  Nonetheless, we slept fitfully.  Up for a great Norwegian breakfast buffet with herring prepared in multiple ways, liver pate, thinly sliced beef and an unusual brown cheese.  Of course also present were what we consider the usual cheeses and breakfast breads, pastries, eggs, and breakfast meats.  It was lovely.

The hotel is filled with Europeans, some Americans and some Asians.  English is the common language for everyone.  It seems the whole world has English as their most commonly used second language, at least that’s what we see where we travel, and it’s certainly true here.  Today’s weather is unpleasant with heavy clouds, temperatures in the high 50s/low 60/s, and Irish mist changing to heavy drizzle to light rain with a little wind.  Ugh!  We read that Bergen is the rainiest city in Europe; perhaps Oslo is #2.  The outdoor cafés are prepared, however, with blankets on each chair and big awnings or umbrellas.  After all, it’s summer!  Must be outside!

We walked down to the water, past the modern city hall, to the Aker Bryggs complex, a large collection of shops, galleries, offices and apartments.  We browsed at a number of art galleries but didn’t find anything appealing enough to buy.  We then visited the Nobel Peace Center, a museum dedicated to the history of the Nobel Peace Prize.  It was engrossing.

There are two large temporary exhibits, one highlighting the 1935 winner, Carl von Ossietzky, who was unknown to me, and the second about the organization responsible for ending the chaos and establishing a democracy in Tunisia which won last year.  From the booklet about Ossietzky: “The Nobel Peace Prize for 1935 is one of history’s most controversial.   …(it) went to the fearless pacifist who warned the world about German remilitarization in breach of the Treaty of Versailles before WW2.” 

It’s interesting that they framed his work as that of a whistleblower who went to prison, convicted of treason.  At the end of the exhibit was a space devoted to modern-day whistleblowers, and Edward Snowden was prominent among them.  They frame his activities in the same way! 

Here’s a quote from Ossietzky’s writing about Hitler which made a connection for us to our current presidential campaign (substitute what you will for “gypsy chieftain”):

As a permanent exhibit there is a room called The Nobel Field with a tablet-sized display for each winner with detailed information and multiple photos which change as you approach.  Again, all in Norwegian and English as the two languages used throughout the center.

We had an indoor lunch, went back to the room for a nap, and then went off for our anniversary dinner to a restaurant named Theatercaffeen which came highly recommended as being special.  Dinner was delicious!  We finished at 9 PM and it's still daytime, with (finally) brilliant sunshine outside.  We will need the blackout curtains to get to bed.

Tomorrow to the Art and Design museum.  We will meet our National Geographic group for the first time for dinner tomorrow night.

Initial Impressions of Oslo

June 29, 2016  Oslo first impressions

The flight from Rochester to Oslo went uneventfully, and we arrived at the Oslo airport at 8:30 AM.  Our bags arrived quickly, and we walked the short distance to the train station within the main terminal building, caught one of the trains which leave every ten minutes, and we were whisked smoothly to downtown where we exited the train station at the first stop after the main station and across the street from our hotel.  It was efficient, clean and inexpensive.

Norwegians are tall!  I don’t stand out here; lots of men are as tall as I am and taller.  The urinals in the men’s room at the airport were mounted so high that I don’t think anyone shorter than 5’ 10” would be able to use them easily!  The hotel is wonderfully located, just across the street from the National Theater.  We checked in, our room was ready, and went to sleep until mid-afternoon.  Then, showered and rested, we went out for a bite and a walk around.  Oslo is a city of 600,000 people, and at this time of year everyone is outdoors.  Many of the streets in our area are closed off for pedestrians and cafes:

Oslo is clearly a summer biking city as there are lots of folks on them, and many are using the system of short-term rental bikes which are located conveniently:

The Parliament Building is undergoing renovations after 150 years of use:

There are beautiful fountains, and despite temperatures in the low 60’s, children are playing in the water:

Our hotel is across the street from the National Theater, with the names of Ibsen, Holberg and Bjornson on the façade:

There is a prominent statue of Ibsen in front:

There are lovely gardens.  This one is behind the Theater, and we couldn’t figure out who this woman is:

And here is a statue of Ludwig Holberg:

We came across a lovely large gazebo where a brass band was playing all sorts of music, but much was from Broadway shows!!

So we’re tired despite our nap.  Off to an early bedtime and more tomorrow.

Anticipation

June 21, 2016

We're off again!  We had a lovely but very quiet trip to French Polynesia this winter, and as we were on a small French boat for most of the trip, I did not write a blog.  Each day was wonderful, but very much the same as previous ones (except for which island we were on) snorkeling, swimming, and dining on French food far too well.  We visited Tahiti, Huahine, BoraBora, Rangiroa, Fakarava, Tahaa, and Moorea.  

So now, following celebration of our 52nd wedding anniversary on June 27, we will depart on June 28 on a National Geographic "Expedition" to Norway and Iceland.  

We begin in Oslo, and after touring that city, we will take the Røros Railway to the World Heritage town of Røros and then to Trondheim at the exit of the Nidelva River into the Norwegian Sea, between Norway and Iceland.  After touring Trondheim, we will take the Rauma Railway up the Rauma River Canyon, finishing our trip by road along the "notorious" Trollstigen (the Trolls Footpath) winding through the mountains with 11 supposedly very scary hairpin turns.  We will stay overnight in Geiranger, and then take a ferry on the UNESCO World Heritage Geirangerfjord.  We'll then travel by road to Sognefjord and Nordfjord, and will travel by boat on the Sognefjord.  We'll start our trip to Bergen on another train, the Flåm Railway which rises 2837 feet in one hour going through 20 tunnels before descending to the city of Bergen.  We'll tour Bergen and visit the town of Troldhaugen, the home of Edvard Grieg, where we're scheduled to attend a recital of Grieg's piano music.  We'll then fly from Bergen to Reykjavik, Iceland (via Oslo).  Activities in Iceland will include visits to geothermal steam baths, a geothermal power plant, glaciers, waterfalls, and geysers, as well as archaeological sites dating back to the 9th century.  We fly home from Iceland on July 14.

We'll be pretty far north.  The high temperature in Trondheim as I write this was 53 degrees F.  Sunrise is about 3 AM and sunset around midnight, with no real night--the hours from midnight to 3 AM are listed as "twilight".  Of course the reverse would be true in December, which is one of the reasons we're going in June/July.  I'm trying to imagine only 3 hours of daylight.  We had similar long days when we were in central Alaska a few years ago, and despite blackout curtains on the windows, sleeping was not ordinary.

So the first travel post will be from Oslo.  I look forward to sharing this adventure!

Victor