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.