July 2, 2016 Oslo
Well, first some addition to
a prior post. Of the three names on the
National Theater building, Ibsen, Holberg and Bjørnson, one is a literature Nobel Prize
winner. Yes! Bjørnson!
1903. Now I really have to
research him!
We had a full first day today
despite some episodes of downpours. Here
in Oslo, rain is irrelevant to your plans.
You just go ahead. Everyone is
out, under umbrellas, with wet feet and pants, and you just wait a while. Towards the end of the day the sun was out
with blue skies.
At breakfast today the
herring choices were mustard or tomato. I had the mustard; it was very good!
Our first stop was at the
very large Vigeland Park, an outdoor sculpture museum set in an enormous and
very beautiful parkland within the city of Oslo. The vast collection of sculpture was all
created by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943)
who had the intriguing idea that all sculpture of people should show them in
the nude. That way the clothes won’t
date the pieces, and everyone is as natural as can be. Vigeland was from the same era which created
Grieg, Munch and Ibsen, the time when Norway/Sweden were independent of Denmark
but not from each other.
We went up above the city
to an overlook to get a feel for the how the city relates to the fjord on which
it is located. The ferry to Copenhagen
is visible:
We had a good view of the
Renzo Piano-designed contemporary art museum:
From there we visited the
very impressive Zoological Museum, part of the University of Oslo. National Geographic sponsors research by a
paleontologist, Hans Arne Nakrem, who excavates on the island of Svalbard, way
above the Arctic Circle. He discovered
the fossil about which he gave us a detailed lecture:
It’s an ichthyosaur named Cryopterygius
kristiansenae from the Jurassic Period, and has fascinating transitional features,
being a cross between a dolphin and a shark.
It’s an air-breather, and was not an egg-layer but rather gave birth to
its young. Nakrem gave us a great feel
of the difficulties he faced working in the high Arctic and preserving and
restoring the land from which he dug out the fossil. He was fascinating.
We went to a lovely lunch
but had to get from the bus park about 500 meters to the restaurant in an
absolutely torrential downpour. We were
sopping wet when we got there; Joyce’s pants got so wet and heavy that they
elongated and she had to hold them up at the thighs just to walk!
After lunch it was still
drizzling; we went to the awesome Viking Ship Museum. The specimens here, two of which are just
about complete, were retired and used as funeral vessels; they were packed with items
from the 9th c. They are
enormous, open boats, with horizontal planking sealed with pitch. They were rowed as well as sailed, and in boats
like these the Vikings traveled all over the North Atlantic, reaching Iceland,
Greenland and North America, as well as down the coast of Europe, into the
Mediterranean and into the Black Sea.
Astonishing! This photo is taken
from the stern—see the rudder on the right rear of the boat.
The prow was decorated:
Among artifacts found in
the boat (which was provisioned for the dead person) was a collection of carved
and decorated animal heads of unknown purpose:
We were awed. By now the rain had stopped and the sun was
peeking out. Our last stop of the day
was at the Norsk Folkemuseum, an open-air assembly of more than 150 historic
buildings from around the country. The
highlight of the collection is the Gol Stave Church from the early 1200s:
It represents a method of
construction (stave) which is not used today, and only about 17 such churches
remain in the country. This one was
moved to this museum from the south.
Inside are some paintings probably from the 16th c. including
a Last Supper:
We had a demonstration of
solo violin music (with dancers) on a very unusual 9-string violin called a
hardanger fele. The usual four strings are
there, and below them are five strings specially tuned and used for their
resonance. It was a great way to end our
day.
Click here to see the
dancing:
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