Norway

Oslo

This picture is taken from the top of the Holmenkollen Ski Jump. This jump has been used for the Olympics and many other events. It overlooks the city (you can see it from downtown), and the view here includes the city in the distance.

Just because Oslo doesn't have as many architectural treasures, don't get the idea there's nothing to see here. To the contrary, there are many things. Coming up are are some of the better examples.

Bygdøy, across the harbor from the central part of Oslo, has many top-notch museums.

The Viking Ship Museum in Bygdøy houses 3 actual Viking ships. The best preserved, the Oseberg ship, is pictured at the right. In a custom similar to that of ancient Egypt, important people were buried with all their earthly belongings, including their ship. These ships are so well preserved because they were found buried in clay that protected them from deterioration. Not only were the ships recovered, but sledges, a cart in remarkably good condition, and various other smaller items. This grave, by the way, has been dated to around the year 834.

Bygdøy has an open-air folk museum of old Norwegian life, with many buildings moved from elsewhere in the country (the Norsk Folkemuseum). Shown here are two examples... the Gol Stave Church, and some Sod-roof buildings. The church, built around the year 1200, is much as it was originally built. It is made of wood, with NO windows, so is very dark inside. These are among the older buildings at the museum, there are many others, some very recent (including an early gas (filling) station).

The Kon-Tiki Museum, also in Bygdøy, is one of four ship museums clustered by the harbor. Shown here are the Kon-Tiki and RA-II. The RA-II, a papyrus raft, was sailed by a multinational crew led by Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl in 1970 from Morocco across the Atlantic to Barbados. The Kon-Tiki, made of Balsa, was sailed from Peru to Polynesia in 1947, also by Heyerdahl. Both were built as historically accurate ships to prove that sailors of their day could have explored and colonized the world with the technology available to them.

Right next to this museum there's another containing the Fram, a ship used for early exploration of both arctic and antarctic polar regions (late 19th and early 20th centuries). Outside the museum is a smaller ship, the Gjoa, that sailed the Northwest Passage.

Right next door, there's a Norwegian maritime museum (containing mostly ship models), and another small museum.

Back in the center of Oslo you can visit the National Gallery, an art museum that contains paintings and sculptures. Shown here are a couple of examples... Edvard Munch's The Scream and Michaelangelo's Moses. The Scream is original, but the Moses statue is a copy. I thought the Moses statue was interesting, because it illustrates a translation error carved into stone. The biblical descripion of Moses was orignally translated incorrectly from Hebrew to Greek to Latin (which Michaelangelo used as a guide), with the word halo incorrectly translated as horns. This mistake was eventually corrected, but not before Michaelangelo carved it into stone. This museum also has plaster cast reproductions of most of the most famous statues of the world.

Another museum worth visiting (I didn't take any pictures) is the Norwegian resistance museum in the old castle. It illustrates the resistance mounted by the Norwegians against their occupation during World War II.

Finally, one last site before we leave Oslo... This is Vigeland Park, a spacious park that was filled with people enjoying the sunshine the day I was there... The park contains 227 sculptures, all by one artist, Gustav Vigeland, and lots of open space. Shown here are the fountain and the monolith.

Bergen

This picture is an overview of Bergen from Mount Fløyen.

These pictures illustrate St. Mary's Church, acknowledged as Bergen's oldest building, dating from the 12th century (built around the year 1150). It's essentially unchanged since the 13th century. The interior photo shows the pulpit installed in 1676 (believed to have been made in the Netherlands).

Norway in a Nutshell

Midway across the country, the Norway in a Nutshell route leaves the main train line (you must change trains), and detours back down to sea level for a boat ride around the Aurland and Nærøyfjords. These pictures show the train ride from the eastern side, from Myrdal to Flam. It's a steep train ride, partly in tunnels, whith great views (the train even stops to view a waterfall close-up). The return trip to the train (at the Western side) is by bus from Gudvangen to Voss.

We're now down at the Fjord; these are among the most scenic of Norway's fjords. The Nærøyfjord is Norway's narrowest and steepest. This part of the journey is about 2 hours by boat. The first two pictures are Departing Flam, and another view of the Aurlandsfjord. The second two pictures are in the Nærøyfjord, showing two views from our boat, one including another ferry that was going the other way.

Along the way in the Nærøyfjord we came upon a couple of groups of seals, some of which are shown here.

I also took a ferry around the Sognefjord from Bergen, but there wasn't anything new and different there that I didn't already see here.

Finally, this is the bus ride from Gudvangen to Voss. There are 2 routes, if you go via Stalheim, you'll be on this extremely crooked road, I think even more crooked than one I found in Switzerland that I thought was the crookedest I'd ever find anywhere. The grade is up to 18%, with many hairpin turns... at one we met a car, and the car had to back up so the bus could get around the corner.

Finally, back at the main line in Voss, this is the train I'll be boarding for the final leg of the journey to Bergen.