God Morgen Oslo!

Bisecting town is Karl Johans Gate where street performers take the art to a new level while you sip a cool beer at a local open-air cafe. Walk around the Palace and to the harbor on your left for the Nationaltheater, waterfront festivals, the Medieval Castle, the Resistance Museum, and the ferries from dock #3 to the Museum Peninsula. Return to the ship docks by the castle to travel to the outer islands for a day of sun and fun or catch the bus by the Nationaltheater to the amazing Vigeland Park. The history museum located by the university has one of the largest collections of Viking period artifacts I have ever seen.

The word "Aslo" in the ancient language means "GODS field" and you can be on winding roads and rolling hills with pretty red barns within a 30 minute drive by car.

Quick Tips:

You can buy a museum pass that also allows free public transportation within Oslo on trams, the museum ferry, the T-Bana (Metro)and buses. It also allows discounts on train and ferry travel outside the city. There is a :

24 hour pass--about 130Kr (about )
48 hour pass--about 200 Kr
72 hour pass--about 240 Kr
It is nice that the pass begins only at the moment that you begin to use it rather than a specific "day." It can be purchased at the tourist office and most hotels.

We found that we enjoyed walking during most of our visit, but you will need to take a bus to the Vigeland Park and a ferry to the museum peninsula of Bygoynes.

Best Way To Get Around:

FERRIES: leaving from pier #3 is the ferry to the museums. It stops at two piers:
Dronningen-- the Viking ship museum and the Norwegian Folk Museum
Bygdoynes--the Maritime and the Kon-Tiki Museum

BUSES: There are 20 routes which crisscross the city. The main station is across the street from the train station. The Flybusen is the airport bus that leaves every 15 min. from 7:30Am-11Pm.

METRO--(called T-Bana here)- 8 lines that begin service at 6 AM-12:30 Pm

TRAMS- 8 lines in cable-like cars. Kind of fun to ride if you have the time.

TRAIN STATION- Sentralstasjon located at the east end of Karl Johans Gate. This isn't the best area to be late at night with the druggies and hookers but it is safe during the day.

*Double check the hours of operation since it seemed rather difficult to interpret!
This castle was built in 1300 on a slight rocky rise at the harbor's edge and holds an immediate attraction as a serene place to visit. Of course, it wasn't always so! The castle had already seen many a siege before Christian lV--a Danish Interloper--built this thick stonewalled fortress with bastions around the existing castle after the great city fire of 1624.

Its most infamous period was during the Nazi occupation (1940) in Norway during WWII. While this fact saved the main buildings from bombings and destruction, the courtyard became the scene of a thousand deaths of brave Norwegian Resistance fighters held by the Germans who really liked routine firing squads and were determined to squash the independent attitude of the people.

I don't know how many of you know Norwegians....but THAT was certainly a stupid idea on their part! These people were used to conflict that lasted many centuries. So the Germans hardened their resolve into a much stronger metal that could not be destroyed.

Today, it is quite pleasant with the marching military guards leading up to the main castle compound. There are English guided tours offered for free during the summer and you can wait for them while you listen to live Medieval music that is performed by the well in the inner courtyard of the castle.

There are several surprises inside! The immense tapestry's that hang in the upper salon are very intersting and full of detail. Try to remember (with awe!) how old these pieces are! What appears as red and gold wallpaper in the great King's Hall is really faux painting that replicates the pattern and colors that archeologists found scraps of.

What castle is complete without a dungeon? I always visit them while trying to imagine what it would have been like "back then". The bricked entrance to them is very narrow and even I (at 5'1") felt that I had to stoop over to walk.

The chapel--which was closed when we toured--holds the crypts of King Haakon V11 and King Olav V.

760 men and women were captured, but only 24 lived to tell their tales about what happened here after the war.This museum will take your breath away and make you speechless while your heart races!

*Displays are in English and Norwegian
The story begins with the Norwegian traitor--Vidkun Quisling--who, in 1940, masterminded and assisted the takeover of his country by the German Army.
This museum offers this information quietly and honestly as it describes the horrors placed on every citizen of this country. The first thing to be controlled was the radio. Hitler didn't want the people to be educated or to hear the news from England. He figured that he could control the people in this way, so a decree was established that it was illegal to have a radio and would result in prision or death if you had one. Ha! Little did he understand the Norge mind! Illegal radio shops sprung up all over the land. There is a heart-wrenching story about a prisioner who fashioned his dentures in such a way to get a radio signal while he was held in prision.
There are other "I SPY" kind of gadgets such as hollow healed shoes (Maxwell Smart in the TV show wasn't the first to do this!) and railroad cars where the plumbing fixtures unscrewed to hold microfilm for the allies. Even pens and hollow books were used to get information out of the country. There is an indepth display about the resistance fighters' mountain camps and how they camouflaged them while smuggling people and information into Sweden.
One of the most tearful exhibits concerns the story of Peter Moen who was a prisioner held in this compound and wrote a diary using toilet paper and a PIN to spell out the words. It was not found under the floorboards until reconstruction work began on the castle many years after the war had ended...and after Peter had been killed. He begs us to not forget and to not let their fight be in vain!

Each display is done with care and a combination of old photo's, voice recordings, or films from the era as well as artifacts. It covers the timeline from the occupation in 1940 until the end of the war in 1945. It seems as if Quisling disappears from the narration, but I knew that this could not be...so I asked the staff what happened to him.
In church-like voices...as if they were afraid to speak of such things...they told me that he had been hung for crimes after the war. It is almost as if these people cannot tolerate one more death for any reason whatsoever.
As you leave--a banner is hung above your head that will give you chills to the bone--It reads:

WE WILL NEVER BE TAKEN AGAIN!

This is not a mere sign posted on the wall. It is a deadly promise to the entire world!

This is a small but mighty museum dedicated to the exploration of three Viking mounds found in Oseberg and Gokstad Norway (located a wee-bit down the road on the Oslo Fjord.) The ships were found in 1880-1904 when archeological techniques were rough. These sites were excavated, but the Norwegians realized that preservation of burial mounds meant keeping most of them covered for future generations. Therefore, you will see these mounds all over Norway today.

The Oseberg ship is the largest and the most beautiful. It was also odd in that it belonged to a very powerful woman! It was built around year 815 with the wonderful carved ornamental braiding that was the precursor to the "Celtic designs" that were brought to Ireland by the Viking invaders.

This ship had 30 oar holes...so it could carry 60 men to row. When you go above the ship and look down into it; I would like you to try and imagine all of those bodies in one boat out on the open ocean????? There was one single deck which meant that no one got out of bad weather. So ice cold waves would wash right over you. The shape and style of the boat was designed for pure speed and access. The Vikings knew what kind of lunky boats their victims had. These boats could outdistance and sneak-up on larger boats quietly which is a great asset when one wants to rape and pillage.
Where would you sleep? Guess the answer would be "wherever you could" among the booty and provisions necessary for the trip and the travel trunks that served as the rowing seats that held the possessions of each man.
Were there woman rowers too??? I don't know.
The other two ships belonged to men as indicated by no ornamentation and a larger variety of weapons and shields found on them. The Gokstad boat was built around 890 and his grave had been robbed. This is the very ship used for the replica sailed to the World's Fair of 1893 held in Chicago Illinois. It was sailed across the ocean and through the Great Lakes to prove that Vikings discovered America first.

The third boat is in poor condition but shows the pyramidal shaped enclosure where the body was laid to rest among the sacrificed horses and slaves.

Read a book called the Orkney Saga's that was written by/about the Viking Earls of Orkney that gives you a bloody peek into life during this time period. The Vikings considered themselves first and foremost "farmers" who remained at home during planting and harvesting periods. In between they "went on vacation" to lower lands where raiding abbies and towns was a rewarding sport. Some towns even paid "homage" in gold and jewels just to be left alone. Was this the first recorded extortion?

The other exhibits at the museum concern items found within the boats...cups and combs...a highly carved wagon...plates and pith swords!

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) was destined to be under his father's tight puritanical control in the family carpentry business. It's not like boys were given many more choices than girls in Victorian times! At the age of 15, he showed promise of becoming a great craftsman as he entered into his apprenticeship and his formal education was considered over.

But Gustav had bigger and better dreams in materials much harder and durable than wood!

After his father's death--when Gustav was 19-he began to follow his GOD-given path. He lived and breathed the art form of a sculpter without any formal education as he was taken under the protection of benefactors who saw his vision.

By 1897 he was hired to help with restoration of the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim that lasted until 1902. Many of the pieces he worked on at this time had a hint of mythology with dragons and knights in armour.
As Gustav continued to grow and learn; his art form changed to the busts of important Nowegians such as Henrik Ibsen. This is not surprising, since he would have been in his thirties at this time and needed a solid form of income.

By his fifties his psyche and his work melded into a grand ideal that was a sweet-thing for the city of Oslo and stabalized Gustav's finances allowing the greatest and best work that he was ever to create.

In exchange for a studio and a rent-free place to work--Gustav agreed to develop a park for the people featuring his work in a natural setting. The park is divided into units:
MAIN GATE-Art-Nuevo gates that lead to a bridge lined with bronze figures of men, women, and children in various stages of life and in animated poses.

THE FOUNTAIN--with 20 groups placed under the tree of life showing man from cradle to grave and new life arising from the dust of death. The center fountain shows giant men who support the earth.

THE MONOLITH--carved from one single granite block that shows 121 figures trying to rise to heaven and reach redemption (a common theme of his). This took 3 stone carvers 14 years to complete. Gustav cast each figure in plaster by himself to be used by the carvers as a copy.

WHEELS OF LIFE--men, women, and children holding onto each other in a circle which is the symbol of eternity.

Most of his work concerns the human figure nude. He does this to make you look at yourself in brutal honesty while seeing your fragility. When you first see his work you may think that he had been at Woodstock smoking dope with the hippies during the 1960's. It is hard to realize that he lived 45 years...almost a generation...before that flower-power time.

Gustav never lived long enough to see the park completed, but most of his plans have been finished by the city.