Goodbye Norway

Greetings from Oslo! This capital of Norway is a glorious city of many museums, water, and wonderful buildings. Like most European capitals, it is an old city. We have learned about many famous Norwegians and their skills, talents and often, courage. In our two full days here, we spent the first morning taking a city tour during which we stopped at the Vigeland Sculpture Park, which is interesting, in part, because the artist produced all his work under contract with the city. They believed in him enough to give him the land and pledge to take all his work ahead of time and he committed to give his work to only them. His theme is "the circle of life" and much of his work deals with human life from birth to death. He also created a maze that folks can walk. It is in the cement and goes all the way around a huge fountain that he created. I would have liked to do that; maybe next time. In the afternoon, after lunch, we went to the Resistance Museum at the fortress. We spent 1 1/2 hours there and could have spent more but the museum closed at 4. We made our way back to the hotel and spent time having wine and pretzels with our friends Ron and Jonel Glass, both of whom went to Carleton a few years after Jon did. Then the four of us joined our other friends, Leon and Anne Szczesny, and the 6 of us had dinner together. Norway is VERY expensive as a rule ($6 for a coke) and that was our special dinner of the trip so far! This morning, after breakfast at our hotel, we headed for the Bygdoy peninsula and its several museums. We took bus 30 and got off at the open air folk museum. Here are gathered many old buildings from all over Norway; it reminded me of our 4th. grade trips to Pioneer Farm! The best was a stave church from the 1200s. Then we went to the Viking museum where 3 preserved Viking ships are displayed. These date from AD 850! They have been wonderfully preserved and where necessary, restored. There are some stairs in various places that you can use to get up a bit higher than the sides of the ships. All three had been used as burial vessels and many objects survived because each ship had been buried in clay. Most interesting were the sleds (3 of them) and a bucket with a brass "Buddha looking" head at each end of the handle. After this museum, we had lunch at a nice outdoor cafe and then headed on to the Kon Tiki museum. There were Thor Heyerdahl's vessels, the Ra and the Kon Tiki! The display was excellent and included a short movie about the Kon Tiki's voyage. I remember being fascinated by the great adventures as a young teen and was thrilled to see the actual rafts. The Fram museum was next door. This huge ship holds the record for going furtherest north AND south. These feats were accomplished about 100 years ago. We decided to take the small commuter boat back across the bay to the downtown area, which was fun. Since we arrived back there about 4:15, we walked a short distance to the Nobel Peace Museum to see if it was open. It was, until 6, so we went in. The best part was the small theatre where short videos were shown, one after the other, about the winners, common themes, and how the prize is awarded every year. We were mesmerized! We stayed until 6 and then found a restaurant that had been recommended to us where we had dinner. Now we're back in our hotel room catching up with things! I must say that Grand Circle has chosen our hotels well. They have all been well located, especially the ones in Bergen, Helsinki and here. They've been on quiet side streets but within easy walking or bus distance of all the major sites. Tomorrow we pack up and head off to Paris!!! It was 79 degrees there yesterday which sounds wonderful after the 60-65 degrees and windy weather we've had here. (No rain though!!) More from la belle France later!