Viking Country

And the story goes……

On a little island in the Oslo Fjord lived some monks in the monastery. Their daily activities called for them to go to bed when it got dark. This posed a problem for them as during a portion of the year, the sun only went away for a brief few hours in the day. To find a solution to this problem, they sent a letter to the pope in Rome. However, as mail was so slow going from Norway to the mainland of Europe, it took more than 3 years to receive a response. Once recieved, the pope decided that they could go to bed a 8pm and sleep until 6am.

Being in a country where the sun always shines is a nice break from a place where you feel like it rains all the time. It was amazing…I had never been that far north to where it looks like dusk at 12 midnight and the sun starts rising again around 3 or 4 in the morning. Talk about messing up your internal clock?!?!?! Throughout your life, your internal instincts tell you that it is time to start getting ready for bed when it gets dark. It’s a little more difficult when the sun is still out at 10:00pm.

For a country who has only had their independence for a little more than 100 years, said to be the biggest city in the world (land and space wise), and is the MOST expensive city in the World (beating out Tokyo), it was a great experience traveling to this Viking country. The site of trolls as I walked down the main pedestrian shopping street reminded me of Epcot Center at Disney World and the Troll/Viking Water Ride. This trip was filled with the history of the Viking era and the ships that set sail. A city set on water, I thought it was beautiful.

I booked my flight to Oslo on a whim when my favorite airline, GermanWings, has a sale on flights. Upon our approach to Oslo, from the air, it appeared that Norway was this plush, green area with mountains and waterways and houses in the country side. Being from Kansas, I can appreciate having some space around your house – rather than houses sitting on top of each other. As gorgeous as it looked from the air, I could tell that my 48 hours was not going to be enough.

After getting some local currency as Norway uses the Norwegian Kroner, I bought my train ticket and headed into the city. I booked my hotel accommodations immediately after I bought my flight, so I was pretty lucky to have an inexpensive place to stay that was close to the city centre, clean and safe. After getting cleaned up, I headed out exploring. I had intended to go to a museum that was open late, but instead, I went to the tourist Information Office to try and book a tour for the next day.

The Fjords – valleys filled with sea water surrounded by steep sides– are beautiful in Norway (at least the pictures seem to portray them as such). I only wish I had a few more days to go and explore and take a boat trip through the Northern Fjords. I was hoping that there might be a short tour, but no such luck. So, I opted for the “Grand Oslo SightSeeing Tour”. With only one full day, I wanted to see as much as I could as well go on the water. The tour included 7 sights of interest as well as a 2-hour tour of the Oslo Fjord with a seafood lunch.

The tour started at 10:30 on Saturday. As I was waiting to board the boat, I met a very nice group of older travelers from Evergreen, Colorado. There were part of a choral group that was singing at some different locations throughout Norway. There such a fun group of travelers and they were so nice to include me throughout the Fjord tour.

The Oslo Fjords,although very wide, are very deep and there are many islands throughout the area. The Fjord is so deep, that large cruise liners, including the largest in the world – The Freedom of the Seas – can dock in the Oslo Harbor with no problems. This is a picture of one of the large cruise ships that was at the harbor when we left on our boat tour.














This is the true definition of a House on Water. I wonder if they have to pay taxes? It's even complete with a white-picked fence.














After the Fjord, the tour went to the following museums:














1. Maritime Museum - This tour started off with a Panoramic Film of the coastline of Norway - So beautiful I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK. After that, we walked through (rather quickly) the museums many models of ships throughout the centurys and years.


2. FRAM - Tells the history of Polar explorers and includes the world's most famous Polarship, FRAM, from 1892. This FRAM boat was built to withstand polar conditions and to be able to "float" with the ice and not be dragged under. It is the world's strongest boat (or was) and it has been the farthest North and South. It tells of the exploration to be the first to reach the Northpole as well as the race towards the South Pole. The FRAM boat is amazing and huge. It's funny how they put the boat on land and then built a building around it. This picture does not do it justice.

3. Kon-Tiki - This museum housed the rafts from the expedition by Thor Heyerdahl who wanted to sail across the Pacific on a very small boat made of reeds from Peru to the South Pacific. He wanted to prove that a group of people from different nations, backgrounds, etc. could live peacefully in a small space without the influence of governemnts.

4. The Norwegian Museum of Culutural History - An Open-Air, outdoor museum that portrays the everyday life of the Norwegians from the 17th-19th century. It is complete with houses, barns, peopel in costume, fires, tables, beds, furniture. The Stave Church (seen here) is from miedvial times.






5. Viking Ship Museum - Displays the large Viking ships that were found in graves in the Oslo area. Back in the day, they were used as burial ships to "carry the dead to the Other world". Along with bodies, the ships were buried with other items such as wagons, horses, jewelry. Although many of the ships were raided throughout the years, the ships mained mostly intact. As you can see from some of these photos.


















6. Holmenkollen - This is the home to the tallest Ski Jump in the world. And it is tall - Looking out of the Jump tower down the ramp would be a frightening experience if there was really snow and I really had to go down it. I also got into a simulator to see what it would be to go down a Ski Jump Ramp as well as race a Downhill course at 130 km/hour. That is FAST. I think I will prefer to watch the scenery go by as I go slowly down the course. Going that fast almost made me sick to my stomach and I enjoy rides like those.


7. Statue Park - Also known as Vigeland park. The park itself has well over 200 statues that were designed by Gustav Vigeland. He wanted a place to show off his statues and so he asked the city for some land and they gave him some. The statues were very neat and they all centered around "The Circle of Life" - Life to Death. As you can see in this statue carved out of a single granite block. Bodies intertwince and at the top are the babies and at the bottom are the older bodies as they are dying. I suppose Mr. Vigeland portrayed death as a definite in life.














I was beat after the long day, so I went and took a nap. Afterwards, I ate some dinner at Peppe's Pizza - the famous Pizza Joint in Oslo (very similar to Pizza Hut), and then went to Harry's Bar/Restaurant and watched the USA v. Italy Soccer Match. It was really exciting. In case you weren't watching, the score was 1-1. Met some fun people from England at the bar and enjoyed a few drinks. It was a fun evening.

The next day, Sunday, June 18, I went to the Nobel Peace Museum, which is a museum dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize. It was interesting to see and learn about the winners of the prize over the last 100 years as well as learn about Alfred Nobel's life and mission. Did you know that he created Dynomite and smokeless gun-powder? The exhibition was really entertaining as it very much relied on Technology. Everything was hands on or relied on movement to tell a story. I also was able to learn about how the prize winners are selected by the committee of appointed committee members from Norway.

Norway is a beautiful country and I would reccommend it to anyone wanting nature, water, mountains and valleys.