How to Plan an International Trip: Travel Tales and Tips : Norway Trip Report, Day 10: Oslo City Hall and Bygdøy Museums

July 4, 2015:

Central station, city hall, Akershus fort (Vigeland Park, Bygdoy island which we covered during the earlier part of our stay) etc can be seen in this map of Oslo attractions (Blue arrows)

As said in earlier post, we had checked in at Citybox, Oslo, 500 , from the Central station, around midnight.

We had a loft room with skylights at Citybox... skylight open thru the night, sending in gusts of fresh air. It was fun.

We kept our small bags at the hotel after checkout and set out for the day.

Oslo Pass

We needed to get an Oslo Pass to cover the travel as well as museums for the day. It’s available at some hotels but not in ours. There was a small line at the visitor center outside the central station and we bought it there along with our supplement train ticket to the airport.

Oslo Rådhus (City Hall)

Our 1^st visit was intended to be to the Oslo City Hall, where Nobel peace prize is given on December 10^th every year.

The options were: Take buss 30 towards Bygdøy from Jernbanetorget, 5 min nonstop.. Rådhuset. Walk 260 m to Radhus

Buss 31 towards Fornebu from Jernbanetorget, 5 min nonstop.. Rådhuset. Walk 260 m to Radhus

Nobel Peace Center::

We took the bus… By mistake we entered the Nobel Peace Center.

There was an exhibition. It was interesting … Imprisoned Laureates... makes one ponder...

Then we retraced our way to the city hall. This is Oslo rådhus (city hall) sea front facade...

There are 6 sculptures outside...representations of building craftsmen - those who built the town hall. City hall facade....

This is the North side entrance to the city hall with the Astronomical Clock and the main entrance of the City Hall

Lovely wood relief polychrome reliefs in wood with motifs from Edda poems. Edda... unnamed collection of Old Norse poems...

Main City Hall is 31 meters wide, 39 meters long and about 21 meters high...

Floor and part of walls are covered with marble. The room has a number of murals that give a picture of the nation and the city in the interwar period and during the occupation, and shows the development of the city's business, with the rise of the labor movement. Monarchs and the city's patron St. Hallvard are also included.

Munch room (Munch is a famous Norwegian expressionist painter):

In the short wall hangs a large painting of Edvard Munch. A special feature of the hall is that the artisans have carved their names in the southwest corner of the room. The room is elegantly furnished, partly with chairs upholstered with "Oslo-blue."

Hard Advises room:

The room is located to the west up Main City Hall and has a collection of tapestries like ornate state rooms in the Middle Ages. The first tapestry depicting Harald Hardrådes fall at Stamford Bridge in England in 1066. On the opposite side tapestries are depicting St Harald as Oslo's founder.

Banquet hall:

On the long wall are portraits of earlier kings King Haakon VII , King Olav V , current King Harald V and Queen Sonja . On the short wall is Willi Midelfart's portrayal of seaside life along the fjord… funny story here…

In the adjacent room is a kitchen. The artist composed his work after the original plans only one door into the kitchen, but had to do part of the work again after a second door was inserted. He showed the disgust for this second door by painting a young boy pointing and sticking out his tongue!

City Council Hall:

The hall has a decor of oak and wallpaper of red wool with an ornament of three arrows embedded (from byseglet with St. Hallvard). The most striking is the tapestry ... Oslo patron St. Hallvard on throne surrounded by the seven virtues of life. The artist's wish was that this design should remind city politicians about ethics and good governance practice in the decisions that were made. City Council hall has the semicircular shape incorporated for democratic assembly halls. Nobel peace prize is given here on Dec 10 in this well recognised hall...

Nobel prizes

The Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the peace prize which is given in Oslo.

Some interesting facts about Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) who instituted the Nobel prizes. He was born in Stockholm to a chemist, did not have formal secondary education. Was a scientist/chemist, invented explosives, trinitroglycerine and named it Dynamite. Owned 90 armament factories. Did not marry and had no kids. When his brother died in 1888, the newspapers mistakenly wrote an obituary for Alfred Nobel..."The Merchant of Death is dead... Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." Alfred Nobel was upset this is perceived as his legacy, wrote a will leaving all his fortune to giving annual awards for scientific research. This converted to £1,687,837 (GBP) at the time. In 2012, the capital was worth around SEK 3.1 billion (USD 472 million, EUR 337 million),

Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money, which is decided by the Nobel Foundation. As of 2012, each prize was worth 8 million SEK (c. US$1.2 million, €0.93 million).

Nobel prize medals...All medals made before 1980 were in 23 carat gold. Later they are in 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. Weight 175 grams (0.386 lb) for each medal. The diameter is 66 millimetres (2.6 in) and the thickness 5.2 millimetres (0.20 in) and 2.4 millimetres (0.094 in). Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse. The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design

This is a lovely Applique work depicting the myriad facets of Oslo…Akershus fort, fjord, boats...

Gifts from ambassadors of other countries...

Walked to the bus stop right in front.

Nice statues in the park...

Bygdøy:

Caught buss 30 direction Bygdøy.

Located on a peninsula just four miles west of Oslo, Bygdøy - easily accessible by public transport (bus and ferry) - is home to many of the city's best tourist attractions. It's rich in cultural attractions as well as beautiful parks, forests and beaches.

Fram museum is located at Bygdøy, a short distance from the center of Oslo and is easily reached by bus or, in the summer season, by ferry from the City Hall quayside.

Closest neighbours are the Kon-Tiki Museum and the Norwegian Maritime Museum. The Viking Ship Museum and the Norwegian Folk Museum are within 15 minutes walk. The Bygdøy peninsula is therefore popularly known as the museum peninsula.

We had been to Norsk Folkemuseum on our earlier part of the trip. We were covering the others today; got down at the entrance of Kon-Tiki Museum (Norwegian: Kon-Tiki Museet).

Kon-Tiki Museum:

Kon-Tiki Museum houses original vessels and artifacts from the expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl, a famous scientist. His recreations of prehistoric voyages showed that early man had mastered sailing before the saddle and wheel.

The museum houses the Kon-Tiki, a raft of balsa wood of pre-Columbian model Heyerdahl used to sail from Peru to Polynesia in 1947. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was an old name.

freshly caught fish waiting to be prepared into food...covered living quarters...

This is a model of Kon-Tiki...

Heyerdahl and a small team went to Peru, constructed the raft out of balsa logs and other native materials in an indigenous style as recorded in illustrations by Spanish conquistadores. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 6900 km (4,300 miles) across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on August 7, 1947. The crew made successful landfall and all returned safely.

This is the man himself...Thor Heyerdahl.

We can see the original Kon-Tiki raft, the reed boat Ra II, an exhibition about the Tigris and an Easter Island exhibition that includes a 10-m replica of a statue from Easter Island.

Another boat in the museum is the Ra II a vessel built of reeds according to Heyerdahl perception of an ancient Egyptian seagoing boat. Heyerdahl sailed the Ra II from North Africa to the Caribbean after a previous attempt with the reed boat Ra failed.

Fram Museum:

We walked to the The Fram Museum.

Norway is an Arctic nation. More than 40 % of its territory lies north of the Arctic Circle. It is natural that Norway has participated on many important expeditions to both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

The Fram Museum contains exhibitions of the most famous voyages. The centerpiece of the museum is the world´s strongest wooden ship, the polar ship Fram. We can go on board and take a look around in her cabins, lounges, cargo hold and engine room.

The Polar Ship Fram

The Fram was the first ship specially built in Norway for polar research. She was used on three important expeditions: with Fridtjof Nansen on a drift over the Arctic Ocean 1893-96, with Otto Sverdrup to the arctic archipelago west of Greenland – now the Nunavut region of Canada – 1898-1902, and with Roald Amundsen to Antarctica for his South Pole expedition 1910-12.

THE FIRST FRAM EXPEDITION (1893-1896): Forcing ships through the arctic ice to reach the North Pole had been tried and had failed many times already. Nansen conceived the plan of building a ship that could withstand the crushing pressures of the pack ice in the Arctic Ocean, for several years. With such a ship he could drift with and thereby prove the theory of the east west ocean current, and at the same time hopefully drift over or very near to the North Pole.

On June 24th 1893 the Fram set out on her first expedition... they ran into ice and could not get as close to the north pole as they had hoped. But they did collect a lot of data and FRAM withstood crushing ice and returned unharmed in 3 years.

2nd FRAM Expedition 1899—1902: 200 000 km² of unknown land were surveyed in the arctic archipelago west of Greenland – now the Nunavut region of Canada. The land was “claimed in the name of the King of Norway” by Sverdrup. However, the Norwegian government neglected to follow this up. In 1925 Canada proclaimed the sector principle, ie that all land lying between Canada’s east and west borders and the North Pole belonged to Canada, and the area discovered by Sverdrup’s expedition became Canadian without official protests from Norway. In 1930, just before Sverdrup died, he was granted a sum of money from the Canadian government for his scientific work and mapping during the Fram Expedition.

The scientific results were sensational... Thousands of plant samples, 2000 glass containers of smaller animals, rock and fossil varieties, data about ice, temperature, earth´s magnetism, and other scientific fields

The Third Fram Expedition (1910-1914): Roald Amundsen had plans of drifting across the Arctic Ocean, sail through the Bering Strait, it would give him a better starting point and improve his chances of getting closer to the North Pole.

In the meantime, American explorer Peary´s claim to have reached the North Pole on 6 April 1909 was announced. This news fired Amundsen with a desire to make a bid for the South Pole as he would in any case have to sail a long way south in order to round Cape Horn and then sail north to the Bering Strait.

He took great pains to keep his decision a secret, even from his crew. The Fram’s voyage south took four months, the men adjusted equipment and got to know the dogs. The 97 original dogs had become 116 before they reached the Bay of Whales on 14 January 1911. however with food scarcity, dogs had to be killed to feed other dogs and the number dwindled to 17.

Amundsen and 4 companions, with the 17 remaining dogs, reached the South Pole on 14 Dec 1911. Spent 3 days in the area, taking measurements and circling the Pole with ski trips

There had been a rival party headed by Britain’s Scott to reach the South Pole. Scott´s party of five reached the Pole on 17 Jan 1912 to find the Norwegian flag firmly planted in the snow. Scott and his companions perished on the return journey, dying of cold and starvation only a few miles from a depot – the so-called One-Ton-Camp – stocked with fuel and provisions.

Amundsen and his men arrived back at Framheim on 26 January with two sledges and 11 dogs after a total absence of 99 days and traveled distance of 3000 km...

Today, FRAM occupies a unique position in the history of exploration, being the ship with the record of sailing both furthest north and furthest south of any.

It’s great to read of these exploits and see the ship involved...clambering onto it and seeing all the cabins.

Terrific miniatures capturing the event...

The cloaks used by the explorers...

A lovely wood box belonging to one of them...all personal effects can be seen including their logs, Bible etc...

A polar bear rug in one of the cabins...

The all important tools and ammunition...

We moved out…saw these Sea front statues... the explorers we had read about just now... Roald Amundsen and co, team who were the first to reach the South Pole.

There were lots of locals relaxing in the weekend at the picturesque Bygdøy peninsula

This is a War memorial to Norwegian sailors.

We went to the Norwegian Maritime Museum.

Norwegian Maritime Museum:

It’s the Museum for ship building, shipping, fishing and marine archaeology where we can see exhibitions, boat models and marine paintings.

Norway's oldest boat, Stokkebåten, is also exhibited at the museum.

Fishing village model... men cutting their catch of fish... fish laid out on the ground and cut pieces in the baskets. Cod fish drying on wood stands

This is the model of an oil rig...

Then we went on to the Viking Ship Museum.

Viking Ship Museum:

This museum houses 4 ship burials from Oslo fjord area …these are 9^th century ships which had been used for burial of wealthy patrons after their sailing days were over.

A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself.

The Oseberg ship (Norwegian: Osebergskipet) is a well-preserved Viking ship discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold county, Norway

It contained numerous grave goods and two female human skeletons. The ship's interment into its burial mound dates from 834 AD, but parts of the ship date from around 800, and the ship itself is thought to be older. It was excavated in 1904-1905.

This ship is one of the finest finds to have survived the Viking Age.

Oseberg ship is built almost entirely of oak. It is 21.58 m long and 5.10 m broad, with a mast of approximately 9–10 m. With a sail of c. 90 m², the ship could achieve a speed up to 10 knots. The ship has 15 pairs of oar holes, which means that 30 people could row the ship. Other fittings include a broad steering oar, iron anchor, gangplank, and a bailer.

The bow and stern of the ship are elaborately decorated with complex woodcarvings

The Viking Age display includes sledges, beds, a horse cart, wood carving, tent components, buckets and other grave goods.

The opulence of the burial rite and the grave-goods in this burial ship suggests that this was a burial of very high status. One woman wore a very fine red wool dress with a lozenge twill pattern (a luxury commodity) and a fine white linen veil in a gauze weave, while the other wore a plainer blue wool dress with a wool veil, possibly showing some stratification in their social status...

Dendrochronological analysis of timbers in the grave chamber dates the burial to the autumn of 834. It has been suggested that she is Queen Åsa of the Yngling clan, mother of Halfdan the Black and grandmother of Harald Fairhair.

There were also the skeletal remains of 14 horses, an ox, and three dogs found on the ship.. .a great number of everyday items and artifacts were found during the 1904-1905 excavations.

These included four elaborately decorated sleighs, a richly carved four-wheel wooden cart, bed-posts, and wooden chests, as well as the so-called "Buddha bucket" (Buddha-bøtte), a brass and cloisonné enamel ornament

The Gokstad ship 890 AD, is constructed largely of oak. The ship was intended for warfare, trade, transportation of people and cargo.

The ship is 23.80 m (78.1 ft) long and 5.10 m (16.7 ft) wide. It is the largest in the Viking Ship Museum. The skeleton of a male aged between 50–70 years was recovered. The skeleton was found in a bed inside a timber-built burial chamber

The grave was furnished with grave goods. Apart from the ship itself, there were three small boats, a tent, a sledge and riding equipment. It is believed that the mound was plundered in ancient times. The excavation in 1880 showed that valuables of gold and silver had been removed. In the Viking period, weapons were considered an important part of a man's grave goods. In the case of the Gokstad ship, any such weapons were probably taken by grave robbers.

We took the ferry back to mainland.

Passed by Oslo city sight seeing train…...

We entered the Akershus Fortress, Akershus Slott og Festning www.forsvarsbygg.no great views. The interior has closed by 4pm but roaming around in the fortress is free and the gates are open from 6 am until late in the evening; The museums only from 10-16.

So with our Oslo pass we had seen a number of great museums and were pretty pleased with our day.

This is the Central station.

Always great to pose with a troll.

We went back to our hotel, had our food at the comfortable picnic area they have provided with a microwave oven, fridge, sink etc.

With the Oslo pass only a supplement of 60 nok is needed to reach the airport. We had bought it when we got the pass in the morning. We went to the train station; our options to reach the airport Oslo Lufthavn, cheapest NSB local/regional trains: Eidsvoll at 24, 54 past hour, Lillehammer 34 min past hour.