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Oslo

Our Scandinavian trip began when we arrived in Oslo a day early.  We spent our free day walking to the Folk Museum – about a 3-mile walk.  Norwegian Museum of Cultural History.  We took our time along the way and enjoyed seeing the port and city of Oslo.  The museum is open area with collections of buildings and artifacts from around the country.  One of the main attractions is the Gol Stave Church, built in the 12th century.  There was an old 14th century farmhouse and an 1865 tenement building.  Also some buildings from the 19th and 20th century.

Our first day with the group was Constitution Day.  This is a huge patriotic and family day.  We began celebrating with a “champagne” toast in the park and then watched the parade.  We watched about 2 hours, but the parade continued longer.  The parade was made up entirely of children.  So nice not to see armed forces, political leaders, etc.  Focus on children.  They marched up a long street to the palace where they saw the king and royal family and continued down to water.  We were able to get close enough to see the royal family also.  Norwegians dress up for this—many in national costume and men in suits.

Took a short bus tour of the city, went to the Viking Ship Museum, a high ski jump, and lastly to the Vigeland Sculpture Park.  The park includes Gustav Vigeland’s lifework of more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and wrought iron. Vigelad did not clothe his statues – naked because he wanted them to represent all time periods and by putting any clothes on, this would date the figure.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2018 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Norway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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