We left Stockholm, Sweden on the morning of Sunday August 7th. The train ride from Stockholm to Oslo was almost 7 hours. Actually, I should say the journey from Stockholm to Oslo was almost 7 hours. The reason being is when they work on the railroad tracks they use a replacement bus for segments to detour on the train route. So we had to take a bus part of the way. It's not much fun to have to move your luggage from the train to the bus and back to the train again but that's the way it is and there's not a lot you can do about it. This picture is us waiting in the Stockholm train depot.
Even though there was a threat of rain we went ahead and went to a very popular garden filled with sculptures designed by the famous sculptor Gustav Vigeland. In the picture just below, the granite tower was not one Gustav sculpted himself but rather was designed by him and actually sculpted by three sculptors that worked for 14 years to carve 121 human figures in the granite tower. Do not zoom in too closely because the figures are anatomically correct of men, women and children all tangled up and are unclothed.
The bronze statues all around the fountain are also designs of Gustav and are also all anatomically correct and naked. Actually, every sculpture in the park is of naked men, women and children of all ages.
We left Vigeland Park and took a trolley to the harbor to catch a bus over to Viking Ship Museum. This sailing vessel was sitting in the harbour and is still used. I found it very interesting because of its age.
Although it's hard to see because of how dark it is this Viking ship was from about 820 A.D. People of power where buried in the ships along with food, their horses, their clothing, and much of their belongings. They were found and excavated in the late eighteen hundreds. This is one seriously old ship!
After leaving the Viking Ship Museum we went to the town hall. This doesn't look all that grand and it really wasn't on the outside because it was built in the mid-1950's.
However, this picture and the one below it, are hand-carved displays along with probably a dozen more as you approach the entrance of the town hall with each one telling a story.
Once inside, many of the rooms are hand-painted murals in grand scale. This building is for when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by Norway to the recipient. It is common in the Scandinavian countries for a town hall to be the focal point of the city.
Later in the day we walk down the main pedestrian street in Oslo. As you can see we were joined by 100,000 of our closest Asian friends. Yes, you do see people wearing long-sleeve coats and long pants because it is chilly and windy here.
The yellowish colored building with the rounded front and the Norwegian flag on top is the Parliament building. Out front is a peaceful demonstration which happens quite often apparently. You can see there are many umbrellas up because it is raining and we are sitting on the second floor of a deli having dinner overlooking this park in front of the Parliament building.
This picture is of the Oslo Cathedral which is a Lutheran Church and it is where Norway commemorates its Royal marriages and deaths.
On Tuesday Morning August 9th, we took a tram up to the top of Oslo where a ski jump was built. We just happened upon this ski jump where students that appeared to be junior high and high school age were practicing ski jumping. They did this by saturating the green carpeting at the bottom and also putting a mist of water on the white part of the track of the ski jump itself. Notice the pond at the end of the green at the bottom of the ski jump, which I suspect is for practicing ice skating in the winter time. Beyond that is a view of Oslo.
So here I am on my first attempt at ski jumping. That's me in the white ski suit just leaving the ski jump. Okay, I know none of you believe that's me ski jumping so I will confess it's not, however, there was a guy about my age that was also ski jumping. I often wonder who was the first person to look at a long hill like this and think "huh, I think I'll try to ski down this hill as fast as I can then jump off at the end."
This is the ski jump we were searching for when we ran across the other one. This one is an old ski jump that was built for the Olympics and is now kept for zip lining for tourists and locals.
On our hike back down, we came across this restaurant with a sod roof and we noticed there were many buildings up at this higher elevation with sod roofs.
This struck me as rather funny, the stone carving of the troll and the little troll in the woods. We ate our picnic lunch near the trolls.
When we got back down into Oslo, we walked down a narrow neighborhood street. The small houses were on one side of the street and they had gardens on the other side of the street. It appeared as though they would go out into their gardens to gather their fresh vegetables and would grill their evening dinner there because several of the places had a grill sitting out by small picnic tables in the garden.
This church is the oldest building in Oslo.
This is just another picture of one of the many fountains around. Just beyond that you can see a building with interesting architecture.
Here is the Royal Palace and when the flag is flying the royalty is in the country.
OBSERVATIONS:
• we were told by some of the locals that this is Oslo in August so it's very rainy. We have done everything we wanted to do outside, but it has rained two, three and four times a day.
• food is expensive, we just saw one place today that a can of Coke was $5. A bottle of water is commonly seen for about $4 a bottle. A medium pizza is about $30.
• most hotels include breakfast and the breakfast they provide is a wide variety of breads, meats, cheeses, cereal, eggs, yogurt and fruit.
• for those of you who have an interest in electric cars, I am really surprised at the number of Tesla cars I have seen. No wonder Tesla is having a hard time keeping up with production because it appears like most of their vehicles are being shipped over here.
No comments:
Post a Comment