Hi again. Altogether, we spent about a week and a half in Oslo and Bergen, Norway. I don’t have much to say. We did our thing, look at the buildings and street life, walk in nice parks and along waterfronts, go to museums and churches, and chill out in our airbnb’s. Myung loves museums. We have thousands of photos of artwork
“The Scream” by Edvard Munch
Norwegians take great pride in their artistic geniuses. as all cultures do. I didn’t really appreciate Munch’s work until visiting the Munch Museum in Oslo, which has a lot of his work as well as others’. I actually really enjoyed this museum, even though sometimes I feel like I could scream if I went into one more.
The Munch Museum and the ferris wheel beside it.
Like Finland and Sweden, the old mixes with the new. That photo of the museum was taken from the Opera House.
Oslo Opera House
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art.
National Theater in Oslo
National Theater in Oslo
Nobel Peace Center, Oslo
Akershus Fortress (Akershus Festning), a medieval castle located in Oslo, Norway.Built around 1300 to protect the city, it has served as a royal residence, a prison, and a military base.
The book Kon Tiki actually affected me when I read it when I was about 12. I wanted to go along with Thor Heyerdahl.
Life-size replica of Kon Tiki.
Vigeland Park, Oslo
The very many sculptures in Vigeland Park were the life work of Gustav Vigeland. Vigeland Park is at least 5 square km, with statues by many artists scattered around. You’re walking in the woods, and there, around the bend, is a Dali or a Rodin. The main area of Vigeland’s sculptures has dozens of his.
You can enter or leave the park in many places, but one way is the Bridge. Everybody photographs this statue. Even Myung knew about it.
The Angry Boy (Norwegian: Sinnataggen) is a sculpture in the Vigeland installation in Frogner Park, Oslo. It depicts a small, angry boy and is considered Gustav Vigeland’s most famous sculpture. The sculpture, cast in bronze, was likely modeled in 1928 and installed as one of 58 sculptures on the “Bridge”
All in all, visiting Oslo was a fairly pedestrian experience. I just don’t have much to say about it. Personally, I like it better than Stockholm, but I like Helsinki the best. I’m kind of jaded sometimes. Oslo really is fine.
From Oslo, we went to Bergen, on the west coast. Ideally, we would have gone by train. The train is said to be one of the most beautiful train rides in Europe. We didn’t know until too late that tickets would be sold out. We’ll know better next time, though that would require us to know ahead of time what we want to do, and that isn’t our usual way. Even the buses were long and the times inconvenient, so we flew. Actually, it was cheaper than the train. Like I said, the train is popular.
Here’s Bergen.
Bergen is a very nice place to visit. It’s walkable, and if you want to ride, public transportation is easy. The neighborhood our Airbnb place was is in this area.
If you walk up that path, past the tree and around a car road for about 50 meters, and look to the right, you see this.
Over the top of those buildings is the main historic harbor area.
Bryggen (the old wharf) in Bergen, Norway, featuring its iconic row of colorful, rebuilt medieval wooden Hanseatic buildings along the harbor.
“Hanseatic” refers to the Hanseatic League, a commercial and defense network that stretched as far as present-day Estonia in 13th to 15th centuries. The buildings like this burned down three or four times. These buildings are reconstructed burned down 18th century buildings. That was done in 1955. Not original, but still photoworthy. Everybody takes this picture and maybe buys the refrigerator magnet.
The building featured on the right side of the image is St. Mary’s Church (locally known as Mariakirken), located in the historic city center of Bergen, Norway. It is the oldest remaining building in the entire city of Bergen, with its construction dating back to between 1130 and 1180.
Kuottbasaren Building in Bergen. It used to be a meat market. Now it has restaurants and coffee shops. We relaxed at a Starbucks in here.
Besides walking around town, we went out to Bergen’s most famous person, Edvard Grieg. Myung listens to classical music constantly, and Grieg’s works are among the hits, so we had to go here.
Troldhaugen, the former villa and home of the renowned Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina Grieg, located in Bergen, Norway.
That’s going to do it for this post. Right now, we are on a 12-day cruise from Bergen around the northernmost tip of Norway in the Arctic, to Kirkines, and back. The next post will be many fjord photos. Until then, be well, all of you.