Today was museum day - two of them!
This was museum day for us - two of them! A pleasant bus ride out to the Bygdøy area where our first stop was the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History aka the Norsk Folkemuseum. This is an open air museum, somewhat akin to Fort Edmonton, which shows how people lived since about the 1600s. There are some 160 historic buildings and you can walk from one part to another on gravelled pathways. The showpiece in the park is the Gol Stave church, similar to the one we saw in Vikoyri. One of only 28 remaining stave churches in the world from over 1000 originally. There are also exhibits inside the buildings surrounding the main square which hold artifacts from the different eras. It is very extensive and would take the better part of a day to fully cover. Since we also wanted to get to the Fram museum, we did not get to visit the whole park.
Our second stop, the Fram, was a short bus ride away and is the museum that tells the story of Norwegian polar exploration. It consists of two museums each of which centres around one of the two actual ships that were used in exploring the polar regions. They are each housed in a triangular building and surrounding each of the ships are extensive displays about the exploreres and their expeditions to both the North and South Poles as well as those dedicated to finding the Northwest Passage. The first ship is the Fram, the ship Roald Amundsen took on his trek to the South Pole and the other is the Gjøa, the first ship to navigate the Northwest Passage. It also contains a very comprehensive display about the various pioneers of polar exloration, most notably Roald Amundsen who not only transitted the NW Passage but was also the first to reach the South Pole. There is so much information to take in that I finally got a case of information overload and only took in a small portion of the detailed descriptions. They were very interesting, just more than my little brain was prepared to absorb. Irv, on the other hand was more engaged so probably came away with a lot better understanding of the whole history. There was also an opportunity to experience what it would have been like to fly over the North Pole with Roald Amundsen in one of the two aircraft he took on his aerial expedition there. His aircraft, the Norge, is also displayed at the museum. Experiencing the museum certainly gives one cause to admire the fortitude it took to embark upon these types of explorations in as unforgiving an environment as you can imagine, and without all of the modern equipment and clothing available today. Amundsen’s success came as a result of his willingness to befriend and learn from the Inuit people ways to survive the harsh climate and environment. He also used their knowledge of how to make use of sleds and sled dogs to travel across the rugged and unforgiving land.
On our return to our “home turf”, we decided to check out the big celebration in the park next to the National Theatre. Turns out it was a celebration for Philippine Independence Day and there was lively music, food stalls, craft stalls and a ton of people out in the sunshine dancing and just having a jolly good time.
We again decided to venture further afield for dinner and found ourselves at Bastard Burgers, where a most friendly young man helped us order. The burgers were very good as was the beer and cider that washed them down! Side note: we tried to buy a beer and a cider to take back to our room at the nearby Joker (like 7-11) store but were three minutes too late. They are not allowed to sell liquor after six on Saturday or on Sunday.
We decided it was too early to head back to the hotel, so took a stroll over to Karl Johan’s Gate a very lively area with lots of restaurants and bars. We had sussed out a place to get some good gelato and that was our destination. We knew it must be good when we saw the lineup outside. They have a rule though - due to the delicacy of their cooling system, they ask that there be no more than eight people in the shop at a time. But the gelato was worth waiting for - stracciatella for me and pistachio for Irv. A good way to end another day in Oslo.