After a generally miserable August weather-wise, September turned out to be a real winner. It was warm, sunny and generally pleasant. But September is 'Matt preparing for conferences' month, so that, plus the start of the rugby season, dominated the month.
That said, we went to Oslo!
Oslo Fjord
Olso Harbour
Or rather, Matt went for work (Voorburg Group), Kathy went for a holiday.
The trip started reasonably OK, until we got to Oslo – and Kathy's luggage didn't. It had been left behind in Amsterdam, and didn't turn up until after midday the next day. Grrrrr. Anyway, after a quick train trip in to the city from the airport, and finally checking in to the hotel, we caught up with some of the other delegates Matt's chummy with for drinks (omg, they were expensive – but then alcohol is in Norway) and dinner.
On Monday we had an early start – or rather, Matt did. He got up at 5.30am to read papers.
Matt after having to get up early
Matt went to work, and Kathy went sightseeing. After buying herself a 48 hour 'Oslo pass' she walked up to the Royal Palace,
The view up to the Norwegian Royal Palace
past Oslo Cathedral, following 2 mounted police. She walked around the Palace grounds, which are in parkland (and so not heavily guarded), then sat for a bit by a lake while she decided what to do. She walked back up to the Palace, admiring some sculptures,
and stood and watched the guards for a minute – they pace out for a bit, then when they're back in their guard box they snap their head to the left, or right, then slowly bring it back to the centre again.
This is actually a guard at the Fortress, but it gives you an idea
Her first stop was the Akershus Fortress.
It was first built in the 14th century, and was a Royal Palace to start with.
When Norway became governed by Denmark it became a garrison and prison.
Just so you don't forget it's history
It's still attached to a military barracks, so there are guards on duty as well. There are fantastic views from the walls out over Oslo. There are cobbles everywhere, and on one particularly steep part the cobbles are set at an angle so that horses could obtain purchase when pulling heavy loads up.
The Fortress is built on a rocky outcrop, like Edinburgh Castle and for the same defensive reasons.
The Fortress also houses the Resistance Museum,
The outside of the Resistance museum
and a memorial to 100 Norwegians executed by the Nazis.
On that visit the interior of the Fortress was closed, and there were several areas undergoing renovation, but it was still a good place to wander around for an hour or so.
It was then time to go back to the hotel to pick up her luggage – hooray! Clean clothes!! After getting changed and having a quick lunch of a baguette and coffee Kathy headed off, by ferry, to an area called Bygdoy, where there are several museums. Her first stop was the Kon Tiki museum.
Brilliant. It was quite dark inside the museum, so as to preserve the boats. On display are the Ra 2
and the Kon Tiki itself.
It was really interesting reading about how and why the boats were built. There were also stories about some of Thor Heyerdahl's environmental campaigns about damage to the oceans in the 1970's. The ships were really well preserved, and it's amazing to think that they spent to long on such apparently flimsy vessles.
Next stop was the FramMuseet (Fram Museum).
The Fram is an Arctic explorer ship, and was designed to get as close to the North Pole and some of the top of Greenland as she could – by drifting in the ice! She's got an egg-shaped keel so that she can resist the pressure of the ice more than an ordinary ship.
There were also exhibitions on other Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, including the very first time someone over-wintered in the Antarctic. Several men died during that winter, or went insane because of the intense darkness. It was pretty cool stuff, and was all really interesting.
The last stop for the day was a naval museum. It wasn't as good as the other 2, which are all within about 5 minutes walk of each other, if that, plus it was only 20 minutes to its closing time (which Kathy wasn't told when she got her entry ticket). It was a seemingly random assortment of ships by category – passenger or freight. She won't got back, even though she didn't see most of it.
View back towards some of Oslo's suburbs
Statue in memory of various sailors and explorers
As things she wanted to see were all closing at 4.30pm, it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for the evening's reception. Everyone from the conference all met in the reception area of the hotel we were staying in and walked to the reception venue. The reception was held in a beautiful building, decorated in a style similar to late Georgian. There was good wine, finger food and good conversation. Afterwards a group of us (the usual suspects, as it turned out) went on to a cheap bar (did we mention that alcohol in Norway is extremely expensive?) that the Irish delegates, quite naturally, had found the night before. The bar was not in one of the better parts of down town Oslo. The regulars looked as us sideways several times – given the number of our party in suits I think they thoughts we were cops, or something. Matt was told by the barman that we were very lucky we were in a big group because of that. Certainly, some of the regulars cleared out pretty smart-ish when we turned up! We didn't have a late night, because Matt was chairing sessions the next day. We grabbed more food on the way home.
Tuesday
Because of Matt's responsibilities at the conference today, we had an early-ish start. Kathy was able to spend some time getting herself in order at the hotel, as all of the things she wanted to go to didn't open until 10am.
It was a beautiful day, so Kathy took the ferry back over to Bygdoy and went to the Viking Ship Museum and Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. Fan-blimmin'-tastic.
The Viking Ship Museum is brilliant. It holds 3 Viking burial ships, 1 of which is in just incredible condition.
There is fairly astounding carving on the sides of this ships,
and on sleds they found as part of the burials, and on animal head boles.
There were harnesses studded in bronze. The carving on the sleds was picked out in silver, or bronze nails, so the effect was quite incredible.
It's amazing to see just how much has survived the centuries.
The Museum of Cultural History is a bit like St. Fagans, in that it's mostly buildings.
There are some brick buildings, which have exhibits on decorating styles, household technology and cultural mores. There is an interesting bank exhibit, and an explanation of the state controlled alcohol sales (unsurprisingly, it's an effort to curb the rampant alcoholism rife in the community at the time it was instigated. Mind you, what else can you do on a dark winter's evening?). Many of the wooden buildings were farm or rural buildings, and had grassed roofs.
A stone hearth inside a farm house
Sheep
Most were closed up for the season, though. There was an amazing 13th century wooden church
– all carved panels
and an incredible painted interior. Wow. So many of the buildings were very simple and plain. And very dark inside. Life must have been very tough for the farmers, especially over winder. Kathy wandered around there for 2 ½ hours before stopping for lunch, and to decide what to do next.
Heading back in to central Oslo on the ferry, she next went to the Nobel Peace Museum.
The building which has the Nobel Museum in it
It was interesting; the exhibits seems to focus on the current holder (in this case the 2008). There was a display detailing each winner, together with the citation from when they were awarded the prize. There was a good display about Nobel himself – he discovered smokeless powder for munitions, before being overwrought by the destruction man makes of his fellow beings. Quite ironic.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around downtown Oslo, and comparing prices on Norwegian jumpers. As she was very tired Kathy headed back to the hotel for a bit of a feet up and to plan out the rest of the week. After Matt finished work we met up with some others to dinner at an Indian restaurant, then Matt had a meeting about hedonics (excitement) and Kathy called it a day - the thought of hedonics threatening to send her catatonic.
Wednesday
Matt had another early start today, so Kathy wandered around after breakfast for a while in the sunshine just looking at stuff until places opened, including a stop for coffee (mmmmmm). She found a pretty plaza at Sehesteds Plas, which has lovely 3-storey buildings set around a cobbled square, in the centre of which was a fountain, like many others she's seen. This one was a sculpture of a mother and child. The Norwegians have a different style to the rest of Europe seen so far. It helps that the women are so slim! They do layering as though it's second nature. Kathy saw many beautiful knits and a much wider range of colours for clothes and home wares than she's seen in the UK. It seems the Norwegians follow trends but not slavishly so. And the teenagers don't all wear the same thing as their friends, either.
Because it was such a beautiful day Kathy walked around the outside of the grounds of the palace, past some beautiful old buildings, which were formerly apartments or luxury homes, and are now mostly offices or embassies. The buildings had beautiful late 19th and early 20th century façades, all stone and beautifully proportioned and maintained. She then headed back down towards city hall then to the hotel. It was interesting that most of the older buildings seemed to be inland of the palace – could this be because of the old port of commercial centre, or because the older buildings closer to the port were damaged during World War 2?
Back at the hotel Kathy met up with Matt, and then the conference delegates
for lunch (today is the host day)
at the recently opened Opera House.
After lunch we were all treated to a guided tour of the outside of the building,
which has been designed to look like an iceberg adrift.
It is pretty spectacular, and gave us some lovely views over Oslo Harbour.
We were then herded on to buses and off to Vigeland Park, which is a huge sculpture park, designed by Gustav Vigeland.
Many of his sculptures are in there, either bronze or marble. All the figures wre in a variety of poses and postures.
The central focus of the Park is a huge fountain, with sculptures carved in the theme of the cycle of life around the outside of it. The fountain itself is a huge monolith carved with figures representing the cycle of life as well. Fantastic. Then we went to the Fram Museum (again for Kathy), which Matt enjoyed very much – especially as he got to see something Kathy already had. Then it was back to the hotel to change for the conference dinner.
Dinner, which at the conference is always hosted by the host country, was at a restaurant which had the most stunning views out over Oslo Harbour and the fjord it's in – made all the more stunning by the setting sun.
We had lovely entertainment from a duo who played traditional music rearranged for jazz. What was really interesting was the number of times parts of the pieces sounded celtic. The meal started with seared scallops and trout tartare with mushrooms; followed by roast beef fillet with potato rosti and more mushrooms; then finished by a blueberry sorbet. Very yummy. When we were dropped off at the hotel Kathy went off to bed while Matt did his usual 'go out with Fred and the [insert country] guys'. This year it was the Irish boys.
Thursday
Today Kathy went to an art gallery. One of the works on display is a version of The Scream done in pastels. Oh my goodness. It was incredible – so vibrant – it really grabbed her by the heart. The despair and torture being felt by the figure in the foreground came through so much more than it does in photograph images of the piece. She also saw a version of Munch's Madonna and some other incredible works by Norwegian painters. There were some stunning landscapes and village scenes that were so evocative and vibrant. Other paintings were dark and brooding night images. She thought it was an interesting glimpse in to the psyche of the Norwegians. The juxtaposition of light and dark, joy and despair was intense. Even though not all of the gallery was open it was an hour well spent.
Kathy then did a bit of shopping, then headed back to the hotel to meet up with some of the other spouses to go to the Akershus Fortress. We were going on the only English language tour of the interior that was on that week. It was amazing. So beautiful. Some of the rooms were decorated with period correct wall hangings.
The rooms themselves were an amazing mix of medieval proportions and renaissance style.
One of several frescoes recently rediscovered
A lot of the castle was remodelled in the 16th century, and is still a royal castle.
The chapel is a used by the nearby army base,
Organ in the chapel
Royal 'pew'
but also holds the private funerals for members of the royal family. In the crypt are buried the 2 Norwegian Kings who have held the throne since independence in 1905, together with their wives.
Official banquets are still held in the castle in 1 of 2 dining halls, depending on the number of guests. Many rooms are quite dark, with not much modernisation or electrification so lighting relies on natural light or candles. It also helps preserve some of the furnishings.
Stained glass window in one of the banquet rooms
Afterwards, Kathy was starting to suffer from sight-seeing fatigue, exacerbated by things being open only between 10am and 4.30pm and trying to cram everything she wants to see in to that time. It's quite tiring and frustrating, for example at 2.45pm it's too late in the day to go to another Museum out of central Oslo, especially if it takes 20 minutes to get there and back. So instead she took her time over a lovely little lunch at a cafe near the fortress. She was served by a guy from Melbourne – he's living in Oslo because his girlfriend is Norwegian.
Because she was so close to the fortress Kathy decided to go to the Resistance Museum within its grounds. It was pretty good, even though most of the explanatory notes were in Norwegian (of course). There were good displays about the supply lines and drop zones from the allies, and a good English language description of the political situation in Norway during the War. Like the French resistance, the Norwegian fighters were incredibly brave and many did things with the full expectation of death. The Museum holds part of one of the bombs which destroyed the Turpitz. It was HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See? Just this bit is taller than Kathy is
On her way back to the hotel she stopped off in several shops to browse. One of the shops was a hobby shop, and was very very busy. Unlike such stores in Aus or the UK there were women of all ages in there, all buying up large. I wonder whether it's a common thing to do, and a way of passing long winter evenings?
Friday
Today was the last day of the conference. While Matt worked, Kathy wandered for a bit in the sunshine, past guys half way through (what she hoped was) their first pint for the morning at 9.30am! Then she caught the train to the Munch Museum. This is a museum dedicated to the works of Edvard Munch. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. On display was another version of his Madonna,
together with the oils version of The Scream. While still pretty intense, she thought it lacked some of the sense of despair that the pastels version had. Depression left another indelible mark on Kathy,
but she most enjoyed the works he did towards the end of his life. While they were less ground-breaking it was more colourful and joyous. His drawings were lovely too – quickly done and full of passion. She liked some of them more than the paintings. This has to be a must visit to anyone going to Oslo.
By the time she got back in to the city it was after 11am, so there was no time to do anything other than wander before it was time to meet Matt at midday for lunch at the hotel. After lunch we both had a quick visit to the Fortress, so that Matt could see what Kathy had seen, and to buy a lovely Norwegian jumper for Matt. Again, bathed in beautiful sunshine.
And so back to the UK. While Kathy's bag arrived, Matt's didn't – surprise, surprise it was back in Amsterdam. Not a good record for KLM. But Kathy did pick up a nasty virus, so an unhappy end to a lovely week.
