Due North

In early July, we began our adventures in Norway! My daughter, her girlfriend, my husband and I all flew into Oslo for a week of good food, great museums, abundant nature and lots of laughs!

I have visited Sweden and Denmark and expected Oslo to look similar to Stockholm and Copenhagen. In many ways Oslo is a very different city. The first thing that struck me was the modern architecture. Our apartment was situated right on the waterfront and the backdrop was a horizon full of sleek and shiny buildings. Here are some examples:

As you can see, there is a lot glass and steel. The four of us all commented on how quiet the city felt (especially coming from Paris). It was as if there were no automobiles on the roads. Most, if not all, of the buses are electric and the few cars we saw were also electric - hence the lack of noise pollution. You couldn’t help but get the sense that the Norwegian people care about and think a lot about how to protect the environment. From the number of “green” products to the number of recycle bins and overall building designs, climate change is clearly an important subject in this culture.

Oslo was absolutely charming. Here a few of the more quirky things I liked:

I love how playful and joyful the city seems. Of course we visited the Munch Museum - seen above as the slanted building with the monstrous figure in front. Edvard Munch died in 1944 and bequeathed all remaining works to the city of Oslo. I have always found his work to be on the dark side. He suffered from depression and loneliness and used his art to express and maybe to better understand his emotions. Here are a few photo’s from the museum:

Speaking of emotions, we visited a vast park called Frogner. It’s centrally located, open 24 hours and free. Within this park is Vigland, which is a sculpture park with more than 200 pieces of bronze, granite and cast iron sculpture by the Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland “whose realistic work represents the cycle of human life and all it’s emotions.” I was overwhelmed by his work:

We spent one afternoon swimming in the Norwegian sea and then hanging in the sauna. We rented our private sauna for 2 hours and then jumped in and out of the water - it was all situated just steps from our apartment and right on the waterfront.

As you can see from most of the photos above, we had great summer weather with really dramatic clouds and long, long days. Everything changed when we left Oslo for our next destination. We left summer behind when we took a 6 or 7 hour train ride through the countryside of Norway to Bergen, aka “the capital of the fjords.” The landscape was beautiful for the first several hours and then Bam! it suddenly got darker and cooler (still beautiful). But wet. We stayed in a darling hotel in Bergen, the Park Hotel. The good food continued but the weather got wetter and colder.

Here are some shots of the city:

The true highlight of Bergen though was the boat trip we took through the fjords. It was pretty darn cold and it was raining the entire day but I remained outside on the boat trying to capture the magnificent beauty of the area. I have hundreds of photographs from the day but here is a small sampling:

Last but definitely not least, my travel buddies and other odds and ends. Oh - I stumbled across a statue of a female breast cancer survivor! I’m pretty sure this is the only statue of it’s kind - just another cool thing about Norway. Go visit!!