Musical Norway

Haakon's Hall

I started the day by walking the Bergen Fortress. The tower was under reconstruction and there were workman about preparing for some event. Later that day we heard the music of ‘Pomp and Circumstance". The highlight of the walk was the 13^th century Haakon's Hall.

Troldhaugen

Our bus drove past some of the artistic sights: the theater, the concert hall and statues of artists before heading into the hills to Troldhaugen, the home of Edward Grieg. This was primarily his summer home, he only spent one winter here. On the water, was his composing room and on the cliff below the house was his and his wife's grave. We were treated to a brief concert of Grieg's work by the pianist of the Bergen symphony. He played both familiar works like March of the Trolls and a Mother's grief and selections from his other works. Next week marks Greg’s 175^th birthday and Norway will be broadcasting 30 hours of his music including from his piano at the house.

Then we headed back into town to have lunch in one of the Hanseatic assembly rooms. Here we were treated to folk music played on a Hardanger fiddle, a Norwegian instrument with 9 strings, played two at a time providing a unique sound, a normal fiddle, and a Longelite from Medieval times.

We boarded our Hurtigruten ship, the Midnatsul, in time for dinner and sailed off about 8 PM. We were impressed with the ship, built in 2003, it has typical cabins, and lots of areas to view the scenery. The line started in 1893 providing a connection for the villages and towns along the coast. Today they have 11 ships, and tourism has supplanted cargo as their major source of revenue.

Leaving Bergen

Bergen

We started our day at the Fish Museum. Here we discussed fishing, whaling, seal hunting and fish farming. The waters of Norway are filled with fish, some twenty species because the gulf stream brings in a lot of ‘red bait’ plankton and warms the water about 6 degrees. Norway exports 95% of the fish it catches, mostly cod. Like other countries they have quotas to maintain the fish stock.

Cod drying in 1800s

Whaling used to be a huge industry here, especially for blue whale because it was so valuable for its oil. In 1930 over 30,000 were killed but by the 1960's only about 200 had survived.  Whaling was banned and now there are about 30,000. Norway, Iceland, and Japan still hunt whales, but today  Norway only hunts Minke whale for food. This year's quota is 1278 out of an estimated population of 90,000. Synthetic oils have reduced the demand for whale oil and thus the need for whale hunting.

Seal hunting took off after 1945, largely because seal fur was used for fashion. The processing of seal fur became a major industry. Of course, the clubbing of baby seals led to the protests by Green Peace and the protests reached worldwide proportions. The Norwegian industry shutdown in 1983.

Demand for salmon has led to salmon farming along the coast of Norway. Farmed salmon has just outstripped wild salmon in volume. 

Ships in harbor from Hanseatic League

A number of us went to the Hanseatic Museum in a building made in 1704 just after the fire of 1701. The Hanseatic League was a city within a city with its own laws. Cod from the North was brought here and sold. Then it was dried into stock fish and packed for shipping to Germany. No fires were allowed in these buildings so the men slept in a cupboard in the center of the building. Cooking was done in separate buildings, the assembly rooms. In later years the kitchen fires fed stoves in the rooms with heat.

Cupboard Bed

That night we went up in the funicular to get a view of the city of Bergen

Goat's Eye view of Bergen

Flåm to Bergen

The train ride up from the Flåm valley is quite scenic with water falls and views deep into the valley. The railway line has numerous tunnels, one includes a 180 degree turn to work up the valley. There was only one stop, a picture stop for the Kjosfassen waterfall. We changed trains at Mydahl to the state railroad. The first hour of this trip crosses the mountains through several tunnels and then we descend along a riverbank until we reach another fjord that eventually leads to Bergen. The city was founded in 1070 and became a fish trading center. The most famous buildings here are the wooden buildings of the Bryggen district. Here German merchants, member of the Hanseactic League traded fish which were shipped to Germany for European goods, especially grain. The Norwegian king did not want these foreigners here, but the black plague at decimated the population, leading to their acceptance. 

Bryggen District

We walked the harbor area viewing the medieval church of St. Mary’s, the Bryggen district, the fish market, and two of the central squares.

View from Bergen

Road to Flam

Hemsedal

This was our big road day from Oslo in the East to Flåm in the West. The city soon turned to forest and farmland, then we rode through forest with mountains, and after more miles we climbed the mountains and were in tundra as we crossed the water divide. As we traveled we learned how Norwegians have an outdoor orientation, people can camp most anywhere, in the winter most people ski on lighted trails and in the summer they visit their summer cottages. We had lunch in Hemsedal, a ski town. 

Borgund Stave Church

Our primary stop for the day was the Borgund Stave Church built in 1180 with 80% still the original wood. Morgan, our guide, provided a lot of history (and also said there was nothing to do in this town.) A stave church has wooden columns  (the staves) built on stone foundations. The intent was to eventually replace the wood staves with stone, but after the plague came through, those plans were abandoned. This church has dragons from the Norse religion as well as crosses from Christianity. The columns appear to have Norse gods at the top. These people were taking no chances between the old and new religions. The bell tower is a separate building. Inside the church was quite dark, it’s hard to imagine people listening to mass in Latin in the dark. 

Morgan explaining inside

On the way to Flan we went through a 21km tunnel cutting the travel time by 1\2 hours from going around the fjord. The town of Flåm is only 300 people at the end of a fjord with a tourist train that scales the valley walls. We stayed at the Frethelm Hotel Flåm. 

Flåm

Oslo City Tour

Oslo City Hall

Our tour started at the City Hall which is open to the public on Sundays. As we approached the 49 bell clarion was playing a song for the hour. In the court yard are artworks depicting Oak and Elmbla the Norse version of Adam and Eve as well as pictures of Thor and Odin. The Great Hall is where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. Henrik Sorensen's painting “Work, Administration, and Celebration” is on the back wall. “The Occupation Frieze” on the side wall depicts the Nazi occupation. The north wall depicts Norwegian occupations. Then on the west wall is St. Hallverd, Oslo's patron saint.

Vigelund Fountain

We bused past most of the sites we had walked on Friday, ending at the Vigelund Sculpture Garden. The garden is dedicated to the human life cycle with 212 statues in four major works: the bridge, the fountain, the monolith, and the tree of life. The fountain and monolith are surrounded with statues that go from youth to old age. The granite monolith dominates the garden, 17 meters high covered with 121 figures it took three men 13 years to complete the sculptures.

Vigelund Monolith

Our last stop was the Viking Ship Museum. The Viking era was from 750 to the 1050 AD. The Vikings needed more farm land and took their ships both West and East exploring the oceans and rivers for new land. The three ships in the museum were burial ships. They had been used on the seas but then were buried in clay with the corpses and the goods they would need in the afterlife including a intricately carved wagon.The Oseberg ship from 800 AD is the oldest was buried with two women. It required 30 oarsmen and woolen sails. On the ship were many artifacts, including a large wooden cart. The Gakstad ship is the largest , a replica of this ship sailed the Atlantic from Norway to America in 1893 to be exhibited in Chicago.

Gakstad Ship

The last museum was the Fram Museum dedicated to the explorers of the Polar regions. Ronald Amundsen stands out as a polar explorer: the first to navigate the Northwest passage, reach the South Pole, and fly to the North pole. Amundsen's team took 40 months in 1903 to traverse the Northwest passage. They were helped by the Intuit to make igloos, use sled dogs, ice the runners on their sledges, use native fur clothing for warmth and learn the foods to eat to survive in the cold. This was primarily a science expedition, they took measurements of the magnetic fields discovering that the magnetic poles move. The Gjøa is the ship they used for the passage and it is preserved in this museum. They used a petrol engine to supplement their sails, but had to be careful that the fuel not evaporate away from their tanks.

The Fram was used for his trip to the South Pole, leaving in 1910. Amundsen used all he had learned from the Intuits to be successful on this trip. He was very exacting on the preparation for this trip including 111 dogs to pull the sleds. He beat Scott to the pole by several weeks, but more importantly everyone survived. Scott tried to use mechanical vehicles, horses, dogs, and manpower to move his sleds, many of his team died on the journey. The Fram was very interesting. He had a wind mill to generate electricity for lights and a piano for entertainment. We could explore most of the ship. 

Norsk Folkemuseum

Old Stave Church

We made use of our second day in Oslo by going to the NorskFolkemuseum. Here they have collected over 150 buildings from the various regions and times of Norway. Most plentiful were farm buildings from 1300 up to 1959. It was interesting to see how the heating and cooking sources changed through the years: fire pits with a smoke hole in the roof to fire places to fire stoves. Many of these buildings including the storage sheds had intricate carvings on their exterior beams. A highlight was the Old Stave Church built in 1300 with artwork from 1652.

17th Century Interior

Another part of the museum was dedicated to urban and suburban living from 1700 til now. They had interesting exhibits on how cigarette smoking was considered good for your health until the 1950s. Oh, and beer used to be a way to connect to the gods. The highlight here was an apartment building where each apartment was furnished like it would be from the 1800s until the 1970s. What intrigued me was some cribs or youth beds that had a slider to make them longer as the child grew. There were also indoor exhibits on the decorative arts, but we just gave them a quick look over since we had spent over four hours walking in the heat.

Expandable Crib

Tonight we met up with our guide and tour group and had a fine dinner on the harbor.

Oslo Harbor

Oslo

If you prefer to view a video of this trip it is available on youtube.
We flew yesterday from the 40 degree weather of Iceland to 80 degrees in Oslo. They have had a hot May and have had three weeks without rain.

We arrived at our hotel about 2:30 in the afternoon. The Scandia Victoria is about three blocks from the harbor. That evening we walked the Aker Brygge area of the harbor. It was a warm evening, everyone was out walking or enjoying the patio restaurants. We had pasta and a beer.

Oslo Harbor

We started our day today by walking to a laundry about half a mile from our hotel. Washing and drying two loads of laundry was going to cost about $45. But they offered to do it for us and deliver it to the Hotel for $70. We took the deal! Yes, laundry is expensive here! (The hotel would charge $6 for a pair of socks.)

Today we took a walk around this part of the city. Akershus was the fortress for the harbor. Built in 1300, it was used primarily against the Swedes in the numerous wars over the centuries. It also served as a prison from the 1800s until 1945. Today, it still serves as military offices.

Akershus

We had a delicious lunch at one of the local cafes before continuing on to Oslo’s modern opera house. It has a sloping roof line and people are invited to walk the roof. The old train station has become a hotel and shops with a new station next door. We then walked the pedestrian street from the train station, past the Cathedral and parliament ending at the royal palace. We walked about 5 miles by the time we returned to our hotel.

Norway's Parliament Building