Oslo, Norway

On Sunday, we returned to Copenhagen for our overnight cruise to Oslo aboard the Pearl of Scandinavia. On the way out of Copenhagen we got a glimpse at the Danish push for energy independence when we passed a series of wind turbines just off the coast. In the video of the wind turbines, the jerky nature of the camera was not due to rough seas or any other movement of the ship, but to the wind blowing the photographer around!

Crusing on the Baltic

Our ship docked in Oslo just after 9:30 am and we were off. After a short orientation walk, we arrived at the Norwegian Resistance Museum which details Norway's fight against the Nazi invasion and occupation during WWII. Afterwards, the group walked down to the harbor where we broke for lunch. Oslo has a natural harbor since it lies at the end of a fjord (fiord) There are many shops, nightclubs and restaurants lining it's shores and most of the area is pedestrian-only.

After lunch we visited the 75-acre, Frogner Park. The park was designed by Norwegian sculptor, Gustav Vigeland, who worked from 1924 to 1943. In addition to the landscaping, Vigeland designed over 190 bronze and granite statues consisting of 600 figures. The underlying theme in the park's sculptures is the "cycle of life" from birth and childhood to aging and death.The focal point of the park is a 50 foot tall monolith containing 121 figures and carved out of a single block of stone. It took three stone carvers 14 years to complete the 180-ton project.


















On Tuesday, the group took a short ferry ride across the harbor from downtown to the Bygdøy neighborhood to visit some of the local museums. The Viking Museum contains three virtually intact ships from the 9th century. The ships were used as tombs to bury Viking chiefs along with possessions that would be needed in the afterlife. The Fram museum holds the ship used by Norwegians Ronald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen to explore the Artic and Antartic. A third museum contained the original Kon-Tiki which Thor Heyerdahl built and sailed 4,300 miles from Peru to Polynesia in 101 days. Why did he do this? To show that natives of South America could have settled Polynesia. Although most anthropologists doubt this, at least he got a book and movie deal out of it.

Viking Ship / Viking Ship Carving Detail / Kon-Tiki Raft