INSTALLMENT
#19
[Day 25 & 26, Wed. & Thurs., July19 & 20, 2000]
Peg & Keith
Wheeler's Norway trip report, Summer 2000
See Photo Albums #38,
#39, #40
and #
Oslo & Flight Home - Vigeland Sculpture Park, National
Folk Museum, National Gallery, Sweaters, Leaving Norway.
Our last full day, Wednesday, in Oslo and in Norway
dawned cloudy yet dry. We had convinced
ourselves that we could walk to the Vigeland Sculpture
Park [ http://go.to/Vigeland/ - more links below]
from the subway even though the guidebooks said there were more efficient
ways. We had promised a dear friend
that we'd get her a book from the park to replace one she had lost in a home
fire, but we wanted to go for ourselves as well. So we took the subway to that part of town and were really
glad. It was a MOST pleasant walk and
through a very different part of the city.
It was more residential -- mostly apartment buildings and yet it was
still very much city. It even felt a
bit academic. Was there a university
near?
Planning to enjoy the park
without the rain this time (remember, we had been here as part of a tour on Day
3,) we were not expecting quite so many tourist busses. This large park is, after all, considered to
be one of Norway's most popular tourist attractions with reportedly almost 2
million visitors per year. There were
really too many people to enjoy the park adequately that morning. Oh well, we gave it a try and were able to
spend more time this day trying to focus in on some of these statues. This presentation of Gustav Vigeland's life
work, with about 650 human figures, is most impressive. Even with all the crowds, it does fall into
the category of "must see."
We did get a few fun pictures and, of course, the requisite
souvenirs. Somehow we missed the
Vigeland Museum. If we ever return to
Oslo, that will be on our "want to see" list.
< Peg in front of
the Monolith area.
Still
going on yesterday's subway pass, we walked back to the station and took the
subway back toward town getting off at the right stop to walk to the ferry
which took us out to the National Folk
Museum.
[Sorry, it looks
like we have lost some of our museum links - check farther down this page for
hopefully some working links.]
We didn't want to miss the stave church and
Peg had heard there was a display about Sophie's World. Sophie's World was a carefully designed
interactive display for school kids featuring many of the issues raised in the
Norwegian novel which was so popular.
Peg was still considering it for adoption in her World Literature
class. The regional bunad and period
clothing exhibits were excellent, but we especially enjoyed the authentically
reconstructed farm and traditional buildings depicting parts of Norway's
regional history. These were placed in
settings that gave a near feeling of what rural, village and city life might
have been like in past years. We really
needed more time and energy to do this open-air museum justice. One could easily spend a full day here
soaking up the history and the different parts of Norway that have been
transplanted here.
Above, Keith sits in front of a mountain tenant
farmer's place; Peg points out an interesting method of constructing a fence.
Keith
found several of these old buildings which used the same kind of notched
log/plank construction used in the old Slogvik house. >
We
were getting a little cranky and footsore, so we took an overpriced tourist
trolley to its next stop, which happened to be the Kon Tiki Museum. This put us within short walking distance to
the ferry stop near the Fram Museum. Using our subway passes once again, we
returned on the ferry to downtown Oslo and tried to find the vegetarian
restaurant. An hour and a half later .
. . it found us, and we had a very late, delicious and healthy lunch. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at
the National Gallery [ http://www.museumsnett.no/nasjonalgalleriet/flash_versjon_engelsk/index.htm
- another link below] for one last look and to pick up a poster we wanted for
our living room wall. Moreover, we had
a heightened interest in the Lars Hertervig pieces by now, and having missed
the best known collection in Stavanger since that museum was closed, we wanted to see what we could. This gallery had only a few, but they were
spectacular. Another quest was to see
if we could find a painting Martin Nag told us about of a Quaker Mona Lisa
(actually "Siri Pedersdatter") by Tidemand. He told us we would have to ask because it was in the
archives. We asked, but they couldn't
find it.
Still
edgy and grumpy, Peg balked when Keith wanted to look for the cyber café
(again) on the way back to the hotel. His
obsession won out and we found it.
Oslo, it seem, uses street numbers differently that we are used to as we
had passed it several times --- maybe we were just tired. The café was hidden below a record store in
a basement. Keith got assigned his computer,
logged on, found we had no e-mail messages, logged off, paid the minimal tab
and we were again on our way.
Staggering
back to our room and resting a bit, we were ready to hit the streets of Oslo
yet again. There were sweaters to buy
and brown cheese to stock up on, not to mention dinner at an outdoor beer
garden for our last night.
Directly
across from our Oslo
Rica hotel room, at the base of the Clarion Hotel, was the Oslo
Sweater Shop.
See: http://www.oslo-sweater-shop.com/ It had tempted us on our first days in
Oslo with its wide selection of Norwegian sweaters. Keith, never having been a sweater person, felt little more than
obligation, however. As we saw more
sweaters throughout our travels both in stores and on people, our interests
increased. Then, when he bought the one
in Tysvær and found himself wearing it almost constantly, he became a
convert. Since he already had a light
colored one, it seemed only proper that he should have a dark colored one like
Einar's. He had a particular model in
mind and went into the store, found his size, tried it on, and bought it. Store clerks like this kind of customer.
Next
we went over to OsloCity shoppingcentre, the multi-storied mall we had visited
earlier, purchased our ekte geitost cheese supply to take home, and
checked the hours and menu of the open air café at which we were interested in
having dinner. We returned to the hotel
to deposit our purchases and calculated our tax free refund as well as how much
value we would be bringing in to the US for customs purposes. It was now time to start converting what we
had been doing from kroners back to dollars.
To our surprise, we found that we had not spent as much as we had
feared, and our tax-free refund would help take the sting out of additional
purchases. This meant Peg could also
purchase a second sweater. Back
to the Oslo Sweater Shop where she began by narrowing her choices down to
six. Keith was patient while she began
the painful process of elimination.
With a final choice satisfactorily made, we wrapped up our shopping --
most stores were closed by now anyway.
The evening was still warm
enough and light enough to sit outside at the Egon Restaurant next to the train
depot. We sat outside for a long time
before we realized we needed to go inside to order. It was a pleasant, relaxing, and peaceful place, and it was
interesting to watch folks come out of the train station, the clouds change in
the sky, and birds swoop in to clean tidbits off of the tables.
< Peg peeking over
the flowers at the sidewalk café - Clarion Hotel in background.
It
was hard to realize that we were going to have to be leaving this beautiful
country tomorrow morning, but we were definitely exhausted. Judging by the pictures we took of each
other at that time, we were more tired than we realized.
Still
reluctant to leave the city of Oslo, we walked a new direction toward the SAS
Plaza, which had been such a noticeable structure of our skyline view. To get there we needed to walk on the
catwalk over the freeway intersection and into a network of glass, steel, and
concrete which was a contrast to the other Oslo we knew of the old world flavor
-- bricks and bronze.
Waking
during the night, Peg took this stunning photo of the night lights -- a fitting
farewell to a fantastic European city.
View from hotel room - OsloCity shoppingcentre in
center
- glass faced Radisson SAS high-rise hotel to
right .
Additional
recommended links:
VIGELAND
SCULPTURE PARK
"Gustav Vigeland's Sculpture Park in Oslo,
Norway" - very similar to http://go.to/Vigeland/
(and linked there as "a somewhat revised walking tour") but faster to
load - gives placement of statues on the Bridge.
http://home.earthlink.net/~roethe/Vigeland/walk1.html
"Gustav
Vigeland" - 17 very nice photos of park and statues with good text.
http://home.sol.no/~brinchma/sculpture.html
The
"official" THE VIGELAND PARK site - a more comprehensive site with
more "official" text, but a bit more difficult to navigate to all
relevant linked pages - and also fewer and smaller photos. http://www.museumsnett.no/vigelandmuseet/2parken/2b_historikk/engelsk/2bframeset.html
"Grand Tour with a guide" (VirtualOslo) In addition to Vigeland Park, includes the Holmenkollen Ski Jump, the Viking Museum and the Kon-Tiki and Fram museums at Bygdøynes.
http://www.virtualoslo.com/html/body_grand_tour.html
The
Norwegian Folk Museum
Norsk Folkemuseum - Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (click on the British flag for the English version.)
http://www.norskfolke.museum.no/
Interactive
map of the open air museum - take a virtual tour (Keith likes this one)
http://hellebard.norskfolke.museum.no/frilufts/kart/
A tour of the Folk Museum in Oslo
http://www.cyberclip.com/(slow)/Katrine/NorwayInfo/Album/AAfolk.html
The
National Gallery ("Nasjonalgalleriet") - IF you haven't found it already, and
IF your computer/browser supports such things, go the following site and click
on "FROM ROMANTICISM TO REALISM" for a brief slide show of works of
some of Peg & Keith's favorite Norwegian masters.
http://www.museumsnett.no/nasjonalgalleriet/flash_versjon_engelsk/slideshows.htm
Day 27 -
Thursday, July 20, 2000.
Once
we were up and going, not especially early, our departure was amazingly problem
free and smooth. Wait time was
reasonable and connections were straightforward. Probably Brekke had something to do with this phenomenon,
but whatever the reason, we were not stressed, just sad to be leaving. Having our last breakfast at the Rica
Oslo, we decided this might be our favorite hotel breakfast room -- not the
biggest or widest selection, just the coziest.
We were able to wheel our luggage right outside the hotel and be picked
up by the airport bus, which stopped here at regular intervals. The bus ride to the airport took
about 45 minutes with views of dramatic clouded, gray skies over interesting
farmland. The city had not grown out to
this new airport yet as it had had time to do in Tokyo and Bangkok (our only
other international experiences.) We wondered if the Farmer's Union (NBS) was
going to need to take a stand on this.
While it was the same airport we had arrived at on a Sunday morning, it
was a very different (busier) kind of airport on this Thursday. Check-in went smoothly and though we didn't
know what we were doing, the airport personnel knew what we were supposed to do
and English was spoken everywhere.
Next,
we took our suitcase of tax-free items and papers to the appropriate desk
expecting to be inspected. But since we
had all the papers filled out and everything in one bag, we were waived through
without inspection. I guess we didn't
look suspicious. Tax-free shopping is
an issue for tourists in Norway since the value-added tax is a hefty 23%. While we found this refund process somewhat
confusing and frustrating, it seemed worthwhile when making larger purchases.
Since there was a limit of 300 kroners (about $35) before you could be issued a
form, and the tax didn't apply to books, we only needed to deal with our few
large purchases. Then we had to keep
the packages in tact with the little sticker on it. There are different ways one can get the refund; apparently you
can get more if you write to a special office once you get home and get a
bigger refund, but we were happy with the 16.5% we got at the airport. We had a choice of US dollars or
kroner.
Before
going through security, we still had a few kroner to use up on some last minute
items. No problem! Peg found some pewter jewelry and Keith
found a souvenir cap. Prices were
irrelevant by this time (at least for Peg.)
We had not come to Norway to save money (this became one of our 3
mantras --- the other two were: "dieting is for the rest of life" and
"jet lag is a terrible thing to waste") and we had become quite a bit
more relaxed once we quit trying to convert kroner to dollars at every turn. The only thing that suffered was our bank
account, and this was our "trip of a lifetime" --- it was all worth
it.
After
a bit of a wait for the flight, we boarded the SAS plane for a long and
uneventful, yet comfortable, flight to Newark. Arriving at Newark, after flying down the west side of the Hudson
River, we landed and lined up for customs.
All of Keith's worries about importing heather, cheese and hunks of
ancient wood were unfounded as we were waived through only to find that our
connecting flight had been canceled. United
Airlines was in the beginning throes of its labor problem with its
pilots. We charmed the rescheduling
agent by requesting seats together because "we had been traveling for 4
weeks together and still LIKED each other." We think she was just glad to not have someone being irate with
her. Anyway we got vouchers for a meal
(the choices turned out to be lousy) and crowded seats TOGETHER (maybe we
should have held out for business class) on a flight 4 hours later. The wait was miserable. Someone had run over Keith's foot with a
luggage cart and the waiting area was busy and noisy with uncomfortably hard
seats.
Then
it got worse. We got on the plane and waited on the tarmac
for an hour and a half when our plane was required to pull out of the line and
wait longer. When we were finally back
and entering the take off lane, we looked to our left and saw an incredibly
long line of planes also waiting for take off.
Someone said this was normal for Newark. We couldn't understand it.
Once airborne, we found the flight attendant a bit short on
pleasantries, the seats more crowded, and the one meal absolutely
atrocious. The only empty seat on the
plane was next to us, but that made little difference it seemed. They did manage to get our luggage on the
right plane. We got into SFO (San
Francisco) about 11:30 PM and found the correct airporter van that served the
North Bay where our car was waiting at our son's place. The driver of the van was not a little
miffed at the passenger before us who needed to be taken clear to hell and gone
through the far reaches of the Berkeley Hills. Then we had to negotiate the locked electric gate and wake up
our son to get the keys to our car.
This now was well past midnight.
Day 28 -
Friday, July 21, 2000
We had
the option of staying and sleeping or getting a motel on the 5 hour drive to
our home, but by this time we were still operating on Norway time and anxious
to get home. We drove through the night
stopping occasionally for coffee, snacks and once to sleep briefly. Stopping at the 24 hour market in Red Bluff
and stocking up on fruit, we arrived home in Mad River just after
daybreak -- maybe 6:30 AM or so.
*** Is this THE END…? *** We will
possibly have one more installment
of corrections, additions and afterthoughts.
We are now getting some good input from our intrepid Norwegian Editor in
Chief, Rotraud Slogvik. We invite any
of you to: 1) let us know of any mistakes we have made;
2)
point out anything that needs further clarification;
3)
ask questions (hopefully the ones we can answer); and/or
4)
whatever….
We
value your interest in our trip. We have appreciated the comments and
supportive remarks that many of you have sent.
We welcome any feedback you would care to make. We will try to respond, but this web site
has turned into a bit of a monster. We
might have to take a break from it for a while. Someday, maybe it will be completed and all of the errors corrected
… and then again, we just might take off on another trip…? … Back to Norway . .
. ?? We will post any updates in Installment
#20.
See Photo Albums #38,
#39, #40
and #
Med Varme
Hilsen (with warm greetings),
Peg & Keith
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