Our first stop in town was at the tourist office to buy our fjord tour tickets. Our train would leave early the next morning, so we had the whole day to spend in Oslo. There are a ton of interesting museums in Oslo, so it was a bit tough narrowing things down. We decided to go to the Museum of Architecture first. On the way there, we walked along Karl Johan's Gate, one of the major streets in town. It is a pedestrian street, lined with shops and restaurants.
The Museum of Architecture was very interesting. One of their current exhibits was a collection of the top six finalists for an international competition to design a new building for the National Gallery. Sometimes it can be frustrating to go through a museum with someone who specializes in the field, but Todd is good about not getting entirely engrossed (unlike myself) and can help explain or provide additional insight into things. So I was able to talk about what I did or didn't like about the various proposals, and he could hash it all out in a technical explanation. Rather surprisingly, we agreed on which of the finalists we liked best! The other current exhibit is a look at the Royal Palace which was built in the early part of the 19th Century. I was unsurprisingly fascinated by the original models and drawings for the building. I do find the architecture interesting, but thinking of the architect (or his assistants or drafters) actually sitting down and building the model is the most intriguing for me.After the Museum of Architecture, we were planning on heading to the History Museum, but as we were walking along, I realized we were right next to Akershus Fortress. Being right there, it seemed just as easy to check it out. I'm very glad we did, it was a fascinating tour. The original castle was built in the late 13th Century, although very little of the original building is left. There are several buildings on the property in addition to the castle itself, with winding cobble streets well worn over the years.
There are self guided tours of the actual castle. I'm not sure if it's a result of multiple renovations and additions over hundreds of years, but there are many interesting aspects of the building. Stairways will start from midway up a wall, with an obvious space for a walkway to be laid which would lead across the room to another door. And the scale of things is certainly much smaller than would suffice for people of today's size. One of the rooms has several hanging tapestries, some of the finest in Norway. During WWII, the Germans occupied the Fortress, and several people were executed here, both by the Germans during occupation and then by the Norwegians following the German surrender. It's hard to imagine any modern army in these buildings, there is such a feel of antiquity.
And while it may be hard to imagine a modern army occupying the fortress, it's not at all hard to imagine why it was never actually captured by an enemy force. (It was surrendered without a fight to the Germans after the Norwegian government evacuated Oslo. I'm certainly interested in learning more about Norway during WWII, the bits of information I picked up on the trip are fascinating.) The fortress is on a hill facing the bay, and with its large collection of cannons, would have been very formidable. Of course, any sense of the imposing history was somewhat lost as we were walking along the wall to the melodious tunes of Toto wafting up from a building in the harbor. But nonetheless, it's a great view from the wall!
From Akershus, we walked to the History Museum. The primary thing I wanted to see was their Viking exhibit, which includes one of the largest collection of Viking artifacts in Norway. It was a surprising museum, for including such an impressive collection, I would have expected it to have more information. However, each case simply had a sheet telling what each object was, in the most cursory fashion. For example, you would check the sheet to get info on an object and would find: iron bar, ca. 9th C. Helpful. Each room had a large guide book with exceptionally detailed information, but that's not the most efficient way to disseminate information. What if there had been other people wanting that same info? At any rate, it was fascinating to see all the objects. I tend to get a bit overly philosophical about very old artifacts. To me, they are more than just evidence of an earlier civilization. That brooch was actually worn by an individual. Some woman who took a fancy to it, or received it as a gift from a suitor. That woman had her own life, hopes, fears. It's just amazing to me to consider the humanity behind all these objects.
From the History Museum, we walked to the Palace, which is actually just right across the street. The palace grounds are surprisingly modest. Apparently, the architect had these grand plans for the grounds and the landscape architect totally screwed them up. Then they were all dug up and redone some years later. In front of the palace is a large statue of Karl Johan. I had commented at the Museum of Architecture that the front of the palace seemed a bit understated, a sentiment I stood by seeing it in person. It's certainly an impressive building, but for a royal residence, it seems to have a very modest feel.
We walked back to our studio from the Palace, which took about an hour. It was a very pleasant walk through some of the nicer neighborhoods in central Oslo. For dinner we bought some salmon and tortellini at the grocery near our studio and had a nice dinner in. After dinner, we took a night time stroll through town. The area around our studio reminded me a great deal of parts of Paris, which must sound rather odd. But many of the buildings were similar, lots of large, fancy apartment buildings. Cobbled streets with frequent fruit and vegetable stands or coffee shops. It's a beautiful city, amazing clean even downtown. There must have been some, but I don't recall seeing any graffiti and there was no trash. If it wasn't such a crushingly expensive city, it would be a great place to live.
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