Post by Grubb Mythological creature come to life, or Internet monster?
Author: Grubb
Troll-steppin’
Post by Grubb. This morning we took the Fløibanen funicular up Fløyen Mountain overlooking Bergen. We joined a scattered group of Indian tourists on a terrace that provided a view of bayside Bergen. Then we took a path into the woods and paid heed to the warning signs. In our search for the “Troll garden” we saw…
Students rallying in Bergen
Post by Grubb Bergen is known for being a university town. Most of the college is centered in the heart of the city so the streets have the rushabout clamorous energy that students bring with them. Yesterday, after we checked in at our AirBnb, we walked down to the docks to mingle with the Saturday afternoon strollers and…
How about this for an “Enemy of the People”?
Post by Grubb. I saw this poster outside a theater in Oslo. It’s for Ibsen’s play, “Enemy of the People.” It opens in June at Oslo’s Nye Theater. Nothing unusual about any of that, but I was struck by the play being advertised with a photo of a woman hold a baby. Then I checked…
Future indicative
Post by Grubb. The bane of any travel enterprise is, of course, other travelers clustering in groups. They can gather in front masterpieces, squeeze you off the sidewalk, or storm the restaurant you’ve been considering, so we’ve learned to dodge the sudden visitor swarm by doing a dart and slide dance with the occasional spin. Call it…
The Devil is in the details
Post by Grubb. Walking by the Oslo Cathedral it’s easy to miss the Devil of Oslo, a nine-hundred year old stone relief on the corner of the building depicting a man attacked on both sides by a lion and a dragon.
Post-Modern Kon-Tiki
There’s the raft that fights the elements for five-thousand miles, then there’s the raft that is a floating sauna drifting around the Oslo bay. Knut would say, “There you go. Fixation becomes relaxation. Karl Ové can get all gnarled up with anxiety, but that’s progress.”
The Scream, take three
Post by Grubb. We popped into the National Museum today for a couple of hours. The modern design exhibit was overwhelming. Furniture, appliances, cutlery, you name it, they had the Scandinavian prototype in mint condition. After that it was hard to absorb Chinese porcelain throughout the ages, or decorative German tankards. But there was a large, somberly lighted room…
Hammering the point home
Post by Grubb. Cities have their symbols. Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Rome, the coliseum, New York, the Statue of Liberty, Albuquerque, the car without a license plate. In Oslo, from what I’ve seen this last week, it has to be the hammer. First there was Ibsen’s grave. Then, just today alone, I ran across these variations. And these…
Walking all over the little people
Post by Grubb. This morning on our Oslo ramble we came across a small square where little bronze figurines were crammed into even smaller squares. It was hard not to trip over them. Artist: Korean American Do Ho Suh.
There goes the night
Post by Grubb In Albuquerque you’re getting about nine hours of darkness at night starting around 8:35 PM. Here, in Oslo, night shades its way to an unconvincing black around 10:30 PM giving us six hours of darkness. I find I’m falling asleep later and later. Then I wake up when it’s light outside and find that it is…
First the crowds, then the quiet
Heavy Hammer
Post by Grubb. Yesterday, after we plowed our way through the parading throng, we tooled around some picturesque neighborhoods. Then we ended up at a cemetery. Followed a crushed gravel path that skirted a slope where Ibsen is buried. Figured the truncated obelisk marked the spot. So, yes, above his grave, inscribed on the leaning stone monument,…
Bundag fever
Post by Grubb. May 17th is Constitution Day in Norway. It goes back to 1814. After being defeated in the Napoleonic wars, there was a student movement in Norway protesting being in part of a union with Sweden. This grew into a tradition of celebrating Norway’s independence, although that wasn’t finally achieved until 1905. 19th century romantic movements…
The ultimate rafting trip
Post by Grubb. When I was a kid I remember my dad had a copy of “The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By raft across the South Seas.” He also had copies of “Omoo” and “Typee”, but they didn’t interest me because they didn’t have the dramatic photographs that Thor Heyerdahl put in his book describing his raft trip…