Post by Grubb. And it’s inside the Nordnorsk Museum painted by Gunvor Bull-Teilman in 1974. It’s the only aurora borealis we saw today.
Author: Grubb
Lutheran cathedral, old style
Post by Grubb. In the middle of Tromsø, made entirely out of wood, is a 19th century Lutheran cathedral painted yellow. The uncushioned pews are more like I remember enduring. Per Vigeland’s stained glass told a more compelling story than the vague figures looming in the Arctic Cathedral. That’s Moses lifting up a snake in the…
Lights out
Post by Grubb. The Northern Light Planetarium on the campus of UiT Arctic University of Norway sits on a ridge above Tromsø. Since it wasn’t raining, we decided to walk up to the planetarium and take in a show they have about those otherworldly lights. It was a beautiful trek, like taking a walk in the hills…
Hands-on aurora
Post by Grubb. The #33 bus got us to the rainy forest leading up to the Arctic University Museum. Outside the museum was an example of a hut the indigenous Sami peoples of northern Norway lived in. If we had the construction students at CNM build something like this we would call it a Hobbitat for Humanity. …
Arctic Cathedral in Five Takes
Post by Grubb. The accordion ripple of white concrete give this church the look of a collapsing iceberg that can be seen from miles around. My father’s church in Los Alamos was an A-frame like the Arctic Cathedral in Tromsø. Similar to the Arctic Cathedral, it also had stained glass windows above the altar that let…
There’s always one
Post by Grubb. First we went to the Contemporary Art Museum. It was closed. So we stood in the rain and watched seagulls roost in art created for their hanging out. Ella stepped out of the rain to momentarily roost in an A-frame. Then we crossed the street to see a number of contemporary art installations from…
Among giants
Post by Grubb. Just entering the Troll Museum gives you a clue. There are mountain trolls, and sea trolls, and forest trolls on display with their legends explained, and there is Yggdrasil, the mythological Nordic tree of life. But the real giants inside are Ibsen and Grieg. In a room where I put on earphones and…
Music of the fjords
Post by Grubb At midnight our boat slowed to turn towards the narrow entrance of the Trollefjord. Sheer rain-slicked cliffs of dark slanted rock loomed larger and larger as they leaned in closer and closer. The Nordic bite of the breeze got colder and colder, and the sun, in its Norwegian golden hour, filled the…
Celebrating arctic circle in shorts
Post by Grubb After our boat passed the island, or large flat rock, that had the globe marking the arctic circle, passengers blinking away the icy rain were offered champagne. Later we were invited on deck for an arctic circle celebration. No sleety rain this time, but plenty of cold wind to remind us where…
She’s a pirate!
Post by Grubb Last night as I sat clutching the dinner table watching people topple over while my stomach lurched between the plunges and upthrusts of our pitching boat’s battle against an angry sea, the thought of eating a meal made me feel nauseous. The few passengers who had staggered to their seats like barflies…
The Trondheim Hammer Dance
Post by Grubb I should have known that Monty Python wouldn’t neglect the Norwegian hammer theme in their work. In one of their comedy sketches they refer to the Trondheim Hammer Dance, “a dance which was done every 25 minutes in the town of Trondheim in which the old ladies were struck about the head with…
Trotting around Trondheim
Post by Grubb. After a big-dipping cradle ride in the middle of the night that Ella slept through (took a preventative seasick pill ahead of time), and I slept through with interruptions (for me the pill activated my bladder), we docked at Trondheim around ten o’clock. Trondheim is Norway’s third largest city. Historically it is known for…
Seafaring
Post by Grubb. Standing on the upper deck above the stern of the MS Nordnorge in the wind and the rain this morning put us in the seafaring mode. For about five minutes. Then we left the ship and went into the town of Ålesund. First we explored upper Ålesund by cutting through a park that led to…
Oceanic Horror
Post by Grubb. Crossing a small empty plaza in downtown Bergen, I noticed a weathered stone building with an easel out front that had blown over. It was advertising an art exhibition. I couldn’t resist. Up on the drafty second floor there were some sleeping bags rolled out in the midst of turned over office furniture. At first I…
KODE Blue
Post by Grubb. (From Bergen days) The KODE Art Museum in central Bergen is actually four different buildings (KODE 1, 2,3, & 4) blocks apart. This being Scandinavia, we knew we could depend on at least one of the museums being closed (a lot of time is spent installing new exhibits in the spring). It…