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…
Author: Grubb
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…
The Hanseatic lean
Post by Grubb. In 1360 a guild of German merchants, the Hansa, created an overseas office in Bergen. These merchants, the renowned Hanseatic League, dominated trade between north-east and north-west Europe for the next couple of hundred years. The area where they had their offices in Bergen, the Bryggen, has retained the original architecture from that…
The longest distance between two points
Post by Grubb. Ella’s frustration mounted yesterday when, on our trek back to the AirBnb I elected, once again, to choose the path that zigzagged uphill instead of just using the stairs. Today, descending from the upper reaches of Bergen, the switchback route was designed to meet my meandering needs.
When Icarus went hang-gliding
Post by Grubb. While our train was slowing to a stop at Voss Station (way back on Saturday), I drew Ella’s attention to a hang-glider in a red rig that was swirling way too fast for a safe landing. The lake at the bottom of the Voss valley warms up during the day and the thermals…
Early troll sighting
Post by Grubb Mythological creature come to life, or Internet monster?
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.