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…
Author: Grubb
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…
The Manifesto gets wet
Post by Grubb. Yesterday, in the morning, it was umbrellas in the rain. Nothing lashing, just a steady patter. We googled our way through busy inner city streets in search of the Intercultural Museum. At one point, as we were cutting through a plaza next to a tiny amusement park (carousel and kiddy rides), I noticed this woman…
Walk the castle, see the movie
Post by Grubb. The Akershus Fortress Castle is a few blocks up from where we’re staying on a promontory overlooking Oslo Viken (bay). It dates back to the late thirteenth century. Used as a royal residence, it was designed to protect the city from uninvited Swedes and has successfully survived all sieges since then. Since the July 22,…
Sweating it out
Post by Grubb. Alert to Karl Ové knockoffs, yesterday morning Knut kept an eye out for signs of Norwegian toil. No luck. Knut Sēoot cannot see it. Instead, there were people relaxing outside a sauna across the bay from the Munch Museum. However, on further inspection of the sauna guidelines, there was a nice Norwegian touch promising medieval masochistic…
That’s a lot of baggage!
Post by Grubb. What’s a statue in Oslo without struggle? This overburdened fellow is on the path to the Akershus Fortress. Whether those bags are filled with grain or a multitude of sins, he’s grinding his way up the slope with what I imagine is a Protestant sense of purpose. Commemorating my first overpacked trip to Rome.
The Scream, take two
Post by Grubb. Waiting for the next version of “The Scream” to appear, I re-examined some of my favorite Munch’s. There was “The Dance of Life”. And the “Vampire”. And finally, as the seconds ticked away, the idlers in “The Scream” room slowly moved in towards two closed panels. Then, as time was up, panels shut…
The Scream, take one
Post by Grubb. Ella wasn’t as excited to see the Munch Museum as I was, but she knew if I spent another day in Norway without cruising this large, exhaustive collection of his artwork, I might end up on one the many Oslo bridges howling with anguish. The architecture of the museum thrusts itself above the…
Knut Sēoot confronts Karl Ové
Post by Grubb. Before coming to Norway I read my Knut (Kah-noot) Hamsun and my Karl Ové Knausgård. Hamsun in “Hunger” was struggling with just that. Karl Ové, Norway’s most acclaimed living author, has written six lengthy volumes about his life. The title of his opus is called “Min Kamp”. Yes, that’s right, “My Struggle”. Same as Adolf’s autobiographical screed. Karl…
Statues continue to struggle
Post by Grubb. This example of the sculpted art is in front of a building down the block from where we’re staying. At first I thought it was a tribute to the weary traveler. Oh those Norwegians, heading out in Viking longboats, sailing to the poles to have their ships frozen in an ice floe, they…
Polar Exploration
Post by Grubb. After dislodging ourselves from a packed bus (Sunday in Oslo with gorgeous weather, if you’re not out and about, you’re dead), Ella and I paid a visit to the Fram Museum on the Bygdøy Peninsula. The Fram is the strongest wooden boat ever built. It hauled Raold Amundsen and his crew when they were…
Sunday in the park with struggling statues
All the apps agreed: the weather in Oslo was going to be resplendent today. So we walked to Frogner Park, the biggest tourist draw in all of Norway due to the 212 Gustav Vigeland sculptures that stand as towering monuments throughout the 110 acres of lake, lawn, and oak-lined pathways. Working with granite and bronze, Vigeland liked…