Post by Ella.
By a parade of epic proportions. In celebration of Constitution Day. Sort of like July 4 for us Americans but the history is a little more muddled. The Constitution signed in 1814 establish Norway as an independent kingdom but shared a monarch with Sweden. It wasn’t until 1905 that Norway became completely independent. At any rate, the day was celebrated in various forms since 1814 but only really becoming a huge deal in 1905.
There is a program throughout the day. Involving a parade of epic proportions, speeches, and a lot of live, loud music at the Akershus festning. We live right across the street. Gonna be a noisy night. For the parade, every school turns out, marching bands, baton twirlers flag wavers. For hours. If you aren’t in the parade, you are watching. Along with everyone else in Oslo. And 90% of the mob were in traditional Norwegian dress.
We thought, well, we do have to watch this for awhile but then we will get away from the crowds and go explore some quiet, historic neighborhoods. In the midst of it all, we realized, where we wanted to get to was on the other side of the parade. Oops.
Well, yes, after an hour or so, Grubb spotted a gap in the parade just when it came to a halt for a moment and there were no barricades so run we did.
Here is a little video so you can hear the music parade music.