Happy to be Traveling

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.

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.”

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…

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…

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. 

Grass Roots Square (the little bronze people) The Devil of Oslo at Oslo Cathedral National Museum Tjuvholmen Sculpture Park Rorbua restaurant

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…

Post by Ella We’d been wondering about the islands in the Oslo Fjord (which is 100 km long and runs into the North Sea), so today was the day to explore. There are ferries, run by Ruter, which is the same company that runs the busses and trams and for which we had a 7…

Post by Ella. Before leaving for this trip, I found a short kindle book, “How to have an Adventure in Scandinavia”, by a 30 year old guy named Rafael Coronelli. It is not a guide, exactly, but seemed to be a compendium of his journals or blog posts. I wondered how useful it would be…

Post by Ella Island hopping in the Oslofjord. Ferry, Ferry and more Ferries.

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,…

Post by Ella Grünerløkka, one of the areas we wandered yesterday, is known for its tons of design boutiques, small art galleries and vintage shops. Of course, everything was closed because it was Constitution Day, except for the sidewalk pubs. They were crowded with young people, all in bundag (traditional dress), drinking beer. Many didn’t…

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…

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…