February 25, 2016
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In Oslo, we were actually able to sleep in a bit – getting up at a leisurely 7:30 AM. By the time we made it out to the kitchen, our host had left us a lovely spread for breakfast.📷Breakfast spread
My goal for the day was to see the Viking and/or Fram museums, but since they were located (i) much farther than walking distance from the flat, and (ii) next to several other museums, we opted for the ~$40 Oslo pass, which included admission to all of those museums as well as bus fare for 24 hours. Although it may have been overkill, we decided to make the most of the Oslo pass and saw six different museums, starting with the Kon Tiki museum.We had low expectations coming into the Kon Tiki museum – we read a synopsis about some Norwegian guy sailing on a raft in the Pacific Ocean. It turns out, this guy and his entire crew sailed across the South Pacific on a Balsa wood raft made of primitive materials, with no sailing (or swimming) experience whatsoever, to prove that it was possible for South American natives thousands of years ago to populate and culturally influence Polynesia. Once he succeeded in this mission, he did the same thing with a reed boat from Africa to South America.📷Kon Tiki
📷Ra II
Once finished with the Kon Tiki museum we walked the 100 feet to the Fram museum. The Fram is a well-preserved polar expedition ship from the early 1900s that has been canonized into a museum celebrating polar exploration. Besides the hordes of screaming children in reflective neon vests, the ship itself was pretty amazing.📷Fram
📷Fram with the “aurora borealis”
📷Fram intentionally in ice
We then walked another 100 feet from the Fram museum to the Maritime Museum and explored even more ships – but this time more modern. They had models of ships from all eras, restored interiors, and even futuristic interactive computer simulations of captaining cargo ships that encouraged competition with other museum-goers. It was almost like I was playing a commerce version XCOM.📷Anachronistic pose
📷Maritime trade is no joke
A 20 minute walk up the road led us to the Viking museum – the smallest of the museums we would see today. It had beautifully restored Viking ships uncovered from burial mounds throughout Norway. Heather even participated in the museum sponsored create-your-own-Viking-rune-bracelet activity.📷Viking Museum
📷Intricate carvings
📷Runes
Our last stop on the Bygdøy peninsula was the Norsk Folkemuseum, the Norwegian museum of cultural history. This museum was mostly outdoors and contained hundreds of historic buildings that were transferred here from all over the country. One of the more famous structures was the Gol Stavkirke – a 13th century Stave church from the mountainous town of Gol. The intricate wood carvings and distinctive architecture stood out among the other buildings in the museum.📷Native Sami people
📷Norsk Folkemuseum
📷Old Norwegian building
📷Gol Stavkirke
📷Inside the Gol Stavkirk
After we spent a couple of hours walking through the Norsk Folkemuseum, we hopped on a bus back to the city center and checked out the Nobel Peace Center. This museum’s main exhibit featured pictures and quotes from soldiers and individuals in war-torn areas. The way it was presented certainly created an emotionally powerful experience. Upstairs, we walked through a room filled with tablet screens of every Nobel Prize recipient surrounded by a sea of color-changing vertical luminescent tubes. At one point the voice of Malala began speaking and the tubes began an accompanying light show. It was quite a moving experience.📷Nobel Peace Center
📷Nobel Peace Prize Recipients
After a day of almost entirely museums, we walked towards the city center in search of an early dinner. We decided on a well-reviewed pub and enjoyed our burgers and beer. I ordered the Bloody Mary burger with a Norwegian Pale Ale and Heather had the Falafel chili burger with a whisky ginger. However, we don’t think the staff knew what a traditional whisky ginger was, so Heather received an alcoholic ginger beer and a shot of whisky. It was all very delicious, but the ‘whisky ginger’ certainly had a kick.📷Whiskey ginger?
Our (approximate) route:📷Museum day
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