Museums

We have been trying to get to a “tourist” site every weekend while Oslo is still new. The first attraction we went to was Vigeland Park, or as we call it, ‘statue garden”. Vigeland Park is Norway's most visited attraction with over 1 million visitors every year with app. 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), who also designed the layout of the park. The sculptures are breathtaking and the design allows you to wonder and explore all the “nooks” of the park. It was amusing to watch the tourists get in to the same pose as a sculpture for photos. I had visited this park in January when we first visited the country, and saw this garden as brown snow covered earth. The park was so much more interesting with all the flowers in full bloom and the green grass. The next place we went was to the National Gallery. There we saw “the Scream” “Portrait of Mme Zborowska” “Winter Night in the Mountains” and the Van go self-portrait. There was a large collection of Munch’s work, as well as work by Van go, Monet, Rembrandt, and many predominant local artists. It amazed us that the museum had no air conditioning or humidifiers to protect the art. We soon learned that most recognized paintings (“the Scream” ect.) were much smaller then we had envisioned them to be. There were also many small sculptures that were over looked in the corners of the rooms. While most people either ignored or over looked these statues, we found them more festinating then some “important” paintings.
Last weekend we went to the Vikingskipshuset (Viking ship) museum as well as the Norsk Folkemuseum. The ship museum has a great display of three Viking ships and objects of daily life from the 9th century. It was an unbelievable collection that thankfully, was very well preserved. I spent a lot of time studying these artifacts, and examining the finely carved wood. The building was well laid-out, with balconies available to see over the top of the ships. After the Ship museum we walked about a block to the “Norsk Folkemuseum”. This is an open-air museum similar to Massachusetts Sturbridge Village. There is a re-crated village, with displays of social customs and clothing. There is also an apartment building that dedicates an apartment from the different decades of the 20th century. One of the main structures is the “Gol Stave Church”, which was built in 1200. It is a breathtaking example of the expert architecture and carvers of the past. We brought our upstairs roommate Boris with us, who by the end of the day, was exhausted from following us all over the grounds.