Vikings and Polar Explorers ... Bygdøy

Norway Day 3.. we went museuming today... it was cool and grey outside, threatened with rain although it never quite eventuated.

Tomorrow it's down to work, so this is probably the last post from Norway...
The first shots today are from the Viking ship museum, which has the best preserved viking ships in the world. The ships were found in three large burial mounds in Eastern Norway. The Oseberg ship, which is the first pictured, had been a sailing vessel and was reused as a burial ship for a prominent woman who died in 834 AD. The second ship pictured here on the left is the Tune ship, and is in the condition it was found in in 1867. The third is the Gokstad ship, which was built around 890 AD and was used in the burial of a powerful chieftan.
The only Viking Age wagon was found at the burial site in Oseberg. It's believed that women of high social standing travelled to their burial in such wagons, and they appear to be purely ceremonial, as the front axle is attached to the chassis, preventing the wagon from turning. The wagon is inticately carved, with scenes that are probably llustrations of legends.

After the Viking museum we headed down to the Fram museum, to see ships from a later period of Norwegian history.

The Fram museum tells the history of polar exploration, north and south pole. The polar ship Fram is the strongest vessel in the world, and the one sea-going vessel that has been the furthest north and south. Fram was designed to survive the pressure of the freezing ice in the polar oceans, because of its shape that allowed the ice to push the ship up, allowing it to 'float' on top of the ice. Fram was used by Nansen and Sverdrup to explore the North Pole, and Amundsen to reach the South Pole. It's hard to get perspective, as it's HUGE, but the picture on the left shows the reinforcing on the edge of the hull to allow it to withstand the conditions. Inside there's a display with lots and lots of seal skin clothes, polar bear rugs and other artefacts from the expeditions... like this ...Last stop for the day was the Historical Museum, part of the University of Oslo as was the Viking Ship Museum.
On display here is a collection of Norwegian antiquities from the Ice Age to the coming of Christianity and ethnographic collections showing artefacts from the indigenous people of the Arctic regions.

On the left and right are two Viking doors, each huge and most spectacularly carved. Below is the front and back of the most glorious ceremonal robe I have ever seen. I suppose it's Sami, as it was in that general area, but I could be wrong - all of the signage was in Norwegian!

It's made of animal skins and there are things hanging off t everywhere.. I just think it's beautiful, and so is the headdress pictured near it. If you can see, there is a picture of someone wearing the robe in the background of the picture taken from the front.

Vigeland sculpture park, Norway

Vigeland Sculpture Park is probably the most famous park in Norway. It was created by sculptor Gustav Vigeland between the years 1907 and 1942.

The park has as its theme what could be called the "Human Condition." Most of the statues depict people engaging in various typically human persuits, such as running, wrestling, dancing, hugging, holding hands and so on.
However, Vigeland occasionally included some statues that are more abstract, such as the four granite columns at the ends of the bridge that depict humans fighting giant lizards, and the "Man attacked by Babies" statue, which shows an adult male, fighting off a horde of tiny babies! There are more than 200 statues, all life size or bigger, in bronze and granite, and the 80 acre park was laid out and designed by Vigeland himself. The angry baby is one of the most famous sculptures - it's on all the postcards and you can see were people have touched it and the bronze is all shiny!

The vessel in the fountain is carried by six giants, while the tree groups around the corners portray the life of man from cradle to grave.

The centrepiece of the park is the monolith, carved from a single piece of granite, which is composed of 121 figures. Surrounding it on the plateau are some 36 figure groups, also depicting the cycle of life in which Man is depicted in a variety of typical human situations and relationships.
At the very end of the park is the wheel of life. The wheel is a symbol of eternity and is here executed as a garland of women, children and men holding on to each other. In a sense, this sculpture sums up the dramatic theme of the entire park: Man's journey from cradle to grave, through happiness and grief, through fantasy, hope and wishes of eternity.
Breathtaking.

Oslo, Norway

A couple of days later and here I am in Oslo, Norway. If I thought that Geneva was expensive, that's nothing to Oslo. I was warned that a taxi ride from the airport to the hotel would be about $200 so caught the train instead...then a flat white coffee in the hotel lobby cost me 24 Norway Kroner, or almost $5 Australian. I have to check Coke prices to get a relative idea of cost!
Anyhoo, did a bit of wandering today - firstly to the City Hall, which is pretty hideous architecturally but it has a really nice clock and a waterfally thingy at the back...
I stopped in at the National Gallery, mainly for Daniel for 'The Scream', one of which was returned just the other day - this one was stolen when the winter olympics were in Lillehamer and returned a few years later. How on earth one walks out of a national gallery with what must be one of it's prized posessions I don't understand, however unlike many other museums around the world, there is no security into this one - you just wander in ... and out it would seem!

Also in the National Gallery but unfortunately closed for the time being, is Kittelsen's work, which I would have liked to see. This picture of a troll rising from the water is pretty cute huh? How about this one called Skogtrollet (Hill Face)?
Some of the buildings are lovely : the National Theatre, a building that's now the Hard Rock Cafe, and the parliament buildings, all shown below.

The Royal Palace is not quite what we have come to expect, given Buck Palace etc, but is surrounded by lovely gardens. I'll finish off today with a couple of nice bronzes - the first is a tiger outside the main railway station, the second was in a little park in which there was a memorial to Munch, but no indication of who did this sculpture.


More soon....

Geneva, Switzerland

Well here I am back online. It's been a while - I've been a bit slack... however I'll try and make amends.
Started this trip heading to Geneva for a conference, with Kylie travelling with me. After the events in London a month ago, I was a little skeptical about transiting through Heathrow, but was assured that we could take anything on board as per usual. What no one told us was that when we actually transferred at Heathrow we would have to dump all cosmetics, deoderants, liquids and gels into the bins before we went through the second lot of security in Terminal 4. Shit. Well out went my travel bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and the deoderant, but I was not going to just toss the expensive face wash nor my nice new lipstick - just bought in Singapore! So I tucked these into my bag and went through security. Unfortunately I was stopped at this point because I had two bottles in my bag... grrrr.. however they didn't find the expensive things, just a bottle of nailpolish that I had forgotten and a lip balm, unfortunately though, the one I liked! So I helpfully threw these in the bin and went on through with my Claudia Schiffer lippy intact!
Got to Geneva to a wet, cold morning. Didn't auger well for the rest of the time there, but I had packed my umbrella so all was ok. The weather fined up and it only rained one other time through the week.
The conference went well, and we got a few touristy things done in our spare time.. as the photos will show. Unfortunately the mountains were not super clear, and as it's a few hours by bus or train to anything much, we didn't really have time to do this. The only option was to do something on the Monday - but who wants to spend 10 hours on a bus when they have travelled over 30 hours over the last couple of days?


Anyway here are some photos.. the one at the start is looking over the Left Bank of the River Rhone at Geneva with the Old Town high on the hill, The Town Hall flying the city and Swiss flags. Next one down is the Cathedral St Pierre, which was the home church of Calvin. It occupies the site of a Roman Temple and a number of other earlier churches from the 4th century onwards, The Romanesque church with its Gothic elements was built between 1150 and 1232. To the right is looking down one of the streets in the Old Town next to the Church. Below is the famous Jet d'Eau, which is 140m high and pumps out 500 litres of water a second at a speed of about 200 km/h!!
At the edge of the Parc des Bastions, set against the walls of the Old Town, is the Genevan monument to the Protestant Reformation. Here in the 'Wall of the Reformers' are 5 m high statues of Jean Calvin, Theodore de Beze, John Knox and Guillame Farel. Along the top of the monument runs the motto of the city and reformation - Post Tenebras Lux ("After the Darkness, Light").
Also in the park, giant chess and checkers are there with people often playing games.










There was a fruit and veggie market in the Plain Palais, near our hotel, and Kylie and I were both fascinated by the mushrooms - fascinated but we didn't try anything!



Two other buildings that were quite interesting are also shown - the first on the Right Bank - the Brunswick Monument. This contais the tomb of Charles II, Duke of Brunswick, who bequeathed his fortune to the city of Geneva on the proviso that the city place him ina replica of Verona's Scaligeri Mausoleum, which of course they did!

The second is the Catholic Church Sainte-Trinite! No more to say.








Kylie and I did a short tour around Lac Leman by boat, and stopped at Yvoire, a very pretty little medieval town on the French side of the Lake (and Kylie didn't have her passport, so technically entered France illegally!).

This is one of those 'oh so pretty' touristy towns, but it was very cute and the flowers everywhere were spectacular. Put this against a backdrop of the Alps and you have one stunning piece of scenery!


Now last but not least...

We did the obligatory lookin at the UN buildings, but didn't see anyone at all. No one. Quiet as a mouse. No Kofi Annan :(

Last is some of the fine pieces of work in Swiss chocolate... mmmmmmmmm!!!
OK that's all from me now from lovely Geneva - remember if you visit here that everything is hideously expensive!!!