Day 2 Oslo

Thursday, July 17, Oslo
(if you want to read in chronologic order, scroll back to day one, Wed, July 16)

Not much sleep.  I am too excited to be in Norway again and I gleefully anticipate the arrival of the six.  I walked the local neighborhoods at 5 a.m.   The hotels here, starting around 7 a.m., offer expansive breakfast buffets of good coffee, sliced meats including salmon and herring, cheeses, breads, cereals, milks, yogurts, eggs, sausages, sandwich spreads, fruit, sliced vegetables, juice, teas, etc.  There is a lot and there are lots of choices.  Barb and I ate well at breakfast which was included in the price of the rooms. 

By mid-morning we visited the local tourist information office and bought our 3 day passes which provided us free transportation on buses, ferries and trains, as well as free admission to the many museums.  When I asked for the senior rate, which is 67 in Norway, the agent looked at Barb and hesitated.  She will be 67 Aug 15 so he relented and issued her a senior pass as well, still expensive but much cheaper than paying at each venue.  We then set out on the bus to the Frogner Park, an eclectic assortment of statues, some bronze, others granite.  Each statue represents some emotion or stage of life.  Impressive.  The 75 acres, over 600 sculptures were all done by Gustav Vigland over an almost 20 year period.  The nudity and facial expressions of the sculptures give them deep meaning and human affect.

The story is that the sculptor gave a child chocolate, then took it away to get this grimace. 

 

We took the bus back near the hotel and walked over to the Royal Palace.  We did not take the inside tour but did walk around the grounds.  Here, the Royal Guards readily interact with visitors.  On nearing one, he asked, “Where in the states are you from?”  (I had a Masters hat on)  He had lived in the states two years while his mother did some research for her company. 

Palace Guard

 

The nearby Historical Museum was thorough but not as good as I had hoped.  All information was in Norwegian (we are so spoiled, there is English everywhere, including the announcements on the trains) and so I was only gaining info from the dates and the pictures.  Around 2:30, I hit the “jet lag wall”.  I shared with Barb that I needed to go back to the hotel.  She stayed and walked/shopped around the area a bit more, feeling very safe in the Oslo environs.  I slept but only one hour.

Barb and Ryan in park in front of our hotel.

 

At 6 p.m. we met Ryan, Barb’s former kindergarten student who, on going to PLU, visited Norway during a J Term outing (January at PLU involves many students visiting/working in other countries – J Term)  Ryan fell in love with Oslo and found a program to his liking.  He returned a year later to Oslo, now getting his degree from the University of Oslo and is living here year round.  His degree will be a “political science” type of degree with an emphasis on peace.  He hopes to, after graduation, work for the UN or some other NGO that carries out peace efforts throughout the world. 

SIDEBAR:  During the Viet Nam war years, I had a friend who attended the War College in Washington D.C.  I asked at the time if there was a Peace College.    We knew of none.  I guess there is and it is in Oslo.

Ryan escorted us around downtown Oslo, showing us among other things, the area that was bombed by a right wing zealot, who also shot and killed teens at a political summer camp.  He killed 77 people and injured 319 in July of 2011.  Oslo, and much of Norway has not recovered from this horrific violence.  Many of the government buildings located at the bomb site are still empty.  The future of the area, in central Oslo, has not been determined.  Violence again, is so damaging, and to what end?  True patriots build which is difficult to do.  Anyone can destroy and it takes little skill or talent.

Area in Oslo where bomb went off.  Buildings are still boarded up.

 

We attended a local typical Norwegian diner with Ryan and I had boiled lamb and potatoes.

We walked the streets a bit more then retired to the hotel.  I slept till 3 a.m.