Oslo

August 23, 2006- Sailing
(photos:How many blonds does it take?,
Vigeland)

Almost as soon as we pulled away from the dock we were greeted by the walls of the Citadel built in the 13th century. There’s still a military presence. Christian IV of Denmark is also a presence. There were fourteen fires in 1624 and he ordered that all wood buildings be destroyed and only stone ones erected. The trouble with that was he took the stones from the local churches. The older structures still standing from the 1800’s are full of character. I’m sorry to say that the rest of the city is quite unattractive and reminds me of Wellington, New Zealand. The buildings are boxy and unimaginative.

The PA system on the ferry woke us at 7 AM. We had a restless night. I thought the engines would lull us to sleep but the A/C froze us. When Danes have a chance to use air-conditioning they turn it into human refrigeration. Before docking in Oslo at 9:30AM we sailed down a narrow and shallow fjord past bays, inlets, and picture book villages with the requisite sailboats and marinas dotting the shore. It’s worlds apart from Denmark. Norway is craggy and hilly. It’s considerably to the north. They do have similar but cooler weather (low 60’s-high 70’s) in that skies are frequently gray and it rains intermittently. Sun showers are common.

This Grand Circle Tour will be more like independent travel now. We have lots of free time and some optional tours but most meals are on our own. Breakfasts are included but food is unbelievably priced. A Whopper at Burger King is $11.50 and the medium pizza we had for lunch was $33. We’re staying in better hotels than we would have if we booked separately. One reason for the high cost of living here is that the government wants to encourage people in rural areas to stay there. It’s very costly to transport goods to them so it was decided that all Norwegians would pay extra for each item in order to help defray that cost. It hasn’t worked. People are still coming to the city in droves. Evidently everyone here agrees not to be part of the EU. With all the oil they have their economy is booming.

Our city guide was Jan, a Dane. Yves joked that we had a Danish guide to help with a slow transition to his world. Remember, Yves is half Norwegian. As soon as we came ashore he started talking about “us and we” when referring to Norwegians. He’s still under the weather and lapses into French due to exhaustion. That’s his other half. I hope he recovers before we have to learn Thai.

Docking

There are 525,000 people in Oslo and of course there is a traffic and housing problem. Tunnels are being used to keep traffic off the surface roads and preserve land for housing. Our housing is fine. We’re at the Clarion Royal Christiania Hotel. We have re-entered the world of two-ply toilet paper. Don’t be confused by the name “Christiania.” It has nothing to do with the hippie community in Copenhagen even though this is called a Bohemian city and the Romanians are here in droves for the “season.” They earn enough begging and pick pocketing in three months so they don’t have to work the rest of the year. Yves did warn us that smoking is totally prohibited indoors. Smoking is permitted only on the street. He cautioned that there’s a huge heroin problem in Oslo and it’s right across the street from us at the train station. He said he would wash his hands of us if we became involved in any way. Does he remember we’re old folks?

People have been living in the area since the year 1000 and the city was officially founded in 1048. April 4, 1940 was the first time their Citadel was conquered. That’s when the Nazis entered the scene. Norway gained independence from the gentle take-over by the Danes in 1905. They voted to re-establish the monarchy after 500 years but had no royals on Norwegian soil. They sent to the U.S. for Prince Karl who was married to an English princess, Maude. Their son was the first king born in Norway in 500 years.

The monarchy is all-powerful but has no power. There can be no law without the signature of the king, but if he refuses the next thing he will sign is his abdication. The royal family also cannot vote in elections.

Vigeland

We were unprepared for the beauty of our next stop. Gustav Vigeland was a sculptor who lived from 1869-1943. His lifelong project was an outdoor sculpture park started in 1914 and financed by the city. When he died he gave it back to the people of Oslo. The only Vigeland sculpture outside of Norway is in Fargo, N. Dakota. Norwegian-Americans purchased the statue. The entrance is a bridge with fifty-eight bronze statues on either side that draws you into the grounds and up to the fountain. Gardens are interspersed as the paths lead from wonder to wonder. The sculptures are of people and are realistic. They’re erotic, violent, tender, playful, and poignant. They’re of old and young depicting life from birth to death. Symmetry is important and the circle of life is the theme. A granite monolith towered over it all. It illustrated Vigeland’s feeling that death creates life. On the bottom of the pillar were the dead. As the eye rose there were forms of people climbing one over the other with babies topping it out. The granite was hand polished and felt as soft as velvet. It took his assistants thirty years to complete the monolith alone. We wanted to photograph each and every one of the statues but my favorite was a man juggling several children in the air with one bouncing up off his foot. It really showed the feeling a parent has trying to do it all.

Beyond

We drove up a mountain to the ski area of Holmenkollen where the 1952 Olympics took place. We gawked at the ski jump and agreed to the insanity of skiers who would attempt it. Our city orientation walk took us up Karl Johans Gate (street), the main drag. Stores selling trolls lined the way. Yves told us that troll stories were for adults, not children. Trolls reflect our own fear and imagination especially when we see things in the dark that aren’t there. Ancient stories harken back to days when people would walk in the forest at night and imagine that a tree stump had moved. They’d go home and the story would grow. A troll picks its person when its eyes twinkle, not the other way around. I don’t see a troll in my future.

We left the guided walk and climbed over student vendors to get to the National Museum. University has begun and students lined the streets selling their used books. The museum is in an unpretentious building and has a modest collection of Norwegian and international artists including a few Impressionists and Munch. Munch is best known for his work The Scream. There’s an entire museum devoted to his work but I do not think we will get there. We got dinner tonight at a vertical mall across from our hotel. Prices there seem only moderately horrendous. But true to form, Yves had words of wisdom about this expensive country. He advised us we should enjoy ourselves for the five days we’ll be here and save when we get home.

Why us?

We were minding our business and finishing our sandwiches when a man came over to ask if we wanted Christian literature. David declined. The man said that was why he asks. David said that we were Jewish. The man asked if we were from New York. We told him we were from Ohio. The man was from California. He’s an Iraqi who had lived there thirty years. He was going to university in Oslo now at age forty and was a Seventh Day Adventist.

Toby