ONE LAST TIME

Saturday 2/12/2017

Our last full day in Oslo before we begin our arduous journey back to the best city in the world.
My request to the weather gods for another day with blue skies fell on deaf ears, and the day has turned out to be gloomy and cold with a hint of rain in the air.

Despite this we donned our apparel for what we thought would be a quiet trip to visit the last museum on our list, the Norsk Folkemuseum.

Our first stop however was to have a wander around Akershus Castle, a medieval castle from around 1300 AD. It’s a massive walled structure with cannons everywhere to ward off the evil Vikings and German troops during WW2. It is also a Royal Mausoleum to which we didn’t find an entrance. There was also a Julemarkedet here (they’re everywhere!), and people everywhere.

The Castle grounds also are home to Norway’s Resistance Museum. It presents the story of civilian and military resistance against German occupation during WW2. There are many photographs, documents, artefacts, models, and original newspapers which were “underground” productions to be distributed secretly to the population. A very sad place, and yet another stark reminder of the utter futility and stupidity of war.

Quiettrip?? Think again!! It’s Saturday, and every Oslonian and his partner, kids, and dogs were out in force, to enjoy the day and to do that bit of last minute Christmas shopping. The bus was caught in a traffic jam, and passengers were squeezed into it like sardines in a tin.

Turns out that the Norsk Folkemuseum was host to a Julemarkedet, Christmas market, and there were people everywhere. Loads of stall selling everything from hot elk burgers, to hand knitted shawls, Christmas decorations of every kind, and everything between. It’s an open air museum with a Gol Stave church (Stavkirke) dating from 1200 and many buildings showing the culture and history of Norway’s many regions and cities, including Sami buildings. At the Stave church, we found that a service was in progress. Although the service was in Norwegian it was still very moving, and the singing was beautiful. The wall behind the altar had a very old painting of the 12 Apostles. Wonderful. Apologies for the blurred photo – no flash allowed inside.

And then the rain came down. A quick dash for the exit, and jump on the first bus that came along. Home dry and safe, although I did slip on the wet slick road just before we got to the hotel. All is well, I’m just going to have a lovely technicolour bruise on my hip tomorrow.

This is our last post from Norway. We will walk the Christmas night market one last time tonight after dinner, this time with cameras. We will post the pics when we get back home.

See you in Australia.

Ilze and Pete x