Day 17 - Saturday, June 29, 2024 - Oslo Norway

 

Nobel Peace museum 

Today was a special day for me.  We spent a full day here in Oslo with a bus tour, provided by Viking that started at 10 am. 

We received a nice tour on our way to our first stop, the Royal Palace and gardens.

This part of the city center is called the Barcode district because the buildings, combined, look like barcodes on packages.

A typical street in Oslo 

The older part of the train station and where we had dinner tonight.

This is just a piece of their haulocaust memorial.  Empty chairs, there were many more, to commemorate the Norwegian Jews that were deported in 1931 to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Their Parliament building 

The Grand Hotel next to it.

The King and Queen of Norway are in residence at the Royal Palace and while the king will shortly be retiring, he is 87 years old.  The queen is 86.

We didn't go inside, but were able to view the outside.

These are views of the palace and grounds

The statute is of a Swedish king that predates Norway's independence from Sweden.

Swedish queen, Maude, again predating Norway independence 

The guards standing duty in front of the palace 

From here we walked through the gardens back to the bus where Wayne found his bench.

Our next stop was at their Maritime museum where we received a lecture from an archeologist about Viking boat building and then toured the museum

An original dugout boat

They are in the midst of trying to build, using hand tools, an "original" Viking boat

These are pictures of an original Viking boat that was uncovered from mud by the archeologists.

The museum also housed a nice collection of maritime art

Figureheads from Viking vessels 

A plaque, just a few if them of all seafarers who lost their lives in world war I and Ii

 views outside the museum 

The walkway leading to the museum.  For my quilting friends, flying geese.

We were driven back to our hotel and had the rest of the day on our own.  We had lunch at a nearby restaurant and Wayne retired to the hotel. 

He's spent more than a week here in Oslo in the past. Roger Amy and I went out exploring on our own. It was a 15,131 step day as we wandered the streets

The city is in the midst of Gay Pride celebration and we walked into a parade.  The city really celebrated today.

We were attempting to get past the parade and found the Oslo Cathedral. It was open, so we walked inside.

It was a simple church on the outside but had some pretty windows and a nice organ inside.

From there we walked to the Nobel Peace prize museum.  The Nobel prize is awarded every year, here in Oslo.  We also passed the town hall where the ceremony takes place.

Roger and Amy didn't want to go inside, so  thei left me for a good while, and I paid the admission and walked through the museum.

It was a really special place dedicated to peace and the the winners of the Nobel prize. It was oddly quiet and very respectful instead.  Almost reverent.

The Nobel Peace prize museum 

There was a table set up with broken bits of china, string and scotch tape. You could sit and try to put pieces together with the twine and tape.  The significance, below....

Mend with wisdom, mend with love.  It will mend the earth at the same time.

Each of these pedestals has one of the Nobel prize laureates. As you stepped near, theyut up with their names and year of award 

People could write messages on bits of paper and hang them on the mobiles.

The 2023 winner, fighting for women's equality in Iran.  Presently she's in jail for not properly covering her head 

The wire art was interesting enough that I bought a piece as a memory of the museum..

On our walk back to our hotel, we crossed paths with a wedding party.

Just a pretty little park in the walk back.

I'm tucked in for the night.  We will be transported to the airport tomorrow at 10 am for our flight to London where we'll haul a taxi to our hotel for 4 nights before boardiyour next cruise ship, the Viking Neptune to San the British Isles and more Scandinavian countries.

On this next cruise, we'll be back here in Oslo for 2 more days.  It should give me time to see the Vigeland sculpture garden and go through the Munch museum.  There is much to see in Oslo.

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