It was another painfully beautiful day – crystal clear blue skies and about 70°F with a light breeze. We caught the tram down to the central station, picked up a second tram, then headed into Akershus Fortress. Really loving all the public transportation in these cities, especially the trams. Akershus is a medieval fortification that has been modified and expanded over the last ::mumble::hundred years, and was truly a magnificent sight. It’s still a living castle, with a working military base, and extensive reconstruction and renovation going on all over the place. We picked up the brochure for the walking tour and followed the stops around the outer walls of the fortress, making our way in to take the tour of the castle interior. Picked up the audio guide ‘cause it was free, which really enriched the experience, as we learned about the history of the castle and the various rooms on display. The British accent of the guide didn’t hurt, either! The weather was just too gorgeous to be believed, and I couldn’t get over the bright blue sky and lush green trees everywhere. Looking down and around at the views of the city from the fortress walls was amazing.
Akershus may be one of the coolest places we've yet been. Whereas most of the palaces we've seen have been gaudy, Baroque mini-Versailles clones, Akershus started life as a simple military fortification to which a castle was later added. This is not to say, however, that it did not have its adornments: Danish King Christian IV felt that his Norwegian realm needed some continental style and added many Baroque and Rococo touches to the castle. Comparatively, though, it was still very simple and martial in many ways. The fortress surrounding the castle was indeed imposing: the outer walls were 3m thick, 8m high, and other measurements as well (I really couldn't resist that). The problem with Akershus was that, after nine days of walking, the steep cobblestone paths, steps, and other obstacles were taking a serious toll on our already weary bodies. We got some fantastic pictures, though, of one of the oldest parts of Oslo (known until 1925 as Christiania...boy, that King Christian IV was a modest guy, huh?) backstopped by the very modern Oslo Sentrum. Even more starkly than in Helsinki, Oslo fuses Old Europe (via Denmark) with ultra-modern design. For a good example of this, I took a picture from our hotel window of the Oslo Tinghus (Court House), which is shining steel and glass, in the midst of the stuccoed walls of the old hotels and offices nearby; it's like a sore thumb, but a very shiny new one.
After Akershus, we climbed down to the harbor square in front of the Rådhus, the striking design of which has grown on me steadily since we got here. We had lunch at a restaurant near the docks, then Scott called home to say hello to his parents on his birthday, and I think he made them very happy. I hope he’s had a good birthday; I’ve tried to make things feel special for him without overplaying the fact that it’s his birthday, or thereby underplaying the fact that we’re on our honeymoon. After the phone call, we caught the ferry boat over to the tip of the Bygdøy peninsula.
In Rådhusplassen, we found a nice little dockside cafe. I was intrigued by the prawn salad, but I had, thus far, been resolute in my decision to only eat fish and not shellfish, so I ordered the fish burger. I was, therefore, very surprised to find that one of the toppings for the fish burger was prawn salad! In my short tenure as a pescetarian, I've been aware that shrimp is ubiquitous on seafood menus and I was fairly sure that, at some point, I would have to make that one exception to my shellfish restriction, though I hadn't expected it so soon. I went ahead and ate it, and I rather enjoyed it, in fact. These shrimp would not be the last in my immediate future. After lunch, I gave Mom a call for my birthday, since it was now a reasonable hour back home. It has been very tough to wrap my head around it being my birthday, but I never have liked to dwell on it and would rather keep myself busy.
Our first stop on Bygdøy was the Viking Ship Museum, which was beyond impressive – a collection of three Viking ships (used for VIP burials) dating from between 800 and 940 AD found amazingly preserved in the 1880s. The first ship on view in the hall was the most stunning, with ornately carved bows at both ends. The second ship was far more stout and sturdy, less ornate but no less beautiful. The third ship was more or less in ruins, but had the best preserved burial chamber. The artifacts found with the three ships were stunning, and I got some really great detail shots of the carvings on some of the pieces. The level of preservation of the wood was just phenomenal – something to do with the “blue clay” in which they were buried. The parallels between these Viking artifacts and the Anglo-Saxon finds at Sutton Hoo were less than subtle, both of which have obvious similarities to Celtic designs, and it's easy to see how connected the world was, even a thousand years ago. It was at this point, switching back and forth to "digital macro," to capture the ornate detail still visible on much of the wood, that the camera battery began to die, which left us terrified to use it beyond one or two quick snapshots for the rest of the day.
After leaving the ships, we debated on how we would get to the other museums on the peninsula and ultimately decided on the known route: back down the hill to the ferry and a short hop to Bygdøynes, where Fram and Kon-Tiki are kept. Fram came first, and it is noted as being the wooden ship to have traveled farther north and south than any other in history on its Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. It was nearly as large and impressive as the Vasa in Stockholm, albeit more modern, but it had one chief difference in the museum: you could actually BOARD the Fram! It was fascinating to see what is clearly a late 19th century ship rigged for extended exposure to polar temperatures. It had all of the classic Victorian comforts, but with many pelts covering the floors of the crew cabins. You would have to be a hardy voyager indeed to take a cruise on this boat.
Time was running short on the museums' open hours, so we sped through the Fram museum and crossed the street to the Kon-Tiki Museum. The ships themselves -- Kon-Tiki, Ra and Ra II -- were less interesting than the man behind them. Thor Heyerdahl was an adventurer, seemingly unafraid of anything, but unlike, say Richard Branson, he was on a much higher mission. The experiments themselves were sociological, venturing to prove that Polynesians were possibly as skilled seafarers as the Vikings, and he set out to prove that their reed and papyrus crafts were capable of reaching all points in the Pacific, even as far as South America. His experiments were largely successful, but he discovered something along the way that became much more of a focus—environmental activism. Heyerdahl was the first to note that refuse and spilled oil did have an impact on even something as vast as the Pacific Ocean, and became a great champion of the environmental movement in the 70s and 80s. Walking through the museum of his works, only one word that came to mind: humbling.
The best part of the adventure, though, was Bygdøy itself, which was full of meandering little streets packed with beautiful houses. We overheard a woman on the ferry over there saying that a lot of people live there and commute to downtown Oslo via the ferries. We took the bus back so we could get a sense of how far we had travelled, and saw just how close the bucolic escape was from the city center – there was an official royal farm on the way into town!
Back in town, we strolled up from Karl Johan’s gate to the hotel where I took a short nap while Scott uploaded pictures and researched a restaurant for dinner. He settled on a chain restaurant pizza joint, which proved to be quite tasty, although it was unpleasantly warm in the restaurant itself and we couldn’t wait to get out! Peppes Pizza is a chain that started in Norway and is branching out internationally, and it had some very interesting-sounding pizzas and toppings. I had a pizza that had curry and garlic-marinated shrimp with green peppers, leeks and lime. This place would challenge the mighty California Pizza Kitchen if they had American locations; I still can't believe I ate the entire 12” pie! We stuffed ourselves too much for dessert, which was kind of a shame since it was his birthday and all, but it’s all good. Back at the hotel I got a shower while he checked us in for our flight to Iceland tomorrow, and we’re now sitting with the window open listening to the bustle of a busy city for what will probably be the last time on our trip – although Reykjavík is a capital city, it’s probably going to be pretty quiet compared to where we’ve already been!
Tomorrow, we fly to Iceland, our final stop. Here, we can turn off our brains (and feet) since most of our time there is prearranged and transport is provided. I'm REALLY looking forward to the Blue Lagoon Spa and that leg massage now!
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