Here There and Everywhere

In the Wake of the Vikings: The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo

I don’t have a bucket list. There are things I would like to do, and to the best of my ability, I just keep doing them, but I don’t worry about checking things off. If I don’t do it, I must not have cared enough. At the same time I am following in the Wake of the Vikings, my best friend from college is walking more than 100 miles on a trip. 100 miles! She showed me her Fit-bit readings, and she is doing like 38,000 steps a day!

You go, friend! (Not me!) There are days I do 10,000 steps, and once I even did 20,000 but I don’t expect those to happen often. I am proud for my friend to do this, and I have other challenges 🙂

Having said that, I really wanted to see the Viking Ship Museum, oh yeh, me and ten thousand other visitors in Oslo, and how on earth do we all end up at the museum at the same time? By deserting my group, and waiting patiently, I was able to get some people-less shots. You can’t imagine how hard that is.

 

I really like this one, above, because of the parallel shadow; the influences of the early Norse culture live on.

 

 

Imagine the patience and artistry it took to carve this piece!

 

 

This is a wagon; sorry for the reflection but it is encased in plastic to protect it from all the people (like me) who might like to touch . . . It was interesting to me to see a wheel built out of sections held together with metal clips.

This is a carved sled – imagine all that trouble for an item of daily use. Must be the long, cold, dark winters gave them the time to imagine and bring to reality.

 

Another sled. So beautiful.

This is a small museum, but inspiring. There is also a movie, which I missed because I wanted to take photos without other people in them.

I find Oslo beautiful. I find their traditional buildings beautiful, even those with grass roofs. How practically beautiful! And the new buildings they are doing knock my socks off! Look at the “iceberg” and at their new Opera and Ballet center!

 

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This might look like the same photo as the above, but the above is to show some of the new high rises going up, where below is to highlight the statue called She Lies. I love this collection of statues. This is another one I would give to high school students and ask them to tell me the story. The body language is so ambivalent, I am sure that there are as many possibilities as there are viewers!

 

More traditional Oslo; less daring, equally beautiful.

 

September 11, 2017 - Posted by intlxpatr | Adventure, Arts & Handicrafts, Beauty, Cultural, ExPat Life, Lies, Quality of Life Issues, Travel | Norway, Oslo, She Lied, Viking Ship, Viking Ship Museum