The Radday Family Epic Summer Adventure of 2018 started smoothly on Thursday, July 12th. We were able to fly from Newburgh, NY to Bergen, Norway. Flying out of Stewart Airport was so easy I told Adam I don’t ever want to fly out of a New York City airport again. After an uneventful overnight flight we arrived at 9AM in Norway. We had a brief layover in Bergen before we reached our final destination: Oslo.
On Day 1 we wanted to get in some sightseeing and avoid sleeping in the afternoon to adjust to the new time zone so as soon as we dropped off our belongings at our hotel it was out to the streets to find something to eat and to see the sights. Our first destination was the Royal Palace. This is the official residence of King Harald and Queen Sonia and is guarded by the King’s Royal Guard. I briefly did some research on the King and learned that he was an Olympian in sailing in the 1960s and 1970s and that he married a commoner, which was quite a controversy at the time. He has been the King since 1991, following the death of his father, who reigned from 1957 to 1991. He is quite well liked and is known for modernizing the monarchy in recent years.
After watching the guards and walking around some small ponds we wanted to check off one of our must see sites in Oslo - The Scream by Edvard Munch. We headed straight for the National Gallery, where one of several copies of the famous painting is on display. In addition to The Scream were several more Munch paintings and works by other famous impressionists and many famous Norwegian artists. I was very pleased to see Tea instantly recognize a Degas sculpture because it was a dancer. Both girls could identify portraits, landscapes, and still life paintings. They were also able to tell if something was realistic, impressionistic or abstract. They did actually learn something from my non-stop art lectures the last time we were in Europe! Of course they also had fun posing like Rodin’s Thinker and pointing out that one painting looked a lot like Harry Potter! We were all pretty wiped out by this time so we headed to the hotel for an early bedtime. It sure is a good thing because we packed a lot of sightseeing into our Saturday.
By 10AM Saturday morning we were on our way to the Norwegian Folk Museum. This museum housed many buildings from the 1500s to today - 160 buidings to be exact! It was possible to go inside many of the different homes, stables, storage buildings and workshops. In some buildings we saw people in traditional Norwegian garb baking bread, carving wood, and knitting. Tools, clothes, furniture and crafts were on display and the girls really enjoyed the Norwegian folk dance demonstration. The dancers performed a running dance and a wedding dance and a young man finished with the Norwegian national dance. Apparently this dance is traditionally performed at the end of celebrations by the men to prove who is the strongest and best dancer! In his demonstration of strength the young man kicked a hat off a stick held above a woman’s head and did some other acrobatics to show his prowess. My girls were definitely impressed. We took a short break at the playground and let the girls play on some playground equipment usually deemed too dangerous to exist in the US these days. And once Talia fell off the merry-go-round and scraped up her knee, demonstrating why this equipment is no longer around in our local playgrounds, we headed out towards our next museum.
Norway is known for Vikings so we couldn’t miss The Viking Ship Museum, just a short walk from the Folk Museum. This museum houses three Viking ships from the 800s and 900s. All three of these ships were first used as sailing vessels and were later used in burials for important people. They were discovered underground as early as the 1800s and it was very impressive how well preserved the vessels are. The Osberg Ship was built around 820 and was used in 834 as a burial ship for two powerful women. In addition to the boat, the women were buried with sleighs, a wooden cart, beds, a full set of fifteen pairs of oars, and intricately carved animal head posts. The skeletons of horses, dogs, and cows were also found in the burial site. The larger Gokstad ship was used as a burial ship for a chieftain in the early 900s. The grave had been plundered so there were not as many artifacts found with the ship, but given the ship’s design and size it was probably used for ocean traveling and may have sailed as far as Iceland. It was a short stop at the museum but definitely really cool to see such well preserved ships that were over a thousand years old.
After a quick lunch we hopped back on the bus to head to the end of the peninsula with all the other museums. While the Fram Museum wasn’t originally on our list, a large banner outside announced that it was “The Best Museum in Norway” according to TripAdvisor. Since we had a 24 hour pass to see all the museums we wanted we figured, why not? The Fram is dedicated to Norway’s role in Polar Exporation. The Fram was the name of the polar ship that is billed as the strongest wooden ship ever built, and broke all previous farthest north and farthest south records. The complete ship is on display and visitors are invited to walk throughout the entire ship and see displays of what was brought aboard for the journeys to the north and south poles. While standing on the upper deck there is a simulation of a huge ice storm and it truly feels like you are stuck on the boat in a tempest. We marveled at the size of the boat because there were only thirteen men on board. The sleeping quarters were tight, but there was considerable room to spread out during the journey. In addition to the necessities we found that the sailors also brought aboard a piano, an accordion, games, lots of chocolate, tobacco and a fake Christmas tree that could fold up like an umbrella! A second, smaller ship, the Gjoa, was also on display in a building next door. This ship was the first to make it through the Northwest Passage. We were able to climb aboard and through the hold of this ship, but it was not nearly as fun as being on board the Fram. After checking out the children’s exhibit and seeing if the girls could pull as much weight as sled dogs, we headed outside for a little break before our last museum stop of the day.
Our final museum stop was the Kon-Tiki Museum. I was interested in this museum after reading the story of of Thor Heyerdahl. This Norwegian sailed from Peru to Polynesia with a crew of five men on a balsa wood raft! Heyerdahl set out to prove that the people in Polynesia were not only of Asian descent but must also have some South American ancestors. His belief was challenged by many, arguing that there was no way a person could travel from South America to Polynesia on a balsa wood raft. Heyerdahl and his crew proved the doubters wrong and in 101 days sailed from Lima to Raroia. Seeing the raft that made it that far across the Pacific Ocean with six men onboard was incredible. I would NOT have signed on for that mission! Heyerdahl also played an important role in the exploration of other Pacific Islands, such as Easter Island, and part of the museum exhibition was dedicated to the discoveries made on this island. The girls enjoyed running through the caves of Easter Island exhibit, mostly because it was dark and full of tunnels. I’m definitely interested in reading more about his explorations and life.
We returned to the hotel via a ferry through the fjord and took a break. We were supposed to just rest, but all the Radday girls fell asleep and Adam woke us up a little while later. We had one more stop to make for the day. Anyone who’s been to Norway highly recommended The Vigeland Park so we didn’t want to miss it. This park was a short tram ride away and was the girls’ favorite attraction of the day. Vigeland Park is the life work of sculpture artist Gustav Vigeland and contains over 200 of his works in bronze, granite and wrought iron. It is the world’s largest sculpture park by one artist. We loved walking along the path and looking at some of his most famous works...and the girls and Adam had some fun posing along with the statues. The statues all represent different stages of life. The Monolith is the crowning piece at the center of the park. It stands 46 feet tall and was carved from a single piece of granite. The entire park was extremely impressive and would definitely be on our list of suggestions for anyone coming to Oslo. Of course, since we were in a park we let the girls play for quite a while on the playground structure. Some of our favorite times when traveling are just watching the girls on the playgrounds and being around the local people. The girls had a great time and must have really tired them out since Talia fell asleep listening to her book and Tea fell asleep much faster than usual.
Sunday was our final day in Oslo and we didn’t have too many things left on our Must See list, which isn’t surprising considering how much we packed into our day on Saturday! We slept late, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then walked down to the harbor to see the Akershus Fortress. This medieval castle was built at the end of the 13th Century to protect Oslo after the city was attacked in 1287. This fortress was used as a military base, royal residence and prison. When prisoners were there they could actually be rented out to citizens and used for labor! It is reputed to have been the toughest prison in Norway and prisoners were forced to do hard labor. And here’s a fun fact: a portion of the fortress was replicated at Epcot for the Norway pavilion!
We walked around the city for a while with the aim of meandering towards the Oslo Cathedral. We couldn’t visit a major European city without visiting a church. Of course the girls were less than thrilled, but once inside they both asked to light candles for Opa (their recently passed grandfather) and Caitlin (Talia’s birth mother). They also wrote petitions to Opa and Caitlin and left them on the altar.
We continued our journey through some pedestrian streets and noticed that almost every store was closed on Sunday and ended up back at our hotel. After an afternoon rest we hit our final tourist attraction of Oslo: the Oslo Opera House. The Opera House was completed in 2008 and it’s known for its unique architecture. Visitors can walk up the slanted sides to the roof and look out at the fjords. The famous sculpture, She Lies, sits in the water in front of the Opera House and turns with the changing flow of the water. We enjoyed the view from the top and the girls did some gymnastics on the marble and luckily no one got hurt.
It’s early to bed tonight so that we can get to the airport tomorrow morning for our flight to Budapest. We are excited to meet my brother, CJ, and his girlfriend, Jen, at the airport and to explore our next city! The adventure continues! Takk, Oslo!