On the move: Scandinavia, Part II

[lillibet]

We walked back to the hotel after lunch, picked up our luggage and got in a
cab to the pier. We boarded the DFDS Crown of Scandinavia and found our
stateroom. It was very compact (my closet at Cognito was bigger), with four
bunks that folded down from the walls. We were very glad not to be
sharing. But it was an outside cabin, with a window from which we could
watch the amazing view float by. After dropping off our luggage we went out
to explore the ship and sat on the top deck until we were well underway.
Then we napped for an hour before going up to dinner at the Seven Seas
buffet. It was quite an extensive buffet, including several kinds of
herring with traditional fixings (sour cream, capers, onions, hardboiled
egg), two kinds of smoked salmon, poached salmon, poached halibut, smoked
halibut, salmon & spinach pie, roast beef/turkey/ham, pork slices in gravy,
penne carbonara (bacon & cheese sauce), cold mussels, mussels in saffron
sauce, roast chicken, scallopped potatoes, roasted potatoes, sliced meats &
cheese, breads, an interesting salad (greens, garlic cloves, string beans),
tacos, pate, and several other things I'm sure I've forgotten. For dessert
we tried several of their cheeses, a berry trifle and a very light gelatin
with green seedless grapes in it.

After dinner we saw the movie _Miss Congeniality_ in one of the ship's two
screening rooms. It was a cute movie, an old-fashioned romantic comedy in
many ways. The dialog wasn't great, the plot was completely inconsistent, I
know more about beauty pageants from watching the TV coverage of Miss
America than the screenwriters seemed to, and there was no chemistry between
Sandra Bullock and Benjamin Bratt. But Michael Caine was divine ("It takes
a secure man to walk that way in public.") and Sandra was fun and it wasn't
a movie to be taken too seriously. Once that was over we walked out on deck
for a while, enjoying the full moon on the water before heading to bed.

Since I had only brought my winter coat and managed to leave my black
cardigan at Stefan's, I decided to buy a light jacket at the duty free shop
on the ship. It has been very useful, but I think that Jason is actually
more likely to end up wearing it in the long-run, since he's more of a beige
person than I am.

After the bounty of the night before, the breakfast buffet was disappointing
and I lost all interest when I discovered that the scrambled eggs were
served cold. We packed up and were in line to disembark when the ship
docked in Oslo at 9:00am. We didn't have any Norwegian money, so we were
lucky that the cabs take credit cards. We'd expected to have to drop our
bags at the hotel and check in later, so it was a pleasant surprise that our
room was ready. The Hotel Bristol is a grand old hotel, with a very dark,
plush lobby, but our room was gorgeous--very simple and lovely. It has
hardwood floors with area rugs, white walls and a gorgeous, very modern
bath. The beds are two singles, pushed together, but that seems to be the
norm in Scandinavia. We rested for a few minutes, then headed out to see
Oslo. We walked over to the Central Station to get money, and then up Karl
Johan street, past the Storting (parliament house) and the National Theater
with its statue of Ibsen, to the palace. From there we walked down to
Pipervika, the ferry pier. We had half an hour to wait for the next ferry,
so we wandered through the Aker Brygge shopping mall to use their bathroom
and find sunscreen. While applying it, once on the ferry, I managed to get
some in my eye and it continued to bother me for much of the day.

We were heading over to Bygdoy, about a ten minute ride across Oslofjord
from the city. Once there we walked up the hill to the Norsk Folkemuseet, a
collection of over 100 buildings from throughout Norway, dating back to the
12th century stave church. We wandered there for over an hour, and then
stopped into the Viking Ship Museum, where the three Viking ships discovered
in burial mounds near Oslo are displayed, along with some of the artifacts
found with them. We headed over to the next ferry stop, where the Maritime
Museum, Kon-Tiki Museum and Fram Museum are clustered. We grabbed a couple
of hot dogs--the hot dogs in Scandinavia are very good, especially compared
to the nasty ones we got on the street in London--and decided that we didn't
really have the time or stamina for the Maritime Museum, but would hit the
other two. The Kon-Tiki Museum is a monument to the work of Thor Heyerdahl
and contains the Kon-Tiki raft on which he and five other men crossed the
Pacific in 101 days from Peru to Polynesia, proving that such a voyage could
have taken place in pre-historic times. It also has the Ra II, on which he
crossed the Atlantic from Morocco to Barbados, proving that a similar voyage
could have been accomplished by Egyptians. It was nifty stuff, displayed
well. Across the parking lot is the Frammuseet, where the conventional ship
to travel the furthest north and south in the world is enshrined, along with
the story of its voyages, variously under the command of Nansen, Amundsen
and other Norwegian explorers. Its most impressive feat was travelling,
embedded in ice, along the ice current from Siberia to Greenland. That took
three years. Visitors are able to explore the ship extensively, accompanied
by a recording of the sounds of wind and ice that would have surrounded the
crew. Just putting up with that noise is an astonishing feat. Out in front
of the museum is the Gjoa, the small ship on which Amundsen managed to
navigate the Northwest Passage.

We finished up there right at five and caught the ferry back to Oslo. While
we were waiting for it, we saw the Crown of Scandinavia heading back out to
Copenhagen. Back at our hotel, we napped, and then went to Dinner. That's
the name of the most highly recommended Chinese restaurant in Oslo and we
had a fine meal there. We shared oven-baked dumplings and hot & sour soup
(which was actually more sweet & spicy, but still quite tasty), followed by
a Szechuan hot pot (which we requested "mild" and seems not to have offended
my tummy) and the Cantonese shrimp, chicken & scallops in black bean sauce.
It was all good and with an ice cream cone on the walk home, made a perfect
meal. Jason wanted to work for a bit, so I hung out in the lounge,
listening to the piano/saxophone duo, and then took a bath. We had wanted
to use the hotel's Internet connection, but the key to the office had been
misplaced.

On Tuesday we had to be up early in order to make our 8:11am train to
Myrdal. We had breakfast at the hotel (the egss were warm!), took a cab to
the Central Station and caught our train with three minutes to spare. The
train was quite comfortable, except that the bright sunshine pouring in made
it pretty hot. Strange to be sweating while watching enormous snowdrifts
out the window. After 4.5 hours, we arrived in Myrdal and changed for the
Flamsbana, "the famous Flam mountain railway" (www.flaamsbana.no). That
took us down the mountain into the Flam Valley on a track that descends 863
meters over 20 kilometers of track, through 20 tunnels as it spirals through
the mountain. Pretty amazing geology and the scenery was incredible.

We arrived in Flam around two and had twenty-four hours in which to fully
explore a place for which "hamlet" is too big a word. The population
outside the hotel is 450 and the place exists mainly as a place for 400,000
tourists each year to switch from train to boat. For reasons that aren't
very clear, our travel agent booked us a night here. The hotel is quite
lovely, though, and our room on the ground floor had a stunning view of the
fjord and mountains. After a nap we went out and wandered through the four
different souvenir shops and then up onto the ridge over the town where we
sat on a rock outcropping and watched boats moving up and down the fjord.
Back at the hotel we enjoyed the restaurant's set menu of smoked fish soup,
roast lamb with potatoes and veg, with flan for dessert. Jason figured out
how to get his computer online and spent the evening working in the lobby,
while I caught up on the news by watching the BBC. Periodically I would go
out and marvel with Jason over how light it was...still bright enough to
read outside at 10pm and still not *dark* at 11pm.

On Wednesday we slept in and had a late breakfast. Jason worked some more,
while I packed and then we checked out of the hotel and went off for a walk.
We walked as far around the west side of the fjord as we could, then turned
back and walked along the path parallel to the road on the east side until
it was time to turn back. We grabbed hot dogs, picked up our luggage at the
hotel and boarded the boat for Gudvangen. The fjord really is just as
gorgeous as it is rumored to be. The snow-topped mountains plunge down to
the still water and waterfalls run down every crevasse. The trip takes two
hours, up the small branch headed by Flam to the main fjord and then down
the next branch to Gudvangen. Gulls followed us and people tossed them
peanuts, for which they would dive and wheel and then catch up again for
more. It reminded me of feeding french fries to the gulls at Revere Beach.

We arrived in Gudvangen just after five and checked into the Gudvangen
Fjordtell, which consists of two large, low sod-roofed round huts right next
to the ferry landing. The first hut contains the reception desk, dining
room and souvenir shop. Our room was one wedge of the other hut. It was a
simple room, decorated with lovely woodcarvings and our bed was, as usual,
two single beds, but kept together in a wooden "corral" bedframe with carved
Viking dragons on the bedposts. The bathroom made up the narrow end of the
wedge. There was no tub, just a showerhead and a drain in the floor. It
seems like a fine idea, until you walk into the bathroom in your socks.
Definitely one of the most unique hotel rooms I've ever had and the reindeer
skin on the bed added to the "hunting cabin" atmosphere. The door and window
at the front of the room continued up into the roof as an enormous skylight,
giving us a stunning view of the mountains above.

After settling in, we went for a walk across the narrow wooden pedestrian
bridge to the other side of the fjord and along the path on that side. We
went on for a ways, then turned back and took the highway bridge back over
to the town and walked through its 200 meters of what appear to be mainly
18th century clapboard houses. It reminded me of some of the small, old
hamlets up in the Catskill Mountains.

We had dinner in the dining room, where we were one of only two parties, the
other being a couple from Buffalo with their son, who is studying in
Copenhagen this term. Our starter was small crayfish, served in garlic
butter like escargot. That was followed by salmon steaks and tiny shrimp in
a dill hollandaise sauce. The fish was annoyingly bony, but very tasty.
For dessert we were served orange mousse with raspberry sauce, a slice of
star fruit, whipped cream and one of the best figs I've ever tasted. It was
odd to be all alone in this cavernous hall that could seat two hundred at
least at its long wooden tables with chairs backed in red leather with
Viking designs on them. It made me think of Valhalla, waiting for the
warriors to come in from hunting for the feast. The host explained that the
hotel is not technically open until May 15th, but that for old customers
they make certain exceptions and our travel agent is one of them.

After dinner it was only just after 8pm, and the power had gone off during
dinner, so we decided to go for another walk. There was a waterfall up the
side of the mountain across the street, with a long hill of scree that
looked climbable, so we headed up the side of the mountain. It was tricky
at a few points and there were a couple of times that I thought long and
hard before going on--I kept having visions of having to be airlifted out of
there--but we made it up to the first big cataract, maybe 100 meters above
the floor of the valley. We watched the water pouring over the granite
face, took some pictures and then headed down. That was a fun little
adventure.

The power was still out, but it was not yet dark and the host gave us some
candles. I read a couple of Jane Austen's short, silly stories to Jason
before we headed to bed.

In the morning we had breakfast and bought a few souvenirs--a hat to replace
the one I dropped somewhere in Copenhagen, a gorgeous cardigan, some film
and some socks, since the only clean ones I had left were wool, and it was
much warmer throughout the trip than I expected. Then we walked through
town to the bus stop. This was our first real snag of the trip. The bus
due at 9:30am didn't arrive until ten and we pulled into the train station
at Voss just as the Bergen train was pulling out the other side. It took us
a few minutes to take stock of our options, by which time the bus had gone
on to Bergen, eliminating that one. We had two hours to wait for the next
train, so we put our luggage into the station's lockers and walked out
around the fjord, through a lovely pine forest, over a pedestrian bridge,
and up the hill on the other side to the Dagestadmuseet, dedicated to the
work of a local woodworker. It was closed, but we didn't have time to go in
anyway, it just made a convenient destination. We turned around and walked
back, this time choosing a path that would take us by the kirke and through
town, where we stopped at a bakeri for pastries. We got back to the station
to find the train sitting at the platform with its doors open, so we got our
luggage, got on and waited there for twenty minutes for the train to depart.

One of the things we've noticed here in Norway is that their idea of color
combinations is not ours. As in Denmark and Sweden, the houses are often
brightly painted. Many of them are a terrible mustardy yellow, which they
often combine with a bright red or olive green--this isn't sounding as bad
as it looks. There are many pretty ones, but the blecherous ones are
remarkable. It's been such a treat to take public transportation, because
it means that we can both look out the "vindu" at the same time.

The ride to Bergen was uneventful and I was lulled to sleep by the lovely
view and the music of the rails. On arrival, we underestimated the distance
to the hotel and ended up making about a twenty minute walk fully loaded.
We checked into the Hotel Augustin (www.augustin.no), a lovely family-run
hotel that has recently been renovated. We were given a corner room, with a
small balcony out over the street. After a brief stop, we headed out again
and explored the Fisketorget (Fish Market, where they had tanks of live fish
and beautiful sections of different fish as well as piles of crawfish and
shrimp and lobsters; there were also several fruit stands where we bought a
tasty pint of the famous Norwegian strawberries and devoured them as we
walked along the quay) and the old Hansa port section, the Bryggen. We
explored the Bergenhus Festning (Bergen Fortress), including the
Haakonshallen, the great hall originally built under the reign of Haakon
Haakonsson in the mid-13th century and restored after its many re-workings
through the centuries and serious damage during World War II, when a German
ammunition boat blew up in the harbor just below the fortress. The restored
hall is very impressive, with a gorgeous trestled wood roof. We wandered
down Ovregaten, the street of antique shops, to the base station of the
Floyen Funicular. This took us up to the top of Floyen, one of the seven
mountains surrounding the city. From the walkway 1050 ft. above the harbor,
we looked out on the whole area. We took a walk in the surrounding woods
and then walked down the side of the mountain on a trail that switched back
and forth...and back and forth and back and forth...all the way back to the
base station.

Consulting our guidebook, we identified three restaurants that sounded
interesting and wandered around the Bryggen looking at their menus.
Eventually we decided on Finnegaardstuene, set in a series of four small
rooms in one of the merchant homes of the 18th century. This was one of the
best meals I've ever enjoyed. They started us off with a lagniappe of duck
liver terrine served on a bed of mango chutney. The chutney had a tendency
to overwhelm the terrine when combined in a single bite, but alternating the
flavors provided an excellent balance. We shared a plate of six raw
Norwegian oysters, which were some of the most flavorful I have eaten and a
real treat after disappointing experiences with oysters in London. Next we
both had seared scallops with salmon roe. Jason's were served with a
pipperade (bell peppers and onions marinated and sauteed), while mine came
with a small cake of couscous, topped with the sweetest crayfish I have ever
tasted, and a pesto beurre blanc. After a palate cleanser (I don't believe
I'd actually been served a palate cleanser before) of white wine and lime
granita, Jason was served a lightly smoked fillet of sea trout. It had been
advertised as coming with a ginger confit and sweetcorn cream, but they'd
substituted a potato cake and what tasted more like soy butter (advertised
for another of the fish dishes), along with some marvelous sauteed wild
mushrooms and a stalk of lightly steamed asparagus. Jason was disappointed
not to have the ginger treat, but in the end enjoyed his entree very much.
I was in raptures over a loin of veal, wrapped in pancetta, with a port
demiglace and very happy with my share of the potato cake, mushrooms and
asparagus. It was Jason's night for disappointment, as they were out of the
fruit gaspacho with Thai beignets he'd planned to order. My dessert, a fig
tarte tatin with chantilly cream, blackberry tea glaze and a cinnamon
nougatine (sugar wafer), was exquisite and Jason happily split it with me as
we enjoyed the excellent house blend of coffee. It was quite warm in the
dining room, but eventually the staff took pity on us and opened the door,
so we got a nice cross breeze and were much more comfortable.

Lounging outside the nightclub across the street were a bunch of young
people in the baggy red pants emblazoned with names and the year and
signatures, that we'd noticed all over Norway. I got up the courage to walk
over and ask them what was up with their pants (always a delicate question)
and they explained that it's part of the high school graduation ritual, that
all graduating seniors in the country wear special outfits during graduation
week.

Between carrying my pack so much during the day and then walking all over
Norway, I was really aching by the time we got back to the hotel. The kind
of if-only-my-arms-really-would-fall-off kind of feeling. So I took a long
bath and took painkillers and we got to bed reasonably early. In the
morning, Jason asked if I had slept well and the rest of me was better, but
my shoulders were still hurting.

We were out of the hotel by 9am on Friday, having enjoyed their breakfast
buffet. We walked out to the Bergen Aquarium, on the point of the peninsula
that our hotel is on. We decided to visit it partly because it's the only
thing in Bergen that's open before 11am. The hours of operation of the
various sites are quite erratic, with one thing only being open 12-3 on
Sundays and another open 11-1:30, most things closing at 4pm, except the art
museums, which are open 12-5.

The aquarium has a couple of outdoor pools with several species of penguins
(including my favorites, "macaroni" or "rockhopper" penguin, the one with
the blonde spiky hairdo) and seals. There are underwater windows into the
pools, so you can watch the flocks of penguins flying through the water and
see the seals sleeping upside down on the bottom. The main aquarium has a
wide variety of tanks, many showing native sea creatures. There is an
emphasis on the commercial aspects of the ocean, including a small exhibit
on seal-hunting, which seemed odd to us, though it makes sense, as fishing
is the second largest industry in Norway (between oil and tourism). The
final room in the exhibits had recipes for preparing tasty fish dishes--
definitely the first time I've seen tips for cooking live exhibits!

Leaving there, we hoped to catch a bus back to the center of town, but the
next one wasn't for an hour. Plan B was to take a ferry, but they
apparently weren't following their published schedule. So we walked back
around the Vagen (harbor), through the Fisketorget and onto the Bryggen,
where we visited the Hanseatisk Museum, the 16th century home and offices of
one of the German merchants who controlled Bergen and its cod trade for 300
years. They had an interesting set-up. No fires were allowed in the
houses, by the rules of the Hanseatic Office. So all cooking and
socializing were done in common "assembly rooms" and everyone slept in
cupboard beds (that reminded me of the "coffins" in the 4-4 at Fenway) to
keep warm. The merchants serving in Bergen were not allowed to be married,
nor to fraternize with the local women. Apprentices could become journeymen
in time, then move up to be the local agent of a Hansa merchant, then buy
their own "house" and move back to Germany to marry, raise a family, and run
their business long distance. After seeing the house, we walked up the
Ovregaten (High Street) to the Shotstuene, the surviving example of the
assembly rooms, with their ornate iron stoves and very simple kitchens. In
the dining hall, one of the three places of honor was labelled "Beerkoeper,"
so that was obviously an important role in the community.

From the Schotstuene, we crossed the street to the Mariakirke, where the
German community worshipped. Services were actually held in German until
the mid-20th century. It's a fairly simple building, with ornate
decorations provided by the merchants.

Our next stop, the Bryggens Museum, is a modern building, built over the
ruins of 12th century buildings, just down the hill from the Mariakirke.
The permanent exhibit focuses on late-medieval Bergen, while the upstairs
temporary exhibit of the moment was on the many roles of animals in medieval
Norwegian life.

On our way back through the Fisketorget, we picked up sandwiches of smoked
salmon and boiled shrimp, which were both fresh and lovely. From there we
walked past the Lille Lungegaardsvann, a small lake in a park that has a
lovely fountain in the middle, to the art museums. There are actually four
small museums, all in a row on Rasmus Meyers Alle, three of which are
included in a single ticket. Our first stop was the Stenersens Samlinger
(Collection) of 20th century art, including a fantastic room of eight works
by Paul Klee. This section of the gallery was dark, with spotlights
illuminating just the pictures. It was a very effective way of focusing
one's attention on the works. I have not previously been very excited by
Klee, but these works, particularly "Enclosure for Pachyderms," were quite
compelling. There was also a room of Picassos and a room of works by
Andreas Wols, with whose work I was previously unfamiliar, as well as a
selection of pieces by other artists.

Next down the row was the Bergen Kunstforening, the contemporary art
gallery, which was open despite being under renovation inside and out. The
current exhibition is the thesis works of the Kunsthoyskolen (Art School)
and included several interesting pieces, mainly in video. My favorite work
was actually an audio speaker made to look just like a rock. It's
surprising how disconcerting it is to have sound coming out of a rock.

On down the alley we entered the Rasmus Meyers Samlinger, with works by
various 19th and 20th century Norwegian artists, as well as room interiors
from 1750-1915, including a couple of rooms of work by Munch and artists who
were directly influenced by him.

The last gallery is the City Art Collection, where we saw mainly
contemporary works, in addition to a couple of rooms of landscapes by
J.C. Dahl and antique maps of Bergen. The most memorable piece in the
gallery was "Crickets," by Yoko Ono, which consisted of perhaps twenty
different wooden cricket cages hung from the ceiling. On the bottom of each
cage was a plaque with the name of a city and the date of a famous atrocity
that took place there (e.g. Hiroshima, August 6, 1945; My Lai; Phnom Penh;Dresden; Tibet; Sarajevo (both 1914 and 1992); Soweto). And then there's
New York City, December 8, 1980 and you think "what happened there, then?"
and then you remember and your breath catches and your eyes mist up. Or
they do if you're me. There was a guestbook underneath inviting guests to
write their own...Jason wrote "I have no cricket."

With three of the four galleries only half-open (the Stensersen and City Art
Collections were between special exhibits) the whole museum experience took
only 2.5 hours, but by the time we were done, we were pooped. After some
reinvigorating ice cream at the Fisketorget, we walked back to the hotel,
where Jason wrote email while I napped.

Jason had chosen that evening's dinner, based on the guidebook's
recommendation, so we had booked one of the six tables at Munkestuen, just
up the hill from our hotel. The surroundings were more homey than the
previous night and the food less elaborate, but still very, very good. On
the recommendation of the owner, I started with the oysters poached in a
scallion butter sauce (which I sopped up with the excellent fresh bread),
while Jason's first course was an ideal lobster bisque (hummersuppe), creamy
and just slightly smoky, with lots of lobster meat. I had beaten Jason to
the decision to have the reindeer fillet, with a twice-baked potato,
cauliflower, french beans, brussel sprouts (you're right, Anne, they're
perfectly edible with a good sauce), and sauteed mushrooms in a "sauce
Chevreuil," which was a creamy wine sauce. I was shocked by how tender the
reindeer meat was. Jason had a lovely wild boar fillet with a chickpea mash
and mustard sauce, served with the same potato and cauliflower, but with
snowpeas and asparagus. For dessert, Jason had the gratinated fresh berries
with a sweet muscat sorbet, while I had the creme brulee, which was okay,
but much improved when I got Jason to donate some of his berry sauce.

We headed back to the hotel and Jason packed up while I worked on email. We
had trouble getting to sleep, because of the street noise, but that was
greatly reduced when I realized that the cleaning staff had left the window
by our bed open at the top. We pried ourselves from bed at 6am and made it
through the breakfast buffet and out of the hotel by 7:30am. Our train was
at the platform when we arrived at the station, so we boarded immediately.
I went to sleep for the first couple of hours, not really waking up until
Myrdal. It was chilly on the train at first, but warmed up as we got back
down below the snowline on the eastern side.

Back in Oslo on Saturday afternoon, we checked back into the Bristol, threw
our luggage in the storage room and headed out to the Nationalgalleriet
around the corner. Arriving there just before three, we thought we had
until five, but it turned out the museum closes at four, leaving us with
half of the main floor still to see. We went back to the hotel to put our
stuff in a room (this one was not quite as nice as our last room--no tub,
some visible water damage, an older phone--but had an exciting jungle motif
to distinguish itself) before heading out again. We took the tram (or
"trikk" as the natives call it) up to the Frogen area and walked through
Vigelandparken. Gustav Vigeland was Norway's greatest sculptor and he
designed the Frogen Park's landscaping and created hundreds of sculptures
for it, including the 450 ton granite monolith that crowns the highest hill.
It's a beautiful place and was quite full on such a lovely day. We wandered
around there for over an hour and got a T-shirt and a Vigeland-designed
embroidery kit at the gift shop, then walked back down to the center of
town. After two nights of fabulous four-star dinners, we were ready for
something more basic, so we went back to Dinner for Chinese food. Jason's
seafood hotpot came with a lot of shells on and when he saw it, he got a
look of horror, so I shelled everything for him and made him share heavily.
I think our choices were not quite as good this time around, but it was
still a tasty and easy choice.

Once again we tried to use their business center to get online. They had
found the key, but only had a modem connection, where we needed an Ethernet
hookup. Jason went off to find the Internet cafe he'd noticed earlier
around the corner, while I had an amusing time returning the key and
explaining why we shouldn't be charged, since we were unable to use their
setup. My exchange with the deskclerk finally got down to me saying "I can
explain to you how the system works, which will take about ten minutes, or
you can just trust me that it isn't what we need." She laughed and agreed.

On Sunday morning, I was really ready to be headed home--my tummy was acting
up and my back was still sore and my feet were aching up to my knees--but
Jason was motivated to get to the Munch-museet, so after partaking of the
hotel's breakfast buffet, we took the T-bane up to the Toyen area. As a
former Bostonian, it's funny to me that the Oslo subway is also called the
"T" and has big round "T" signs marking the stations.

Munchmuseet (www.munch.museum.no) is a modern space, built to house the
collection of works the artist bequeathed to the city upon his death in
1944. The basement has a comprehensive biographical display about his life
and work. The main exhibit was somewhat disappointing. Many of the pieces
from his "Frieze of Life" that we saw in Arken were from this museum and
their absence was notable. It was interesting to get a picture of his
artistic process, which included multiple attempts to capture various
subjects and translation of the images into woodcuts and engravings.

Just across the street from the Munchmuseet are the natural history museums
of the University of Oslo. Set in a lovely park are museums of Botany,
Zoology, and Geology/Paleontology (www.toyen.uio.no). We spent about an
hour in the Geology museum, looking at cool rocks and trying to piece
together the illustrations and charts, since all the explanatory text was in
Norwegian. This was fairly unusual throughout Norway, as most museums at
least had translations of titles in English and often had English guides to
the collections.

We took the T back into the center of town and went to the two modern art
museums, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art and the Musset for
Samtidskunst (www.museumsnett.ni/mfs. The first was small, but quite
interesting, especially the special exhibit, "My Private Sky" by Borre
Saethre. We entered a room with some pink metallic slabs glued to the walls
and I was thinking that was kind of lame, when Jason wandered near enough to
the oval panel on the wall that it opened, revealing a corridor lined with
geometrically molded white foam, with grey carpet and a strip of overhead
light. We entered and the door shut behind us, leaving us in a corridor
with another panel at the opposite end. That opened, leading to a square
room with the center occupied by a solid core (so basically, it was a square
corridor around the room) and monitors on the walls, framed in chrome and
displaying firework-like explosions as a chiming, droning music filled the
air. At the far side of that was another panel, leading to another room,
this one also carpeted in grey, but with a wall of shaded windows to the
outside, and perhaps twenty elliptical, white, plastic, geometrical objects
(Jason describes them as a cross between an insect head and spaceship)
hanging from the ceiling to about five feet off the ground. There was
another freestanding box, perhaps forty feet long by twelve feet high by
twenty feet wide, taking up most of the larger room, with another oval panel
on the short side facing us as we entered the room. Through the doorway,
the room revealed was carpeted in royal blue on all surfaces, except along
the long walls, which were covered by a series of white bubble panels.
Almost at the far end of this chamber was a unicorn. A stuffed white horse
with a twisted horn of iron-grey to match its hooves was lying on its side
amid the blue. The air here was filled with an almost annoying tone. The
whole thing was very 2001, very surreal, with--as Jason put it--the sense
that you had entered a future that you could not possibly understand.

After that, the Museum for Samidskunst (Contemporary Art) was a bit of a
let-down. The exibited works consisted mainly of video installations, which
we didn't have time to sit and watch. Four of them (by one artist) were
series of groups of about twenty women in various states of semi- to
complete nudity just standing around in small rooms. There was one
interesting room of works by Marina Abramovic, a performance artist of the
70's whose new work, "Cleaning the Mirror I" (five stacked TV's showing the
artist's hands scrubbing a skeleton clean) we had seen in Arken as one of
the "influenced by Munch" works.

We sat in the courtyard outside the museum for a few minutes and then took
the T back up to the Nationalgalleriet and went in to look through the
section we'd missed the day before, including two rooms of Munch paintings
and some of the more modern Norwegian and European works, as well as a room
full of Russian icons. Leaving there we wandered down Karl Johans Gate,
looking for late lunch. The food court at the Paleet mall had been
recommended, but although the front doors were open, everything in the mall
was locked up tight. So we ended up at the sidewalk cafe in front of the
Grand Hotel, across from the parliament building, where I had a roastbeef
smorbrod (open-faced sandwich) and Jason got a bowl of strawberries and ice
cream and felt terribly decadent ordering only dessert.

One more trip back to the hotel to reclaim our luggage and then we hopped a
cab up to the train station and took the 20 minute express train to the
airport 50km outside the city. We checked in and got the tax on our one
large purchase (my sweater from Gudvangen) refunded and then hit the duty
free shops, where we found a sweater for Jason and a few other little
things. We still had an hour to kill, so we stopped by the Salmon House
restaurant and had a last seafood fix--a bowl of lobster bisque and a
combination plate of smoked salmon, mussels, shrimp and crayfish. Finally
it was time to board our flight.

The plane was fairly empty, so we could spread out across our row. I've
become fairly fond of British Air's inflight magazine and browsed through
that for most of the flight. We got a lovely sunset and then a great aerial
view of London on our approach. We got through immigration, found our bags
(the claim area was a real zoo and we were in the older, less-well-desiged
terminal), and headed for the tube. I spent the last leg of the trip
catching up this report, which made the stations fly by until at last we
were at Manor House. It's somehow still strange to feel at home in London,
but it was very good to see our newsagent and our doner kebab shop and our
bus rolling by as we walked down the hill. The house was fine, if a little
warm, but we opened up the windows and went through the mail and called our
mothers to say "Happy Mother's Day." We both set to work catching up on
email and it's gotten terribly late. So now it's time to send this behemoth
out and go to sleep.