0317 Exploring Oslo 2

1^st August 2015

So good we came back for more !

We had enjoyed our taste of Oslo yesterday, so we decided to come back for seconds today.  The museums looked pretty interesting, so we picked 3 and prepared to spend most of the day in town. 

The camp site in Ekeberg is on a hill overlooking the city and the fjord and surrounding hills, just 2.5 kms from the centre. Once again they had a lot of mud and soft areas due to all the recent rain, but we managed to find a suitable place, although as we were to find out during the night, it was a little close to a road ! 

I woke up early early and then spent 30 minutes outside the shower block waiting for them to open at 7 am !! Once open, they were good hot showers though !  We then got packed up, tried to dry our laundry from last night as much as we could, and after spending a little bit of time trying to upload photos etc to my blog (seeing we had to pay for access might as well use it !) we wandered into town to find the museums.  It was a clear blue sky this morning, which was a first for some time, but this meant it was quite cool as well.

We parked at the end of the “Museum Road” in Bygdoy, and had a bit of trouble understanding the ticket machine for the car park.  Well, we didn’t think we didn’t understand it, but as we found out later, we did !  Whoops.

First we visited the Thor Heyerdahl / Kon Tiki museum.  I grew up with stories about this and his subsequent adventures, so found this really interesting to see the raft itself.  He was actually at sea on his journey when I was born on 2^nd Aug 1947 !!   Very small when you see it up close, especially for 6 grown men for 100 days !  This balsa wood raft proved that people could have sailed across the pacific in ancient times, following the currents, and the theory has since be confirmed by DNA analysis.   His later voyages in Ra, and then Ra II

when Ra sank due to faulty construction, showed that voyages from Northwest Africa to the Caribbean and Americas were also possible, this time using reed boats similar to those on the Nile and also in Peru even today. His later work on Easter Island showing how the statues there could be carved, moved, and erected also were the start of the popularity of Easter Island to tourists today.   This was a great Norwegian Explorer, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing everything in the exhibit.

From there we moved on to the Fram Museum just across the road.  The Fram was a wooden sailing vessel that was built in the late 1800’s specifically for Arctic Exploration. Its hull was smooth and rounded in the belief that this would allow it to become ice bound without being damaged by the ice, and the oak hull was 1.25 metres thick at the bow and 80 cm thick on the sides, with 3 layers of wood.  In September 1893 Nansen sailed the Fram through the NW Passage and purposefully let it get stuck.  Its rudder and propeller were raised (part of the design) to prevent

damage, and a windmill erected to provide electricity.  After initial misgivings that the theory of the Arctic Icecap being an ocean might be incorrect because they moved so slowly, they eventually came out of the ice near Svalbard on the 14^th Aug 1896.  Their theory that the Arcitic is an ocean surround by land masses was proved correct, and they drifted to a record 85^o57’ 

Also of interest was the use of Fram by Roald Amundsen in his expedition to the South Pole.  The display included a fascinating side by side time line comparison of Scott’s ill-fated journey compared to Amundsen, with one of the main differences being Amundsen’s use of dogs compared to Scott’s use of horses and 3 motorized sleds.  All in all, another fascinating museum.

From the Fram we moved on to even older ships – The Viking Ships built in 820 AD which, after being used as normal ships for some time, were then used as burial vessels to carry their wealthy owners into the after life, and contained food, clothing, carriages, horses, and much more.  The first of these, at Oseberg, were discovered in 1903, and obviously some of the best methods of preservation used in those days have now proven to be highly unsuitable in the long term, and now it is a race against time to undo the damage done so some of the earliest know remains and artifacts can be preserved for the future.  Once again, a fascinating hour spent soaking up all the information and incredible history.

When we returned to the car after the Fram Museum, we found a parking ticket on the car ! It turned out that “per time” means “per hour” in Norwegian, and not “per each time in the car park”, like we thought !   They do allow one to write to explain extenuating circumstances, so that is what we intend to do – Cry poor !!  And ignorant.

We had some lunch in the car park after the Burial Ships museum, and by then it was mid afternoon, so we decided to head out of Oslo towards our next destination – Larvik, down to the SW of Oslo – Where an ex work friend currently lives, and we plan to catch up with him tomorrow, before we head west to Bergen.  We got out of town quite easily, and found that there was a camp site beside a river in a town called Dramman.  Once we got there, it was such a great spot, and the sun was shining, so we decided to stay there and then just have an easy run down to Larvik tomorrow.  

Photos are here :-   https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0317ExploringOslo2?authkey=Gv1sRgCJHWrYPb1MfHMg