Oslo

Well, we made it to Oslo last Thursday. We are tied up at the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club. It is in a suburban location but it is also within walking distance of half a dozen museums. Four of them have “maritime” exhibits.

The weather has been cool and variable. We spent the first day enjoying the sunny weather, scrubbing the boat and doing a chores where we could enjoy running water and power.There have several boats of assorted nationalities coming in and out. Across the dock there is a classic German 12 metre built in 1938.

Saturday was cool and damp so we headed off to the local museums. We have been using a ferry to get around. It leaves from the dock right next to the Yacht Club.

First stop was the Norwegian Maritime Museum. It had many interesting exhibits but I found the layout a little disjointed. There were boats tied up outside but more information would have been nice.

So… do you think he looks like a seafarer?

One of the impressive things about all of the maritime museums was the full size craft. All of which were original.

This large and heavy boat would have been made easier to row with the weighted oars.

Norway has an impressive history of involvement in the cruise ship industry dating back to the turn of the 20th century, . It has certainly taken advantage of the spectacular scenery here, but its ships have ventured to most of the worlds hot destinations as well.

There was only a small corner devoted to pleasure sailing, primarily through the first half of the 20th century when seafarers went from competing in fishing and working boats to the more affluent citizens and their custom yachts built to take advantage of racing handicap rules.

There was a large exhibit about the oil industry and a room dedicated to Norwegian maritime art.

Our next stop was the Fram Museum. This museum tells the story of Norwegian polar exploration.

The Fram Museum was inaugurated on 20 May 1936. It honours Norwegian polar exploration in general and three great Norwegian polar explorers in particular—Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen. The museum also exhibits images of the fauna of the polar regions, such as polar bears and penguins.

The Fram Museum is centered principally on the original exploration vessel Fram. The original interior of Fram is intact and visitors can go inside the ship to view it. Fram was commissioned, designed, and built by Scots-Norwegian shipbuilder Colin Archer to specifications provided by Norwegian Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who financed the building of the ship with a combination of grant monies provided by the Norwegian government and private funding in 1891.

The Gjøa was the first ship to be sailed through the entire Northwest Passage. Roald Amundsen and his six companions accomplished this in 1903-06.

One of the other exhibits in this museum that fascinated Alan was the story of John Franklin He explored the Canadian arctic until his ships were lost in Hudson Bay. Unfortunately the museum does not yet acknowledge that one of the ships, Erabus. has recently been found.

We moved on to the museum which tell the story of Kon Tiki which tells the story of Thor Hyerdahl. He set out to prove that the natives of Peru could have sailed to and populated the south Pacific islands. He found it impossible to get anyone to take him seriously until he convinced the Peruvian Government to sponsor the expedition. To do this he built a balsa raft in Peru and set sail with absolutely no sea trial.

Arriving safely, they were feted as heroes. . Hyderdahl went on to make many more voyages in a variety of craft. One fascinating exhibit depicted his visit to the Easter Islands and his research how the famous moai were carved and moved.

In spite of the weather, the day ended with ice cream.

Yesterday, we took it easy and boarded the ferry for the city. Our plan was to do just one museum that we had both been looking forward to. The Nobel Peace Center. For a museum that only has words and pictures to show, they did a very good job, telling the stories of 114 years of recipients. A little technological wizardry helped to make it engaging. The primary exhibit is about the 2014 recipients with the story of Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi’s unstoppable fight for children’s rights.

Malala, a young girl that was targeted and shot for her vocal support of the right  of children to get and education. Kailash is crusader in India that truly loves his life and his ability to help children get an education.

I left the building thinking about what I could do to help just a tiny part of the world.

We were brought back to earth as we discovered that we could not buy something as basic as a loaf of bread. It was Sunday. Time for plan B, so we headed back to the boat and Alan made bread. Lovely aromas to end the day.