Tuesday 2 August 2011

Museum Blitz

Yesterday we went to a lot of museums. First we took the transit downtown and went to an information center where we bought Oslo passes for 2 days 1 day costs 100 kroner ($20 Cad) and two days is only 20 kroner more for kids (220/340 for adults). On the first day after the information center we took the bus to Bygdoy and went to the Folk museum, the Kon-tiki museum the Fram museum and then the Maritime museum. Then we took the ferry across to the other side (because public transit is included). Then we walked to the palace to watch the changing of the guard and we also had lunch in a shady spot at the bottom of the hill.




Handstands at the folk museum outside the stave church which is from the 1200s, the city hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is given, and the royal palace.

Then since it was on our way we went to the new 2006 Ibsen museum where the made a replica (and used some real pieces of his house) of his apartment. Some things we learned about him were that he was really strict on time every day he would stop by the university and check his watch with the clock there. His schedule was this: he had a 1 and a half hour bath,work from 9 till 11 thirty,then walked to the Grand Cafe for German beer and reading the newspaper, then back writing for 5 hours, and another bath. He had a couch in his office so sometimes he would have a nap but if his wife heard him snoring she would come in and take the blanket. Ibsen has a portrait of another playwright who they each do not like the other behind his back when he was writing for inspiration. Daddy would have a whole row of portraits some days!

On the left is the Ra 2 at the Kon-tiki but they also had the original Kon-tiki raft that is made of balsa wood. On the right is a picture of a harpoon made from a Narwal tusk at the Fram museum.
At the resistance museum the first thing you see when you go is is this huge sculpture made of guns in the Nazi symbol and the last thing you see is the Germans surrendering. On the left is the changing of the guard at the royal palace.
 Here is a picture of me with the cannons at Akerhus castle.
Here is a picture of the scream I took at the Munch museum the painting was stolen for a few months before it was found a little while ago. Olaf said that the museum was given $5,000,000 for security before the painting was stolen but hadn't used it yet. So now it has bullet-proof glass over the scream and you cannot bring any bags into the museums. They also have metal detectors now in front of the ticket booth.




6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the pics.

    Interesting note about "The Scream."

    (You seem to spend a lot of time up-side-down.)

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  2. Yes the picture was actually painted when he was poor. He was walking with his friend and he saw and heard a scream just from his mood and the light.

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  3. Good thing you are keeping a Blog to keep track of everything. Otherwise, if it was me, I would forget all the various museums that I've been to. Especially, since you end up visiting so many.

    Your story about Ibsen is fascinating. He must have obsessive-compulsive disorder. 2 baths everyday and the morning bath is an hour and a half?!?! Maybe he was a germaphobe? Great work day though. Baths, beer and newspaper at the cafe and also napping at the office. Wonder if your Dad does that?

    I remember "The Scream" being stolen. So did Munch produce any other well known art?

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  4. I'm not sure what a germaphobe is buthe did have an hour and a half bath each day (he must have been pruned). some other famous paintings by munch are Madonna and Bathing Boys.

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  5. You sure know how to pack a lot into a day! But then, a day in Norway is 20 hrs long - ha ha! I liked your experience at the Ibsen Museum. He is one of "the four great ones" along with Alexander Kielland, Jonas Lie and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson of 19th-century Norwegian literature. Ibsen is generally acknowledged as the founder of modern prose drama. I am particularly fond of his plays "Pillars of Society" and "A Dolls House". Ibsen's works called into attention much of the social hypocracy that existed both between genders and within class systems of Norwegian society. At that time, it was shocking to talk about let alone put on play about unhappy marriages, infidelity, venereal disease, and the corrupt world of business. I would consider him the Charles Dickens of Norway. I think the writer you refer to that he dislikes is Strinberg who was the model for the lustful poet in Hedda Gabler. I am also a big fan of Edvard Munch's work. The Scream of course is a favorite not only for it haunting imagery but also becuase of how personally related it is to Munch's own inner pysche. It is what I would call an "honest painting" - one that comes directly from the soul uncensored and is rife with emotion. You cannot help but be effected by it when you look at it.
    So have you, Jaybob,and Jorgen started taking 2 hr baths and pruning? Sounds like that is the thing to do in Norway! I am sure Ibsen did it to keep warm as it can get pretty cold up there in winter and he did not have a uni slipper or a stuffed monkey to cuddle:-) oxoxxoox

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  6. The tour guide talked about A Dolls House and how he used the people and things from his life in his writings. It's 1 and a half hour baths and we haven't started taking even the 1 hour baths yet

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