Continuing with Thursday August 10
After lunch we walked to the Norsk Folkemuseum, an open-air museum. It also was a bit like a living history museum as we found out. We paid the entrance fee for seniors which was reasonable and there was no long line.
The museum contains very old historic houses from all over Norway painstakingly dismantled where they were and brought here and erected again. When I say "old" you will be surprised.
We got a map, even in English. But the map was not to scale and when you walked the trails the houses didn't seem to be were you thought they were. When we decided that we didn't have enough time to see it all we gave up on the map. We are pleased though that we saw the most important things. And it was awesome.
First, at the entrance, you come to the Square. These houses contain exhibits.
We went into the first one we passed and it was about the Sámi. I think you could think of them somewhat like the native indians in the USA. I admired the the costumes with stitching in pretty colors and the weaving.
In the morning our local guide had told us about the history. The capital city had been called Christiania at 1624 by King Christian IV but renamed Oslo in 1925.
The Stave Church is dated from about 1200 and totally out of wood with massive pillars. We were in awe and so happy that we saw it. It reminded us a bit about the church we saw on an Island in Russia when we went on the river cruise in 2003.
This lady in a period costume was there to answer questions and gave us a lot of information which made it even more interesting.
It was very dark in the church. She said windows had not been invented yet but there were round holes high above to let some light in.
Many houses, whether they were dwellings like farmhouses, storage or animal housing buildings, all had beautiful ornaments and carvings.
In this farmhouse we found a fiddler. She played lovely folk songs and the fire in the fireplace was cosy.
This gentleman talked about the middle ages Nordic Runes. We saw small groups of children, also in costume, walking about (summer camp) and he was there to show them how to make a name tag with those letters. Very interesting.
Opposite was this wooden building which he called the oldest wooden dwelling in the world.
Here we saw traditional way to make Lefse, a kind of flatbread. Looked a bit like pizza crust to me. You could buy a piece for 35 kroner but only cash which I found strange since they take a credit card even for the toilets.
Many of the old houses had things growing on the roof. But this one was almost new: from 1845.
And then we were suddenly at Telemark where we tried to go too because we had heard about the traditional dancing. We arrived just at the right time (and found steps to sit on). It started with traditional herding calls. A lady who also played the fiddle did vocal sounds. This lady used a horn made out of birch and birch bark which is very light and easy for the herder to take along.
Then they performed the traditional dancing. The VIDEO will came later. Sorry.
She showed those interested in her instrument. The Hardanger Fiddle is the Norwegian National Instrument and different because it has 9 strings, but not all are played (?).
And then we are back at the entrance. It is almost 4 pm and I don't mind. I am on "information overload". We were so lucky with the weather and thoroughly enjoyed everything.
We had been given a transportation ticket in the morning which is good for 24 hours after you activate it and we were told how to do that. Across from the museum was one of the stops for bus 30 and it came soon. We got in and it took us to the National Theater where we got out. I took a photo of course.
Then we walked passed the Royal Palace, actually through the royal park, to the hotel. James' suitcase was still not there even though we know that it is at the Oslo Airport. We were told by our guide that this was common. A bit hard for us to accept.
At 6 pm we are to be in the lobby to go to our welcome dinner. Our guide Stephen decides that we should actually take the tram since we all have our tickets. Once you have a ticket activated you just need to have it in your pocket in case somebody checks. Of course I had to take a picture of James. We were told to have our whispers turned on so he could tell us when to get off. It all works really well.
We get out at the cathedral and walk to the restaurant which is very close.
Just over the street. The restaurant is called : Stortorvets Gjæstgiveri and is very historic. I managed to find it on Wikipedia and turn the site into English.
First we were upstairs for a "welcome talk" by our guide. Then we went downstairs and sat at 2 tables. We are 18 travelers. Main meal was fish and very nice. Forgot to take a picture. We also had a glass of red wine (or beer if you wanted). The waiter gave us a talk about the history of this oldest place.
Dessert was "brown cheese ice cream". The brown cheese is a Norwegian specialty and made from goats' milk. I could not find any goat cheese taste. It was just very nice ice cream. Very creamy.
A mini statue of King Christian IV over the fireplace (when we left).
Outside after dinner we had the choice of taking the tram back or turning right and walk to the hotel. James and I were among those choosing walking.
And we heard that we are quite lucky with the weather. Just two days earlier was a terrible storm with lots of rain. So much that some roads have washed out and OAT is analysing whether our routing to drive to Bergen via Flam area needs to be adjusted. Fingers crossed.
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