Oslo
June 12–14, 2025
Our flight to Oslo included a stop in Tromsø, for reasons I won't try to explain. Whoever staffed that airport had not taken into account that actual airplanes with real passengers would land there, and many of them would have to exit their planes and retrieve their luggage, only to recheck the bags, go through security again, and get back on the same plane into the same seats we had earlier vacated. Fortunately, the plane waited for all of us to go through all that. They kept announcing that our plane was ready to shut the door and fly away. So a group of us followed the signs to the gate once we were cleared, and wound up in a locked glassed-in room. We could see the plane, but couldn't get to it or get back out. Eventually an airport employee found us and got a code to let us out. About 15 minutes after we were seated, another group of passengers managed to get on, and we were shortly in the air.
Thus we got to Oslo rather late and in less than jovial moods. Mary Jane and I decided that rather than waiting until we checked into the hotel and then having a nice supper, we ate at the Burger King that was conveniently in the food court of the airport. Then we caught the train that conveniently takes you from the airport into town.
We started the next day by going to the main square, where I photographed Mary Jane with the tiger. Then we bought our Oslo passes, that covered all our public transportation and museum entrances.
Then we caught the ferry to the Norwegian Folk Museum, which covers from the fifteenth century to the present. Two years ago it was pouring rain when we were there, so while Lee braved the elements, I visited indoor exhibits. Mary Jane wanted to see a stave church, and I wanted to see the various buildings I had missed seeing, so this large park was the obvious place for us to begin, especially since the weather was nice.
Different sections featured buildings from different parts of Norway.
The Church of Norway, an Evangelical Lutheran Church, was the state church of the country until 2012. Before that, other Protestant groups had their own chapels, and they were not called churches. Bethlehem, pictured below, was one of those chapels.
A law was passed requiring schools to be built. This one had living quarters for the teacher.
Buildings in the park were moved from different regions. Several were from Finnmark, in the far north.
The grasses growing on top of buildings helped keep them warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Periodically the farmer would carry a goat up on the roof to trim the vegetation.
A cattle barn
