Oslo
June 12–14, 2025
I continued the Folk Museum visit with some of the indoor exhibits. You can see more at the pages for my 2023 visit.
There is a building with exhibits relating to the Reformation. The main room is open only for special occasions. I took pictures through the glass and then some from the balcony, which is open for visitors.
The glass reflections present a challenge for photographing this organ.
The four stops are a 4′ Flöte, an 8′ Gedakt, an 8′ Gamba, and an 8′ Principal.
We didn’t head to the other Bygdøy museums. I had enjoyed seeing the Kon Tiki and the Fram last time, but I figured they were more interesting to guys, so thought I would spare Mary Jane. Rather than walking back down to the ferry, we took Bus No. 30, which drove us through residential areas and into a park area that led on into downtown. We had a very pleasant walk through the area. I ate some gelato. The building pictured below is part of the university’s cultural heritage museum, I think. We walked on to visit the Lutheran cathedral. It had closed for the day, so it was on our agenda for Friday. On Fridays it is closed during the day. I attended a very fine organ concert there in 2023 and took some pictures of the church. I had spent more time in Oslo on that trip, and so I didn't take very many pictures this time. You can see my pictures of Oslo from that trip here.
So the next day we headed to the cathedral to discover that we had missed seeing the interior yet once again. We wandered around that area a bit and then went to catch the tram back to the waterfront area. I really enjoyed seeing the decorations on the buildings.
We spent much of the rest of the day at the National Museum. I did not take many pictures, since I had taken so many the time before. This museum has the famous color version of The Scream. An earlier version is at the Munch museum, and I posted both versions on the 2023 pages. Below is their article on the important painter J. C. Dahl. Oddly, this time I took a shot of just a painting of Themas Fearnley.
After the long museum visit, we still had plenty of daylight and beautiful weather. We strolled along the waterfront and checked out restaurant menus along the way. Pictures don't do justice to how it felt to be there. Eventually we decided to eat at an Italian restaurant named Olivia. I recalled liking it on my previous trip. Our waiter turned out to be a 6′ 10″ basketball player who had played the previous season in Spain. He attended a prep school in the US and played for a year at a Division 3 college until he was injured. He hopes to get a shot at playing in a Division One school in the US. I asked him for contact information and said I'd pass his info along to the Davidson coach. To my surprise, Matt did check out his record and said if he is talking with a coach who needs to add some height, he would pass the name along. (As David Rorie says, “You can’t teach tall.”) So if you ever hear of a baskeball player named Erik Hjallum, you’ll know we heard of him first. He is an excellent waiter, at least.
We rode the tram back into the center of town so Mary Jane could see the opera house, though it was too late to visit.
The next morning we got down to the hotel lobby by 4:30 am (10:30 pm the night before in these parts). The hotel had prepared a bag breakfast for us and had booked a cab to pick us up to drive us to the airport. (The train wouldn't run until 5:30.) Everything went like clockwork from then on, other than Mary Jane’s luggage was left in Charlotte as she flew on to Richmond. The bag was delivered to her house at 5:00 the next morning. Below is a screenshot from my phone of the information it received during the flight from Oslo to Munich. I had plenty of time before I would board my flight from Munich to Charlotte, so I enjoyed time in a Lufthansa lounge. I ate another breakfast to hold me until whatever meals they were serving on the plane. It had been a wonderful trip.
