One of my longtime cyber-friends is a geology professor at the University of Norway, so when I took a trip to England a few years ago, I also took the opportunity to hop a flight over to Oslo for a few days to visit with Torfinn. By happenstance, I got there just a short while after the Breivik bombing and shootings. Torfinn was able to give me a guided tour of everything interesting in Oslo. So here are some of my photos:
The city of Oslo.
Oslo Fjord.
Oslo and the Fjord.
The King's gardens, now a public park.
Medieval gravestones, from a ruined church near the King's garden.
Oslo University Museum. "Stan", a nearly complete T rex skeleton.
"Stan".
Oslo University Museum. "Ida", the most complete early primate. The preservation in this fossil is magnificent--hair, internal organs, stomach contents--all are visible. I had already seen a cast of this fossil in the Natural History Museum in London, but it was truly wonderful to see the original here.
Oslo University.
Viking Ship Museum, near the Fjord..
There are three different Viking longboats displayed here. The ships were used as burials.
Viking artifacts recovered from the buried ships.
The "Fram" Museum. Roald Amundsen's ship used to reach the South Pole. The entire ship is preserved inside the museum.
The Open Air Museum. A series of historical Norwegian buildings, from the Viking era to the 1960's, are reconstructed here as a living history exhibit.
Historical re-enactor.
Stave Church. Open Air Museum.
Interior of stave church.
Open air museum.
Sculpture Park, Oslo.
"The Angry Baby". Sculpture Park.
Sculpture Park.
Sculpture Park. The statues represent all stages of life.
The Royal Palace, Oslo.
The Parliament Building, Oslo.
The old Akershus Fortress.
The Cannon Battery that protected the harbor.
The Opera House.
The Fist and Rose statue. Oslo.
Ruins of a medieval abbey, and a reconstructed model.
Memorial at the spot where the Nazis executed captured Resistance fighters.
Government building in downtown Oslo. I was there just after the bombing and mass shooting--the broken windows were still covered.