Oslo, Norway

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:23 pm

I suppose most of you have heard about our capital through the news during since last Friday. We're not used to people knowing where Oslo is. We're not even used to people knowing where Norway is. I've heard people stating that Norway is the capital of Sweden. Close, but no cigar. We were governed by Sweden until 1905 when we decided we wanted a divorce, but made our constitution in 1814. We had a long separation process. I'll leave the old stuff for now and return to the present. We went to Oslo for some children's education regarding government, royalty, polar researchers, semi-mad explorers and old vikings, with a bit of art in between.

When we landed at Gardermoen airport we got 16Ã‚Â°C (61Ã‚Â°F) and rain. We left sun and 36Ã‚Â°C (97Ã‚Â°F) behind. Reality check! Our camping car was waiting for us at the airport so we drove to Oslo and found a nice camping site with good public transport to Oslo center. This is what we managed to cram into our four days' stay.

Oslo's main street, the Karl Johan:

Karl Johan - Oslo's main street ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Stortinget:

Stortinget - the Government building ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Spikersuppa got it's name because it was created by a nail manufacturer, Christiania Spigerverk, in 1956.

Spikersuppa - The Nail Soup ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Oslo was named Christiania from 1624 to 1925 when we decided we wanted the proper name back. 600.000 of Norway's 5 million people live in Oslo.

The tower of the City Hall has Europe's largest clock, or so we've been told. It's 8 meters in diameter. It also has a nice bell tower. This is where the Nobel Peace Price seremony is held on December 10th every year.

The City Hall ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Then for the royalty bit. What we grandly call a castle would fit into one of the wings at Windsor, London. The castle was intended to house the Swedish-Norwegian king Karl XIV Johan, in Norway Karl III Johan, after whom the main street's named. He never saw it finished, and his successor King Oscar I made some changes to it before it was declared fit for a king in 1849

The Royal Castle ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Here is aforementioned King Karl Johan on his horse. Evil tongues have it that this French general was offered the throne of Sweden (including Norway) because he was rich, and Sweden needed the money. When serving as a general under Napoleon Bonaparte his name was Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. He took a Scandinavian name when accepting the crown but never managed to learn Swedish. The court had to speak French instead.

King Karl III Johan of Norway/Karl XIV Johan of Sweden ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

The following photos are from Akershus fortress. It started out as a medieval castle but was rebuilt in the 1600s into a reinforced renaissance castle. It was expanded and modified from when it was first built until around 1750, but it still had it's uses. It served as a prison for years after. The restauration started around 1800 and isn't done yet. *lol* Today Akershus is a banquet hall, the royal mausoleum and several museums. I have to add that while Akershus was still a fortress no enemy power managed to take it:

Akershus fortress ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Akershus fortress ( photo / image / picture from Droopy's Garden )

Gosh, it's late. I have to continue with Nansen, Amundsen, Thor Heyerdahl, Munch and Vigeland some other day.

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Comments

toni wrote on Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:30 pm:

Great photos and thanks for sharing your countries history.

Looking forward to the next installments of your history...especially the old Vikings. Vikings have always fascinated me for some reason.

Frank wrote on Sat Jul 30, 2011 6:42 am:

>>> When serving as a general under Napoleon Bonaparte his name was Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. He took a Scandinavian name when accepting the crown but never managed to learn Swedish.

I remember hearing about this Droopy.

From the photos it doesn't look too cold but I guess appearances can be deceiving.

Thanks for posting your photos!

eileen wrote on Sat Jul 30, 2011 8:47 am:

Oh I really enjoyed reading this blog entry and seeing your photographs Droopy. I'm really looking forward to the next installment from your holiday.

Jewell wrote on Sat Jul 30, 2011 3:35 pm:

Wonderful guided tour Droopy. Yes, more please :)

Tooty2shoes wrote on Sat Jul 30, 2011 7:39 pm:

Very nice photo's. I love history as seeing such interesting places. Thank you.

Sjoerd wrote on Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:46 pm:

Oh Droopy, I really liked this historic selection. That fortress looked quite interesting both inside the walls and outside the wall.
I found the gate interesting but could not decide if you were looking outside from inside or vice-versa.

The gov't. buildings were also interesting as was the crew in rain kit. I had to look at that scene a couple of times. chuckle.