Oslo is interesting full of art Sculpture and Vikings

Sunshine and clear skys woke us this morning. .A very welcome Good Morning

Our brief discussion over breakfast concluded we can drive into the viking ships museum and just down the road is the Kontiki museum.

Kathie is not so keen on Museums.

But the viking ships have a 4.5 review with about 5000 contributions to that.Plus Mike Lowe  recommended it..so it is a must do.

Well 🙂 we were not disappointed. 

Firstly staggered that the vikings had technology enough to build a big ocean going vessel in about 900 ad.

Surprised they traveled west as far as Newfoundland,so they were the first Europeans to settle on the american continent in about 1000 ad.

I think they had a lot going on at that time and had no chance to follow up and settle there. They traveled east and north north of Russia ..south and east through the Mediterranean to Istanbul (Different name in 1000 ad)

And certainly some violent contact with England Ireland  and Scotland. 

Incidentally a some interesting facts surround the events of 1066 and William the Conqueror...No event in history lives in isolation..they all link and interplay. 

Firstly Normandy is named after the people from the north. .yes there was a big settlement of Scandinavians  in about 911 they clearly maintained communication over time because when England's king Edward the confessor died without an heir..they set a plan in motion.the Vikings from Norway invaded in the North of England in early September.

King Harold  defeated the invaders only to have William the Conquoror invade near Hastings  in late September. So the battle worn troops had to march for 2 weeks to Hastings to fight the invaders..the result is history..October 14th 1066 King Harold was killed. William marched on to London and was crowned King...though it was a Norman Victory..it was the result of an alliance with Scandinavia. (Bear in Mind The Crusades were big at this time ..so many skilled fighting men were busy in the east trying to help wronged Christians in another country )

French was the language of the court and aristocracy for many years.

At that time  Norway Sweden and Denmark were one country ruling Iceland Greenland Finland. .and trading with countries as far away as Turkey.

Their ship's were  bigger and faster than any other. 

This one had 32 oarsmen and a 400 square foot sail.. The sail cost as much as the boat to make . They even had plugs for the holes for the Oars when sailing.

The ship's at the museum were discovered intact because they were buried in Clay as coffins for very important people at the time. The many artifacts buried with the important people were beautifully restored and displayed today....these ships were discovered on the late 1800s and 1905 ..were housed in this  specially built museum in 1935.

The museum itself is fantastic and the 3D audio visual show  is great .

No Time to slow down, while we are rolling, we are down the road to the Kontiki Museum..

It is more of an expo-say of Thor Heyerdahl an incredible modern day explorer /adventurer scientist. He is a botanist by training who in his postings around the world noticed similarities in culture between Peruvian people and the Egyptians (They worship the sun god and build pyramids)

also he noticed the similarities between Peruvian people and the Polynesian people esp Easter island 

so he set about proving that Polynesian people may well have migrated there from Peru thousands of years ago. He built a craft using identical materials and techniques that were available several thousand years ago. 

Yes in 1947 it took 101 days and he made his navigation by stars, using the trade winds and ocean currents to sail and beach his craft in Polynesia. All  with no previous experience of sailing.

Later in 1970  he managed on teh second attempt to sail from Morocco in a  Papirus boat to Barbados 

I knew there is a big Park full of sculptures not far away so off to Vigeland Park in Town . 

Gustav Vigeland 1869-1943   In 1921 Vigiland donated all his works to the city of Oslo. He continued to work on his sculpures from 1924 until his death in 1943. there are  hundreds of bronze and granite sculptures 

and they are incredible thought provoking.

all men women and children are naked and in hundreds of poses each showing differnt aspects of human nature some kind and caring fiun and some full of anger

Thought provoking