Oslo, Norway - July 4th - Day 3

Bar Code Project Buildings

I managed to get 8 hours of sleep (as opposed to less than 2 hours on the plane).  We headed down to breakfast around 7 AM and they had a wonderful buffet!  

We had an Oslo City Tour scheduled at 10 AM but I spent the time in between trying to resolve Glitch #2...more on that later.

Our tour around the city took us by the Akershus Fortress built in the late 1290s, through beautiful residential sections and by the Nobel Peace Center.  The Nobel Peace prize is the only Nobel prize presented in Norway (the rest are presented in Sweden).

Edvard Munch Museum
Oslo (and Norway in general) are focused on becoming "green".  Electric vehicles are common including most of their buses (and soon all of them).  This creates a paradox for them as one of the world's biggest oil producers (see article).  Their oil revenues have created the world's largest sovereign fund which benefits their citizens and is worth about $250,000 per citizen.

Oslo is home to the Edvard Munch (of "The Scream" fame) Art Museum.  



We visited the Vigeland Installation in Frogner Park...the world's largest sculpture park made by one artist (Gustav Vigeland).  The park contains over 212 statues of his statues in bronze and granite sculptures. 

 



We were previously in Oslo in 2004 on a Baltic Cruise with my family although I have to say it is clear I don't remember much. We visited this park (I have pictures) but I really don't remember it.  

But the city has also changed a lot since then.  The Edvard Munch Museum, the opera house on the fjord shaped like an iceberg and the bar code buildings are all new.

Our tour ended with a visit to the Norwegian Maritime Museum.  We had previously visited the Viking Museum which is currently closed for renovation.  The Maritime Museum has one of the viking boats from the Viking Museum.  We saw a couple of short films about the construction of Viking boats (they are still trying to figure out all the nuances).  

We finished the day with dinner on the restaurant at the top of our building...Moules Frites...one of my favorites.  More tomorrow.

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