Sarah Clark Visits Norway and We go to the Fjords

Sarah (Jean's sister) visited Oslo April 26 - 30, 2011.  It was her first time in Europe and she really enjoyed herself, it helped that the weather was great the entire time.  We had fun exploring Oslo, playing games, and seeing the fjords.  It was both of our first time seeing the fjords and going to Bergen.  It was beautiful. To see more photos, click here.

Vigeland Park	Fjord	Icebar

Greece April 16 to 25, 2011

Even though Norwegians are not very religious, they get a lot of religious holidays off including 3 days for Easter.  So we took advantage of this and did a 9 day trip to Greece.  We spent 5 days in Athen, including 2 day trips to Mycenea and Delphi, and then a 3 day Greek Islands cruise.  The cruise took us to Mykonos, Kusadasi (Turkey), Patmos, Heraklion (Crete), and Santorini.  During the trip, Lucas rediscovered backgammon and became so obsessed that he bought a set in Patmos.


To see more photos, click here.

Partheon

Mykonos

Santorini

Gressholmen Island

Some of Lucas's coworkers came to town April 11-15, 2011.  One of them bought his wife, Jessica, and Jean hung out with her during the week.  One of the days, they decided to go to Gressholmen, an island in the Oslo Fjord with an interesting history.  The story goes that some one didn't want their bunnies anymore, so they took them to Gressholmen and left them there.  The population ended up getting out of control.  Sometime during the last few years, the rabbits were euthanized (supposedly humanly) due to destroy the rare plant life on the island.

 

Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina April 6 - 10, 2011

After a visit with Matt and Renee in Oslo we traveled to Croatia. Upon arrival we drove down the coast to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik was beautiful with lots of places to wander around. The next day we drove into Montenegro.  The bay of Kotor was very nice but slippery. Driving up the mountain was a little nauseous but enjoyable.

The next day we finished up touring Dubrovnik before driving to Mostar, Bosnia.  The whole trip was amazing but Mostar was a surprise.  The whole town was wonderful and the reconstructed old bridge was great. We enjoyed a wonderful cheap meal by the bridge (everything was super cheap).

The next day we drove to Plitevice national park where we took a long hike before returning to Zadar for one final night before returning to Oslo.

Click here to see more photos.

Fram Ship Museum, Norwegian Maritime Museum, Kon-Tiki Museum, Viking Ship Museum, Ski Museum

On Sunday April 3, 2011 we all visited Bygdoy:

FRAM is the strongest wooden ship ever built and still holds the records for sailing farthest north and farthest south. The ship is there and we explored it.  We read how crew and their dogs lived and managed to survive in the coldest and most dangerous places on earth - the Arctic and the Antarctic.

 

The Norwegian Maritime Museum smells like cabbage and you can see fascinating environmental exhibitions about fishing, ship building, shipping, marine archeology and impressive collections of boat models and marine paintings. The museum's supervideograph presents Maritime Norway, a unique and fascinating panoramic view of maritime Norway. 

The Kon-Tiki Musuem is about Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) who gained worldwide fame when he crossed the Pacific Ocean on Kon-Tiki in 1947. He followed this up with spectacular expeditions on the reed boats Ra and Tigris. His recreations of prehistoric voyages showed that early man had mastered sailing before the saddle and wheel were invented.

 

 The Viking Ship Museum presents great Viking ship discoveries from Gokstad, Oseberg and Tune as well as other finds from Viking tombs around the Oslo Fjord.  The world's two best-preserved wooden Viking ships built in the 9th century. Small boats, sledges, cart with exceptional ornamentation. Implements, tools, harness, textiles and household utensils.

Holmenkollen Ski Museum and Tower a historic landmark in the Norwegian consciousness, Holmenkollen embodies more than a century of skiing tradition.  Inside the actual ski jump is the Holmenkollen Ski Museum, the world's oldest museum specialising in skis and 4,000 years of skiing history.  The observation  deck on top of the jump tower offers panoramic views of Oslo, of course when we where there it was  covered in a cloud and you couldn't see anything.

Parliament, Akershus Castle, Norwegian Resistance Museum, Nobel Peace Center

We've been out of commission for a while traveling and hosting visitors but we're going to try and get caught up. On April 1, 2011 Lucas's brother and sister-in-law came to Oslo. They were eager to see as much as possible so we used to opportunity to visit many sights in Oslo with them. First we took a tour of the Parliament building.

The Norwegian Parliament building was built in 1850.  It is where the 165 members of the Norwegian legislature work and debate the laws of the land.

Next, onto Akershus Fortress and Castle, first built in 1299.  This medieval castle and royal residence developed into a fortress in 1592, after which it was rebuilt into a renaissance castle 1637-1648.

Next to the castle is the Norwegian Resistance Museum which shows the five years of the Nazi's occupation of Norway from invasion to liberation.

Nearby is the Nobel Peace Center, it had an interesting exhibit on the most recent winner as well as information on all the previous winners. The Center seeks to promote popular interest in issues relating to war, peace and conflict resolution - in Norway as well as abroad.