Norwegian Saga

Sorry for the radio silence folks. Monday afternoon my sister arrived in Norway to visit me for a week, so it’s been kind of busy. As part of my tourist guide duties we went to two museums (a third one is outside nearby but due to the cold we skipped it).

We were to take a tourist ferry ride from the Oslo harbour to Bygdøy but it wasn’t to be, the fjord was full of ice. So we had to bus it which was less fun.

The first place we visited was the Viking Ship Museum which I think I’ve mentioned before, and if I haven’t I’m going to be making another trip there so I will get plenty of photos for you then. A few facts about the ships for you, they were far advanced for their time (c.900AD). They had a full length keel, they had a low length/width ratio and a relatively low to the water construction which gave them a very shallow draft. The plank joining method also resulted in grooves under the ship which formed air pockets which in turn reduced friction and added buoyancy. The construction technique also allowed for the ship to be very flexible and I don’t mean in capability, I mean physically, it flexed with the waves. The ship was sealed with a unique mixture of materials that helped keep it clean so junk wouldn’t glue itself to the hull, as well it wouldn’t crack which helped the ship to flex without leaking. So these ships really were quite impressive. Of course many modern scholars try to play this down claiming that every culture had these kinds of vessels but they just haven’t been found yet; a point impossible to argue.

The second museum which I hadn’t been to previously was the Polar Ship Fram. The ship had sailed three voyages, two to the north pole and one to the south pole. The ship was massive, not in length but in thickness. It was fortified against the ice and so forth. The museum itself was very interesting as well. The entire ship was inside a triangular prism type of building and you could walk around the ship on three levels, then at the highest floor there was a boardwalk across to get onto the ship where you could explore the behemoth. It was great. Enjoy the few photos.

Later in the evening we went to dinner at Anne Marit’s parent’s place. Where I think my sister felt somewhat at home with all of the political arguing and debating. The entire evening was spent talking about politics so I’m hope she wasn’t bored.

This post covers the 23rd and 24th of February. Next post will be about the rest of the week.

Cheers all.

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