We were offered champagne when we went down to breakfast which surprised us, maybe tomorrow. After breakfast we walked about 30 minutes to catch the ferry across the harbour to the Fram Museum and saw the outside of their National Parliament. Once we worked out the correct terminal, it was a comfortable ride across to the museum.
The
Fram was a polar exploration ship used by Roald Amundsen, famous for being
the first to the South Pole. A national hero of Norway, he was to die in an
aircraft search looking for a lost polar explorer in an Italian airship in
1928.
There were
lots of AV presentations and special effects to supplement the experience. A highlight
was to go into a very cold exhibit room with a moving deck floor. Once outside
again our glasses continued to fog up until the lenses would warm up to room
temperature. For these early explorers, you really have to admire their courage
and mental toughness.
We then
ventured across the road to the Kon-Tiki Museum. The Kon-Tiki expedition was an
attempt by Thor Heyerdahl to prove that people could sail from South America to
the islands in the South Pacific on a balsa wood raft (This is an oversimplified
version). He built it in South America and the locals said it was a death trap.
He also seems to have acquired artefacts from Easter Island (which is now called Rapa
Nui).
Later he built
two rafts with papyrus reeds to prove how far the Egyptians could sail. He had to build two because the first one
sank. He then built the Tigris which burnt down to the water line.
After an initially very crowded bus trip to
the Norwegian Folk Museum we saw some interesting exhibits on social history.
They have a lot of historic buildings that have been relocated to the site.
Most
interesting was the stave church, which is a wooden Christian church popular in
northwestern Europe.
Some medieval buildings for ordinary folk. Grass rooftops are all the rage now.
A tent of
the Sami who are the indigenous peoples of the Arctic…very big into reindeer
herding.
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