After we left Kirkenes, we flew to Oslo. On the way to the hotel we visited the famous Vigeland Sculpture Park. You can read about the park and the history of its construction here.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. The bus dropped us off at the back of the park and we walked "backwards" through the display, beginning at the final display and working our way down to the main entrance. The sculptures portray human experience and striving at all times of life. Some are lighthearted, some are serious, some from a realm of fantasy. The women in our group, all "of a certain age" were quite pleased to see the late midlife female body portrayed with an affectionate realism.

The next morning, we spent some time with a Norwegian diplomat, who gave us insight on Norway as a small country in a big world. She shared her insights from several years posted in various stations around the world.

In all our discussions with Norwegians, we found them quite straightforward in their disagreement with American policies of the last 4-5 years, courteous yet inflexible in pointing out what they perceive as our errors. Since almost everyone in our group agreed, the moments when criticisms were delivered passed by smoothly.

Then we were off to the Viking Museum. Contrary to the legends involving drifting boats set aflame which I have heard all my life, the Vikings assembled a great boat at the death of a king or great leader, and buried the boat outfitted with everything they imagined the deceased would need in the next life. Some of these boats have been excavated and reassembled and are on display.

Then off to the Kon Tiki museum of Thor Heyerdahl. He was convinced that primitive peoples were able to transverse oceans in simple rafts. I really enjoyed the museum. In addition to replicas of the two rafts, there is an extensive exhibit of photographs and trip logs maintained by Heyerdahl. Photos of our last afternoon are here

After an elegant lunch of fish soup, we crossed the harbor on the small ferry boat and returned to the hotel. That evening we shared an elegant farewell dinner at an historic restaurant.

I'll summarize my overall reactions in the next entry.