Strolling Further Through Olso to the Viking Ship Museum

From Vigeland Sculpture Park, we continue walking through Oslo toward the Viking Ship Museum, located in a complex of museums across the harbor from downtown Oslo.  We see more grand Oslo residences as we walk around the harbor.

Living spaces

And, for serious hauling in this bicycle-oriented community, a shop offers large carriers on the front of bicycles.

Bicycle shop

We're only a short distance from the center of Oslo, but we're passing through fields and farms just across the harbor from the center of town.  The city's population of around 670 thousand people apparently hasn't grown in this direction.

 Across the harbor

The Viking Ship Museum is part of the University of Oslo (along with the Museum of Cultural History which holds a collection of over one and one half million objects dating from the Stone Age to recent times).  The Viking Ship Museum has the world's best-preserved Viking ships, once used as ocean-going vessels and later drawn up on land to be used as burial ships.  The museum holds three burial ships and the unique artifacts retrieved from the sites where the ships were found.

 The Oseberg Ship

 The Gokstad Ship

The Tune Ship

The Oseberg Ship was built around 820 and in 834 was used as a burial ship for two powerful women, with a rich collection of burial gifts, including elaborate sleighs, a wooden cart, carved animal head posts, beds, and the skeletons of 15 horses, six dogs, and two cows.  The Gokstad and Tune Ships were built around 900 and used as burial ships approximately 10 years later.

 Burial gifts in the ships

The road outside the museum leads us to the ferry terminal that will carry us across the harbor, back toward the center of town.  This part of Oslo contains incredible homes lining the street leading to the ferry.

 Grand houses

The short ferry ride to the terminal near city hall drops us by the Akershus Fortress, a medieval castle completed around 1300 to protect Oslo and to serve as the royal residence from the 16th century to the turn of the 19th century (at which time, the royal family moved to the new Royal Palace).

 Akershus Fortress

 View from the fortress

Leaving Oslo by ship, we get great views of summer and weekend cottages on the islands in the Oslo Fjord outside the city, in addition to a beautiful sunset.

 Island homes

 The day winds down

Around Oslo to the Royal Palace and the Vigeland Sculpture Park

We retrace our path from yesterday down Karl Johans gate toward the Royal Palace, noting that many of the the chairs in the restaurants have fur throws on them.  We observed this in Copenhagen also and it seems like a great way to deal with the [occasional] cold snowy/rainy weather.

 Seat throws

The Royal Palace was completed in 1849 and has served as the residence of the Norwegian monarch since then.  The palace grounds, behind the palace, are open to the public and provide a beautiful, serene park.

 Approaching the Royal Palace

Looking down Karl Johans gate toward the Central Train Station

 Grounds in front of the palace

The Palace Park was opened in 1847, two years before the palace was completed, and has been open to the public year round since that time.  Most of the trees in the park were planted in 1842 and the Garden Section of the Royal Palace is now working to restore some of the park's original diversity.

 Royal Park

We exit out the back of the Royal Park and continue walking west toward Vigeland Park, the world's largest sculpture park featuring a single artist.  Gustav Vigeland devoted his life to creating the over 200 sculptures in the park, working in bronze, granite, and wrought iron.  On our way to the park, we admire the great residential neighborhoods of Oslo.

 Residences

We enter Vigeland Park through the main gate, built of granite and wrought iron and marking the start of the 850 meter (1/2 mile) path over a bridge to the fountain, on to a monolith, and ending at the Wheel of Life.

Main gate, path through the park

As we wander further into the park, the great statues appear, first lining the 100-meter-long (328-foot-long) bridge with 58 bronze statues, then around the fountain, where 20 groups show the life of man from cradle to grave.  The park notes that, "Our time on earth is at the same time only a part of an eternal cycle with no beginning and no end. After the tree group with the skeleton which is about to decay in nature, follows a tree full of children: From death arises new life."

 Statues on the bridge

 The Fountain

After the Fountain, the Monolith occupies the highest point in the park and consists of 121 figures carved from a single granite block.

The Monolith 

At the far end of the park, The Wheel of Life is a symbol of eternity and is executed as a garland of women, children, and men holding on to each other.

The Wheel of Life

On our walk back through the park, we admire the gardens and fields surrounding the sculptures, as we leave this amazing site.

 Gardens and fields in the park

We head back down the city streets, on our way to the Viking museums, 4.1 km (2.5 miles) away.