Oslo

Oslo is the growing capital city of Norway. There is a tremendous amout of construction going on building new neighborhoods in the city of Oslo. In fact, architects around the world travel to Oslo to study new architechture. On of those buildings is the new Opera House which was opened in 2008. These same architects are rebuilding Times Square in Manahatten so look for some new fangled styles in the U.S. 

Norway is quite the progressive nation. 40% of Parliment has to be served by women. Imagine that rule in the U.S.!!! The Nobel PEACE prize is given in Oslo (note the capital PEACE....other Nobel prizes are awarded somewhere else, which I think there will be more to come about that). 

We vitsited the Viking Museum today and learned a bit about the area that settled this area of the world. The boats that were built for the Vikings were so shallow that they could run up on the shore, attack, and run back out quickly. Again women had strong roles including running the land operations during their day. In fact, a husband stealing the keys to the farm could be grounds for divorce. 

Detail on Viking Ship

Viking Ship

We traveled on to the Kon Tiki musuem to learn about a Norweighn explorer (sorry....can't spell his name so just Google Kon Tiki). Basically this man realized that if people inhabited islands from way back when then they must have built boats out of light wood and reed. He built one in the 1940's and sailed across the Pacific as the ultimate action research project. In the 1970's he and another team built another boat to sail around the middle eastern countires but were stoped at the Red Sea due to fighting in the region. In protest, they burned the boat rather than abandoning their mission.  If you actually want to learn more about this let me know. I'll throw a party and we can watch the documentary of this adventure as it is the ONLY Norwegian film to win an Oscar.

Reed boat of the Kon Tiki

We ended our tour of Oslo at a scupture garden. I, again cannot spell the name of the artist. Google it. The sculputres were amazing in their depiction of the circle of life.

The ending of the day was at an AH-MAZING meal at a local restaurant found by our New York City traveling friends. Trust a New Yorker to find a good restuarant. I could go into details but lets just call this place the Doe's Eatplace of Oslo, Norway. Halibut...to DIE FOR!

Salmon starter with potato blinzes

Hailbut main course