A busy day in Oslo!

Ron and Lenore greeted us while we were eating breakfast!  After stuffing ourselves with smoked salmon and berries/yogurt we were ready to hit some "must-see" attractions in Norway!

We walked to our neighborhood stop for the hop on hop off bus.  Ron was convinced that our tickets from yesterday would work today.   Lenore and I were doubters...but Ron breezed right on the bus, with us following behind (I guess the driver didn't notice our guilty faces!). It was crystal clear today...no rain like the previous day, so it was nice to drive through the town and see it in the sunshine! Our ultimate destination was the Bygdøy neighborhood... Also known as Museum Island. Our first stop was the Norwegian Folk Museum where 150 buildings have been brought from all over Norway reassembled here on 35 acres. As we are a little after the end of the tourist season, it was peaceful and quiet (again with the "quiet"!)

This Stave church from 1212 from the Hallingdal area was beautiful...solid wood with many intricately carved details.  

There was also a very interesting museum devoted to the native Sami people.  I remember learning about the Laplanders when I was a little girl...I think now the PC name for them is Sami!  Many of them were nomadic, herding (and milking?!) reindeer.  As they lived in the far far north, their life was not an easy one...but it was certainly fascinating!  Their brightly colored women fabrics, mixed with fur made for some amazing traditional outfits.

Ok...there was also a mama pig with her three piglets that was kind of sweet...had to take a photo!

Next up on the museum route was the Fram Museum...

The Norwegians love exploring the poles apparently...both North Pole and South Pole!  The Fram is the  125 foot long steam and sail powered ship that was used for some of these explorations, taking modern day Vikings, Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen, deep into the Arctic and Antartic.  For 3 years the Fram drifted, trapped in the Atctic ice. It was amazing to board the ship and examine the below decks quarters where these men lived for years.

Here are Lenore's and my favorite explorers!

Oh yeah, this is where we decided to have only ice cream for lunch...I mean, you can do that when you are on vacation, right?!

We also had visited the Viking Museum in this same area. And that was amazing...they have 2 Viking ships from the 9th and 10 centuries on display that were buried with household artifacts  for their kings and queens (much like the Egyptians did).

This is also the museum where we first busted out the selfie stick for the first time, and were so doubled over and consumed with laughter, that the guards came over and told us to put it away!

And maybe I'm reading too much into things, but somehow many of these Viking Laws (spotted I the gift shop!) sound very EF to me!   Take out the reference to keeping your weapons in order, and a lot of it sounds like Eileen Fisher-speak!!

Our last museum for the day was the Nobel Peace Center.  This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking museum. It celebrates the 800 past and present Nobel Prize winners.  This year's winner is the amazing young Malala Yousafzai who, even after being shot 3 times in the face by the Taliban, believes that all children deserve an education, believing that it is a prerequisite for peaceful global development.  Seeing her blood soaked clothing that she was wearing the day she was shot was extremely powerful...she will not be deterred in her determination and passion in fighting for education for ALL children.  Upstairs in the museum is a fabulous exhibition in a dimly lit room, with tranquil, zen-like meditation music playing.  A winding path of blue lights, and suspended iPads led you through the large room.  As you paused in front of each iPad, it came to life with photos, facts, and quotes of each Nobel Prize winner...below are screen shots from Malala's and Mother Theresa's screens.

Fun fact of the day...Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, making it more ironic that he donated his life's savings to promoting peace.  As we left and walked out of the museum, the bells were ringing the John Lennon tune "Give Peace a Chance".  Indeed.