Oslo

• By admin
• May 26, 2016
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We arrived in Oslo to a city in high celebratory mood. It was May 17^th the date in 1814 the Constitution of Norway was signed.  Its significance is taken very seriously and the streets of Oslo were filled with almost everyone wearing national dress. The centre was decorated with flowers and the noise in the evening, even from the campsite 10kms away, was loud.

The next morning we caught the bus to the centre. Our first port of call was the award winning Opera House, completed in 2007. It is a most exciting, beautiful building, which I assume takes the Norwegian landscape as its reference.  The shape is that of the side of a huge snowy mountain, which you can actually climb to the top of, sloping right down to the water front should you fancy a spot of paddling during the interval. The interior was equally as stunning including the toilets which was being photographed by  a group of Japanese women whilst I was in there.

In the afternoon we caught a ferry to the Viking Ship Museum to see the three Viking ships  excavated from separate royal burial mounds at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th centuries. Each ship had been buried for over 1000 years and two were in near perfect condition.  The ships along with the artefact found in the ships made for a fascinating exhibition. In one ship, the Oseberg, the skeletons of two females were found and it was concluded that this was the burial ship for a wealthy significant female, possibly the mother of King Halvdan the Black. Tests on the remains discovered that she was aged between 60-70 and had broken her collar bone just weeks before she died. It made no mention of it being a cycling accident but Graeme is keeping away from boats for the time being.