Hello everyone.
You may be wondering what has taken me so long to do am update. The simple answer... money. Zurich was the most expensive place I've ever been. So I was not willing to pay the price there. In Oslo I stayed with friends who had a computer but an old one with a slow modem and a slow phone connection. Prices in the few internet cafes I saw were expensive and in smoke-filled environments. Bergen and Copenhagen... just not enough time. A pitty too because there was free internet service at my hotel. Helsinki... many internet cafes everywhere either free or cheap and I had lots of time there but there was always a crowd waiting to get online. Now I'm in Stockholm at Marike's place with a computer with a decent, but slowish, connection and my hostess is working out-of-town until late tomorrow night. ACCESS and time to do it.
My cellphone doesn't work here, so there won't be calls home on this trip. In order to have a phone that worked in the Caribbean I had to get one that is TDMA which does not work in the GSM world of the European continent. Didn't have time to get a new phone while in Ottawa.
So far this has been a whirlwind tour. Landed in Zurich, Switzerland on time, booked a hotel from the airport. The Hotel Basilea Zurich (http://www.hotelbasilea.ch/) was extremely nice for a 3-star hotel though the rooms are quite compact but very pricey at 130chF (Swiss Francs - the only West European country not on the Euro) or ?8364;90 or CDN$140. Bought a Zurich Pass (free transportation, museums and restaurant and shop discounts). I could not afford to take advantage of the discounts. Did I mention that this was the most expensive place I've ever been. (no question mark on the Swedish keyboard). Took the train to Zurich City, the Old City, and walked to the hotel.
After getting settled in my room, I headed straight for the Swiss National Museum (http://www.slmnet.ch/). It is housed in a Castle but they are planning an excrutiatingly modern expansion that would obliterate the beauty of the old structure. The model they are showing off looks ugly. I also took a long walk and had a sit down in the large park that is the museum grounds. After my visit to the museum I took a boat tour on the Limmat River that goes onto the Zürichsee (Lake of Zürich) and zig-zags back and forth giving a unique view of the city from a different perspective.
It was time for supper, so a very elegant (yes expensive) vegetarian buffet and a glass of wine ended my day. I sept like the dead.
My second day in Zürich (http://www.zurichtourism.ch/sightseeing/) was mostly on foot touring all around town seeing the sights. Started with a stroll along Niederdorf Strasse (everything closed until 10am earliest) and through a series of streets to Grossmünster Cathedral where I discovered an almost medieval church. The cript is the oldest part of the church having been build circa 1200. Several "remains" were excavated and removed in the early 1900s to the Swiss Museum where many are on display but the excavations were stopped and all the tombs resealed when the decision was made to preserve the cripts.
Crossing the Limmat River via Münster Brücke (bridge) to visit Fraumünster Kirche (church), famous for its stained glass windows created by the French painter Marc Chagall. Another gorgeous church but the naive is closed to the public who are only aloud to enter the vestibule area to get to the Chagall windows. Then a long meandering walk through cobblestoned streets and alleys passing many wonderful shops, going in the occassional one that caught my eye but not my money, to make my way to what is reputed to be the world's largest clock face at St. Peter Kirche. A truly lovely surprise awaited within the church... the organist was practicing. The church was small and uninteresting in its overly gilded barocque decor but I stayed a long time to listen to the organist play.
This neighbourhood felt very familiar and I felt very much at home here. The streets are all cobbled, the atmosphere is warm and friendly and the architecture is stunning. From this peaceful enclave I walked to and entered the famous shopping district of Bahnhofstrasse. Every European and International design house is represented here and the shoppers look like they can afford it. You can smell the freshly laundered money everywhere. I found Hiltl, a vegetarian restaurant of reknown, and had lunch.
Walked back up to Grossmünster Kirche to make the 5 minute, 225 ft. climb to the top of the tower where I took 4 MPEGs, one from each corner spire, of the view of the city. The decent felt like being in an Escher painting. I was lucky to discover a not advertised but accessible cloister through a semi-hidden entry of to the side outside the church. Here was a peaceful oasis complete with central fountain and studying artists.
Then it was back to the Bahnhofstrasse to find the Uhrenmuseum Beyer, a watch and clock museum in the basement of Beyer's watch and clock store. Actually a private collection belonging to the Beyer family who still own and operate the store that was first established in the 1500s. The collection includes pieces from the 16th to 20th centuries.
I headed back towards the hotel stopping at a few places of interest to check prices. You'll be surprised to hear that prices in Canada are cheaper than in Zürich for products from Sony Cameras, Sony Electronics, Bang & Olufson, Nokia cellphones, wool sweaters, wool textiles of all sorts and even Victorinox "Swiss Army" knives. I stopped in at the hotel briefly before going to a local pizza restaurant for a pizza and beer supper. Then back to my bed because I had to catch an early train to be at the airport early to catch my flight out to Oslo in the morning.
Oslo (http://www.visitnorway.com/en/)... due to rain and heavy cloud cover (which would follow me everywhere for the rest of my trip) my flight was a bit late departing so was a bit late arriving. As soon as I arrived I changed my money and cashed a TC then found the train station in the airport, bought a ticket and hopped the train into Oslo Centre. Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty (world famous photographer) met me at the train station. We hopped a bus to her flat and got supper started. Ingrid arrived home from work and we had a great visit. During my stay at their place I would meet several friends and colleagues of both Lill-Ann and Ingrid. The first was their friend and neighbour, Olivier, from Paris who dropped by for a long visit after supper.
In the morning I walked with Ingrid into town (20-25 minutes without rushing) and after parting company with her near her office I started my day's activities. Starting at the train station I walked up the main promenade Karl Jensen Blvd. to the Palace and current home of the King and Queen of Norway. Then around the University and back down towards the train station to meet Lill-Ann for noon. She brought picnic lunch which we ate while taking the ferry to the other side of the fjord where the Viking Ship Museum is. While I visited the Viking Ships and looked at her pics of Modern Vikings (on display at the museum) she talked with colleagues at the museum. Lill-Ann also works part time at the National Historical Museum as a photographer but it was not until after international interest in her "modern Vikings" project (ie: invited to display in the Canadian National Museum of Civilization in Ottawa) that her home museum took an interest. Now the exhibit is doing the rounds of Norwegian museums. We bussed back into the city centre and walked from there to listen to a lecture given by a Canadian conservator working at the National Historical Museum with Lill-Ann. It was an interesting talk on the reconservation of a Viking sleigh held by the museum. The original conservation effort (1880s) was extremely destructive and was starting to deteriorate.
After the lecture I was introduced around to several people including another Canadian conservator, this woman is from Ottawa. So Lill-Ann, Nancy (the lecturer), Susan and I all arranged to go for coffee/tea at a nearby favourite coffee shop of Nancy's. From there Lill-Ann and I walked back to the flat together, picking up groceries for supper enroute and together prepared a meal for the 3 of us plus another business colleague of Lill-Ann's, Christine. We had a fun evening.
The next day I walked into town and straight to an electronics store to get a European power cord for my camera recharger. Then I was on the bus to the Norsk Folkemuseet (Folk Museum at http://www.norskfolke.museum.no/) where I spent the entire day, including lunch, leaving at 5:00pm closing. I think I was actually last visitor out... something that's happened alot during this trip. It's a wonderful outdoor museum displaying actual buildings from different regions of Norway. They have been completely reconstructed exactly as originally built in different area representing each region. There is an indoor museum containing many artifacts including clothing, decoration and household objects and the outdoor museum covers over 140 acres. During the summer most of the buildings are open and accessible to the public with costumed interpreters and "characters" representing the actual people who would have lived and worked in each building at that time. Most of the old Nordic log buildings date back to the 1500s, some to the 1400s. When I was there only a few of the buildings had been opened and only a dozen or so costumed characters were about. In fact is was the first day of opened buildings and all of the girls I spoke to were on their first day of work for the season.
I also met a spoke extensively with a building conservation engineer who was working in one of the buildings. The head had broken off of a main cross support beam in the museums oldest building (in fact the oldest log structure still standing in the country) and he was tasked with working out just how best to proceed with the "repairs" to conserve the structure and the original character of the building while maintaining authenticity and protecting the rest of the building from collapse. It was an interesting discussion and exchange of ideas. As it turned out I agreed with his preliminary assessment and his opinion on how he would like to see it go... but these are political hotbeds in the conservation of antiquities area so the final outcome is far away. For now the building is being held upright and together by steel posts, plates, clamps and pillars which, in my humble opinion, are already having distructive influence on the 500-600 years old wooden beams and logs. It is cold and rainy outside.
There is also the most impressive stave church (all wood construction) originally built around 1200 in Gol and relocated to its present sight in Bygdoy (roughly pronounced "big day") in 1885. This is the reason this site was chosen for the Norsk Folkemuseet. Visit them at http://www.norskfolke.museum.no/ to get the whole story.
On the way home, by bus, I picked up the ingredients for my Thai Curry stir fry to make supper for the girls. They loved it and Ingrid wants to try it herself sometime. After supper Ingrid took me for a walk around the neighbourhood where we visited the future site of the new Historic Museum. It will be built around the ruins of a 900 years old church and castle. Currently, anyone can wander about the ruins.
The next day I walked to the Munch Museum where I spent about 1 1/2 hours looking at the paintings of Munch (best known for his work "The Scream"). I loved this museum. Munch was truly a genius. After lunch I was on the T (underground or subway) heading for the Historical Museum. I was able to enter all the museums free of charge because Lill-Ann loaned me her membership card. I was so impressed with the Historiskmuseet that I was in it until they tossed me out at 4:00 closing. Last out the door again.
From there I took the T and a long walk to Frognerparken inside of which is the Vigeland Park. First I ate a quick supper at the front gate cake. Then quickly booted it over to the Vigeland Museum to look through it before I was once again ousted at 6:00 closing... last out the door again. The museum is housed in the building that was his studio, workshop and home. It was build specifically for him by the city of Oslo after they commissioned him to design a park (Frognerparken) and a garden to be filled with his sculptures. Vigeland Park is the result. The park contains 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures, all modeled in full size by Gustav Vigeland and cut from granite and marble by his team of stone cutters. Others are bronze... such as the "trees" around the fountain and the figures lining the bridge. For much more info visit http://members.cox.net/c.kau/Vigeland/ which has an extensive list of Vigeland links at the bottom of the page.
Then I took the long bus ride back to get an unguided tour of the city. As I walked in expecting a festive Friday evening mood I was greeted by 2 very somber faces one of which was severely bruised. Lill-Ann had been hit head on by a bicycle speeding downhill on a walking path in the perk. She had many bumps, bruises and scrapes everywhere but was given the OK by the emergency doctor at the hospital. Of course Ingrid was quite upset too having received the call from the hospital just as she walked in the door from work.
Lill-Ann was obviously in shock though and the next day, Saturday, May 17th, the annual National 'flag waving' day, she was in no mood for celebrating. She was very stiff indeed. And headachy and sore all over and generally in pain.
I went into town for a couple of hours to get into the middle of this annual body contact sport not unlike making your way onto Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Canada Day. There were parades of school children, marching bands and clowns. Many Norwegians, especially women and girls, were in traditional costumes. Got lots of photos.
Well that's it for me for tonight. I must get to bed. I have a museum to visit in the morning, then I'm meeting a young lady for lunch... we met as roommates on the ferry going to Helsinki last week and agreed to have lunch when I got to Stockholm. She is a Norwegian student living in Stockholm for her studies. Then I have to go visit the palace in the old town.
So much to see and do, so little time and energy. Good night all.
Posted by gailene at May 27, 2003 02:24 PM