We needed to meet up in the lobby with our tour guide at 9:45am for a three hour tour of Oslo. Fortunately my early night helped me to feel better by the time I needed to get up. I had a good breakfast (a buffet included with the room) and was ready to see Oslo.
Oslo has been the capital city of Norway since the 1830s and is the most populous city in Norway. It was originally founded as a trading place named Anslo at the end of the Viking Age in 1040. After burning down in 1624, a new city was built closer to the Akershus Fortress and named Christiania in honor of King Christian IV. In 1925, after incorporating the remaining village of Anslo, it was renamed Oslo. Oslo is a very important center for maritime industries and trading in Europe as well as being a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping.
The Akershus Fortress/Castle was believed to have been built sometime around the late 1290s by King Haakon V. It first saw battle in 1308 when it was besieged by a Swedish duke. In 1449 – 1450 it was besieged again; this time by the Swedish King Karl Knutsson Bonde. In 1502, Scottish soldiers in the service of a Danish-Norwegian king, besieged the castle in order to get it out of the hands of a Norwegian nobleman. The fortress has managed to survive all sieges throughout its long history.
The Royal Palace was built in the first half of the 19th century for Charles XIV John, who was King of Norway and Sweden at the time. It is still the official residence of the Norwegian monarchs.
While the Viking Ship Museum is undergoing an extensive rebuilding project, the three Viking burial ships that it normally contains are on display at the Norwegian Maritime Museum. We started off our visit with the video “Maritime Norway”. Then we continued our visit by viewing the exhibits. I was especially interested in the archaeological finds, the figureheads, and the Viking ships. There was also a good-sized model of an old schooner.
One of the Viking Ships, the Gokstad Ship, is a 9th century (around 890) ship found in a burial mound in Vestfold County. It is the largest preserved Viking ship in Norway. The ship is 23.80 metres (78.1 ft) long, and 5.10 metres (16.7 ft) wide. The ship was the final resting place for a rich and powerful man, in his mid-40s, who died a violent death probably in battle, and who was accompanied into the afterlife by twelve horses, eight dogs, two goshawks, and two peacocks. Also found within the burial ship were three small boats.
Discovered in 1880, the ship is mostly oak and what they call “clinker-built”. This means that the planks overlap at one edge and are riveted together. The advantages to this style of ship building was that freshly felled trees could be used without sealing them first, plus the ships were lighter and therefore faster.
The Oseberg Ship was found in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tonsberg also in Vestfold county. It is considered to be one of the greatest Viking artifacts as yet found. It has been determined to have been buried no earlier than 834 although portions of the ship appear to be possibly from before 800. It is almost entirely of oak, clinker-built, and is 21.58 metres (70.8 ft) in length, 5.10 metres (16.7 ft) broad, with a mast of approximately 9-10 metres (30-33 ft) in height. It would have taken up to 30 people to row it. The bow and stern are elaborately decorated with beautiful woodcarvings. The oars were made of pine and have painted decoration on them. They are in such excellent shape that it is thought that they were never used and were created for the burial.
Inside of the ship, the remains of two women were found along with a large number of grave goods, including clothes, shoes, combs, various farm and kitchen tools, a wooden cart, three ornate sleighs, one working sleigh, several chests, five carved wooden animal heads, two cows, fifteen horses, and six dogs. The older of the two women is thought to have been about 80 when she died. The other woman is of undetermined age and thought to have possibly been her servant. This type of burial for women was not normal practice at the time.
The Tune Ship is a small type of longship, known as a karve. It was found on the Haugen farm on the island of Rolvsøy, in the parish of Tune, in Ǿstfold, Norway in 1867. This ship isn’t complete, just in fragments. It was clinker-built around 900 AD of oak. It is 4.2 metres (14 ft) wide and would have had 11 or 12 pairs of oars. The length of the keel is approximately 14 metres (46 ft). The Tune Ship must have been a fast sailboat that also worked well as an oared vessel. It was likely a quick-paced courier ship, built not to last, but to move many men quickly over short or longer distances.
This ship was the first Viking ship to be found and excavated. This happened at a time when modern archaeology was only just developing. It was extracted from the mound quickly and roughly. This resulted in the loss or destruction of the remains of the man who was buried in the ship and the artefacts that remained after earlier intrusions. These items are described in notes that were made during the excavation, but most of them disappeared during or just after the excavation and never arrived at the museum. The few artefacts that still exist include fragments of fine wooden carvings that suggest the tomb had probably been richly equipped.
After the visit to the Maritime Museum, I began to feel that I was going downhill health-wise again. Once we returned to the hotel, I ventured back to the train station to purchase some items for both lunch and dinner at the grocers I had seen when we arrived the day before. That way I wouldn’t need to leave the room again until the following day when I needed to fly home. I had originally planned to walk over to the Akershus Fortress to check out the inside of the place. But I was running a fever and had chills by this time, even though it was a very nice, warm day. I pretty much just wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep. So I put the “do not disturb” sign on the door, ate some lunch, and did just that.
Fortunately, I did perk up again by the next morning and was able to fly home through Reykjavik, Iceland without anybody thinking I might have Covid or some other potentially serious illness. The plane was delayed getting into Reykjavik and I had to move quite quickly to make it to my connection. So, very glad I was feeling better and more alert.
I really enjoyed the trip and wouldn’t mind doing it all again while just making different excursion selections so I can see and do new things. Except for Jarlshof, I would want to do that one again.
