Oslo - Fram Museum

Hey all,

Back at sea now from a nice, long, relaxing visit to Oslo, Norway. We didn’t have much tasking there and mostly just got some gas, some repairs completed, and enjoyed some good liberty. Oslo was a wonderful place to visit, albeit, very expensive. Most goods cost anywhere from 3-4 times as much as back in the states. Other than that, it was a clean city w/ a nice historic/modern mix of architecture, art gallery’s and museums. Yesterday, I got to visit a couple museums w/ a buddy Kevin Brandewien. We biked about 20 mins from the ship to see the Norway “Fram Museum” (a polar expedition museum w/ a huge ice exploration ship inside) and the Viking Museum (had a bunch of Viking warships and burial vessels). The weather was a little rainy and overcast, but temps were fine (around 70 degrees). Kevin and I biked through the rain, just like the Norwegians do. The bike paths were great. Nice and wide and off the main streets, so no worries about traffic or safety. I wish we had these in America…would make commuting by bicycle much easier and might even save us some gas money. I noticed there were very few overweight or obese Norwegians as I visited Oslo. As a matter of fact most Norwegians were tall, thin, blond haired and nicely tanned. I think the tans came from their recent holiday…the month of July is “national vacation” month where the Norwegians get to take vacation in warmer climes. In fact, the vacation month affected us quite a bit while in Haakonsvern, Olavsvern (for fuel), and Oslo. When asking for help w/ repairs or maintenance the frequent answer was, “We’ll try, but everyone is still on vacation.” Must be nice…I’m definitely jealous! Can’t say I’d trade it for their extremely high taxes, but that’s another story. Approx. 25% for food (restaurants) and goods (clothing, etc) in town, except for groceries, which the government only charges a 15% tax because those goods are “needed”.

The first place Kevin and I pedaled to was the “Fram” polar expedition museum. This was a must see as Azzy’s family (father’s side) is descended from Sweden and Norway. In fact, Helger even mentioned that he is a 3rd cousin of one of Norway’s famous polar explorers, Oscar Wisting. I wanted to go, but I’m afraid if I didn’t go, Helger would have never let me hear the end of it ;) A little about him here: Oscar Adolf Wisting (June 6, 1871 - December 5, 1936) was a Norwegian polar explorer. Together with Roald Amundsen he was the first person to reach both to the North and South Poles. Wisting was born in Larvik, and he was working as a naval gunner in 1909 when Roald Amundsen asked him to go north with him on his forthcoming North Pole expedition. Amundsen later secretly changed his plans. Wisting went to sea believing they were heading for the North Pole. Instead he learned that they were going south to pick up the race with Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole. On December 14, 1911 along with Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Olav Bjaaland and Sverre Hassel, Wisting planted the Norwegian flag on the geographical South Pole, the first explorers to have reached that point. From 1918 to 1925 Wisting was chief officer onboard Maud in Roald Amundsen's attempt to traverse the Northeast passage. From 1923 to 1925 Wisting more or less acted as leader of the expedition after Amundsen left to try to fly to the pole instead. In 1926 Wisting participated in Amundsen's successful attempt to fly over the North Pole. In the airship Norge they reached the pole on May 12, 1926. The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole – by Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge) – are all disputed, as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud. Some of those disputing these earlier claims therefore consider the crew of the Norge to be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole. In addition Wisting, along with Amundsen, was one of the two first persons who had been to both the North Pole and the South Pole. He later wrote about his years with Amundsen in his book: 16 aar med Roald Amundsen, (1930). (16 years with Roald Amundsen). In later years Oscar Wisting was an active force behind the preparations and building of the Fram house in Oslo, a museum built to store and display the polar ship Fram. On December 5, 1936 Wisting was found dead from heart attack in his old bunk on board Fram, a few days before the 25 anniversary of the successful South Pole expedition. (gotta love WIKIPEDIA!)

This was a wonderful visit and I’m so glad I got to see it all. The pictures I’ll send should shed light on the information above as I took pics of Oscar Wisting’s bronze bust, his stateroom onboard FRAM, a model of the FRAM as well as the ship, and a model of the airship NORGE he flew over the North Pole w/ Armundsen. Additionally, when I was in Haakonsvern, I got to tour the brand new Norwegian Frigate ROALD AMUNDSEN, named for the above explorers…overall an excellent trip.

The second place Kevin and I went was to the Viking Museum (just up the street from the FRAM). This was also a wonderful museum. Most of the ships I took pics of were built (around 900 AD) as burial floats for Norwegian tribal leaders when they passed. The Vikings would put a burial sarcophogas on top along w/ live horses, dogs, gold and jewels and enough food to get them to the afterlife. They’d put all that loot on the boat then set it out to sea as a farewell to the person that passed. The boats would be recovered after some days, then entombed in burial mounds, where archeologists then unearthed them in the early 1900’s, renovated, then put on display at this museum!

In the evening, I went back out w/ Joe and got some pizza/beer, then we went to see the new Batman movie “The Dark Knight”!!

Overall, Norway was a wonderful country to visit and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
-J.R.