Left our A1 van
slot and headed north. Caught 20 min vehicle ferry from Elsinore back to
Helsingborg, Sweden (not only was ferry half the price of yesterday’s bridge toll
but we got a bonus in duty free beer and wine….)
Walked past school leavers celebrating in the Poseidon fountain outside Gothenburg Art Gallery, where we wandered several floors of Nordic and international art, including the old masters, Picasso, Monet, Reubens, Munch, Kandinsky, and statues by Degas and Rodin. Had never seen so many of the art giants collected in one place before, and (wonder of wonders) allowed to take photos! But the special exhibition by Vanessa Baird was downright macabre and tasteless.
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| One of Degas' ballet girls... |
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| Munch - The Sick Child |
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| Salome |
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| Kandinsky |
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| Picasso - Le Repas Frugal |
Crossed Svinesund Bridge into Norway. Washing clothes and editing days photos at the caravan park, couldn't avoid soap opera of Irish girl drinking/smoking/swearing/fighting/breaking up with her man in front of their kids….
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| Electric car charging station |
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| Yet another castle on a hill.... |
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| Summer ski training?? |
In Oslo visited Viking Ship Museum – so interesting to see its size, engravings, burial beds and items buried with wealthy people (including servants faithful until the end).
Enjoyed Vigeland sculpture park - hadn't heard he specialised in nudes though! His child rearing practices left something to be desired…
Walked Akershus fortress, Bastion, Penitentiary and Drawbridge, complete with guard. Found the Museum of Norwegian Resistance more interesting than expected - hadn't heard much on their Nazi invasion, concentration camps, underground movement. Photographs, news headlines, weaponry, radios, movie clips, audio of Churchill’s liberation speech. Interesting to see section on children's resistance, graffiti, cartoons, mocking verses etc. Entertained by man singing opera on tram on way home - passengers burst into applause!
The Opera House resembled a giant glacier (so the people walking on it were penguins??) Oslo was so very interesting...
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| WC's titled egalitie, equalitie, libertie....which to use??? |
Barely gave Kristiansand a look, turned towards ice fields, and crooked road to Lyse fjord. Lakes with boulders and pines, Haegaland so pretty. Rocks weighing down firewood rows, tiny log smokehouses, chalet-style bus stop with grass roof. Black-coloured houses must keep heat in better than their light counterparts. Some have full glass sunrooms. Bygland truly beautiful scenery rocky mountains covered in pines sloping down to blue-black lakes, babbling brooks, waterfalls. Ice fields were spectacular, ice shelves, ice bridges, icebergs, zebra stripes across mountain tops. Melting against warm rocks in day’s sun, dripping over rocks, spraying out from overhangs, torrents running downstream. Drove down the hairpin turns and tunnel of the crooked road and felt pleased to arrive in one piece in Lysebotn valley. Turned around when ferry timetable wouldn’t work, and slept soundly by river rapids.
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| Green corridors for animals to cross |
Took off next morning over Suleskarvegen Mountain pass. Thin ice glacier running down mountain to lake, beautiful zebra reflections in water. Waterfalls, lakes, rivers, rapids, forest, flowers, pretty pretty drive. Arrived Norway's most prestigious stave church at Notodden - as Lonely Planet says "rising like a scaly dragon from the cemetery." Rose paintings, pattern laid down to hide underlying murals during Reformation (some of the 12 apostles show through) intricate stand-alone altar piece and silhouette on wall behind.
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