ANOTHER DOSE OF CULTURE (aka JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU'D HAD ENOUGH OF MUSEUMS!)

 The History Museum is housed in a beautiful brick Art Nouveau style building.... or so the guide books say, we wouldn't know because it is currently wrapped up in a layer of scaffolding.  They are renovating the Viking Exhibit... so it is shut.... & it was the main reason we wanted to visit this museum!!  Imagine wailing, hair pulling & gnashing of teeth!

However, when we actually got inside to discover that the Stave Kirk Doorways, which I had expected to be in the VIKING exhibition, were actually in the Middle Age exhibition.... all was forgiven! Imagine much jubilation, big smiles & loud "Wow"s!

Of all the rooms in this poorly ventilated museum, this was the one we spent the most time in.

There were wonderful slabs of rock carved, in what we initially took to be Pictish symbols, but they were in fact Norwegian.  Along the base & sides was script in runes saying who this stone was in memory of.

 There were 4 Stave Kirke doorways  & each was unique & in varying stages of preservation.  We were astounded by the detail & the designs.  Such wonderful features.  We stood for quite a while working out which swirls of wing & claw belonged to which head!

Elsewhere in this room were carved wooden religious figures, again with incredible detail & character.  We saw bronze weights in the shape of animals, carefully engraved drinking horns and a small metal mouth harp.  This was particularly interesting because we had heard one played at the folk museum on Monday.

After a brief visit to see other rooms full of other exhibits, we went upstairs to a very interesting section on Arctic Peoples.  This covered those indigenous communities who live closest to the North Pole.

 Here we learnt how to build an igloo!  A life size model gave an insight to how the interior might have looked.  Let's just say that I have no right to complain about the size of the apartment we are currently inhabiting!!!!!

 There were a variety of beautiful & incredible costumes that the different nationalities wear.  Perhaps the ones that surprised us the most, were those made of fish skins!  These seem to have been worn as a waterproof layer.

A small glass case held a selection of musical instruments & I'm sad to say most of the signage was in Norwegian, so we didn't find out where these wonderful flutes came from.  Nor did we work out what they were carved into.  It could have been whale bone, reindeer bone or maybe walrus tusk.  The detailed scrimshaw was so fine, we would have liked a magnifying glass to see it more closely.  I was very impressed with the quality of photo Jeff managed to get, given that it was through glass & that glass was covered in finger print smudges!!!!

 It was a very humid day & the lack of air circulation in the museum, meant that we were both feeling wiped out after climbing up & down the stairs between exhibits, so we went back to our apartment to relax before heading out again.

We were interested in seeing Aker Brygge.
This was a shipyard that closed in 1982 & the old brick buildings have since been transformed into an attractive shopping & eating area.  It certainly had a vibrant feel to it & we enjoyed wandering & popping into the odd shop or two.  We have been very amused by the number of homeware stores there are here.  Even in the small shipping towns, we've found shops selling modern & trendy homeware.  Jeff has even ventured into a few!!!!!!!

 It was time for a treat & we decided to be brave.  Black Ice cream.  There were two different ice cream trucks selling two different black icecreams.  One looked very lush, but included words like 'liquorice' & 'salt flakes', while the other was described by words like 'vanilla' & raspberry'.  We chose the latter.
YUM!  Our faces did look a mess afterwards, but they were delicious!! (The ice creams not the faces!!!)

 Walking back through Aker Brygge we had just been commenting on how nice it was to see so much sculpture being used to enhance the place, when we looked up & saw this, suspended right above our heads.  It appears to be made of chicken wire & moved in the slight breeze.  It was stunning against the cloudy sky.

Our plan was to follow the ice creams up with coffee at the Grand Café, but when we got there, we soon realised that we were not dressed smartly enough & didn't feel comfortable about sitting amidst so many elegant looking people, so we found a bakery instead.

Nearby the sound of the fountain was rather soothing & Jeff decided to stay there while I went to a shop I knew of that sold cotton & linen clothes. (I didn't come prepared for the heat!!) Alas, the few things that I would wear only had sizes small or extra large & I'm neither!!!  So I went away empty handed! Sigh!  That was as much as we could cope with today!