Oslo Norway: Part Three. Norsk Folkemuseum A Visit To Norway's past.

            <![CDATA[After I left the group in Oslo Harbor I boarded a ferry to the Bygdoy peninsula, where we visited the Viking Boat Museum earlier in the day. This time I headed to the Folkemuseum. I enjoy learning about the history and culture of the country's I visit so I thought this would be a good place to spend the couple of free hours we had.  <a href="https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Oslo-Norway-Folkemuseum-ferry-ride-3-of-32.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-19614" src="https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Oslo-Norway-Folkemuseum-ferry-ride-3-of-32-300x200.jpg" alt="Oslo Norway Folkemuseum ferry ride (3 of 32)" width="300" height="200" /></a>

I enjoyed the short boat ride through the harbor. Clouds in the distance made for some nice pictures but they soon brought rain as I left the boat. I was glad I took along a camera cover and waterproof jacket.  This is a link to some more photographs of my ride to the museum. (and there are a number of albums, I took a lot of photographs, in the Scandinavia photo page of my blog) https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/scandinavia-july-26-august-8-2015/nggallery/scandinavia-july-25-august-8-2015/oslo-norway-folkemuseum-ferry-ride-august-2-2015

The rain didn’t last long and I made my way into the museum. There were many exhibits about the history and culture in the building at the interest. I particularly enjoyed the exhibit on the native Sami  people who live in northern Scandinavia. 

After spending some time reviewing the exhibits, I headed on the spacious grounds, past homes planted with gardens, schoolhouses and made my way to the beautiful restored stave church, pictures above. Here is the link to more photographs from inside the museum. https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/scandinavia-july-26-august-8-2015/nggallery/scandinavia-july-25-august-8-2015/oslo-norway-folkemuseum-august-2-2015

This restored church dated from the 13th century. Almost all of the first churches in Scandinavia were made of wood and lost to time. This truly was a gem to history buffs like me. I stood in the dark wooded church and imagined the many Christmases wedding, funerals and other events that took place inside almost a thousand years ago. Here is a link to more photographs of the historic and beautiful structure. https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/scandinavia-july-26-august-8-2015/nggallery/scandinavia-july-25-august-8-2015/oslo-norway-folkemuseum-stave-church-august-2-2015

I enjoyed the church and a restored inn and then made my way down through a wooded area to the many exhibits of farms buildings of Norway throughout the centuries.  I was interested on how the thatched roofs were constructed and there were many on display.

Many of them were open with exhibits and information about the time they were built. Others had guides dressed in the appropriate time period who were happy to answer questions.  This is a link to the “historic ” farm houses. https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/scandinavia-july-26-august-8-2015/nggallery/scandinavia-july-25-august-8-2015/oslo-norway-folkemuseum-historic-farms-august-2-2015

I made my way to the 20th century and there was a “modern” farm dating from the 1950’s, I enjoyed seeing the old furniture and kitchen devises. 

The farms were complete with livestock. planted gardens and fields and really gave you a sense of traveling backward in time.  This is a link to the “modern” farm house. https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/scandinavia-july-26-august-8-2015/nggallery/scandinavia-july-25-august-8-2015/oslo-norway-folkemuseum-modern-farm-august-2-2015

I was amazed at how much I had learned about the farms of Norway and could have spent many more hours exploring the vast fields and many restored barns, sawmills,  smokehouse and other buildings and tools associated with the farming over the centuries.

It was getting late so I headed back to the ferry and was surprised to find that I had missed a large part of the museum and that there were building with exhibits from the 16th  to the 20th century showing how the folks of Norway lived in the towns and cities. 

I quickly popped my head in the many old stores, dental offices, houses and other businesses. The amount of exhibits were amazing. I wished I had another month to explore this vast museum which really does show the history of Norway in a very detailed and pleasant manner. It really was like walking back in time.   Here is a link to some more photographs of the old town.https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/scandinavia-july-26-august-8-2015/nggallery/scandinavia-july-25-august-8-2015/oslo-norway-folkemuseum-old-town-august-2-2015

I made my way to the ferry, and, with a half hour wait had a huge bowl of fish chowder, i got back to the harbor and met up with my sister and her friends just when a thunderstorm blew in. We sat out the downpour in a store and, when the rain  ended, I made my way back to the room. We had an early departure for Stockholm in the morning and I wanted to get up early to see Oslo one last time.

“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ”
― Michael Crichton]]>

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