Arriving in Oslo, I dropped my bag at the train station and headed for the old fort. The day was cool and rainy but I had 12 hours to see everything I could see before my next night train north to Trondheim.
A decommissioned tank at the fort.
Old disused canons.
The small harbor.
A cemetery stretching back to Viking times.
Out at an open-air history museum. The little post office.
An original green roof. All of the buildings in the park were brought from elsewhere around Norway to be preserved in this park and put on display for all of the country to see their architectural history.
The houses used to be built on interesting stilts to keep rats and mice away from food stores. It would be bad to find that in the middle of the winter all of your food had been eaten by rodents.
One of the original Norwegian gas stations.
Inside a period alcohol shop. Norway has long had strict alcohol laws and steep taxes to keep the population from being overly merry in the long cold and dark winter months.
Hogs will be hogs.
This house (and many others) had a simple hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out.
An old water wheel without any water.
There were several old mills in one area that had been preserved.
Hops growing to make beer for later. Or were those pole beans? I can’t remember anymore.
So many of the structures, both inside and out, remind me of the Beowulf saga. I could really feel the connection with those structures and the times of sagas and epics. That time has only left Norway in the last 50 years. In some more remote places it probably still exists.
The impressive church done up in classical Viking style.
A side gate to the site.
A school house from somewhere up in northern Norway.
A Viking ship discovered not far from the museum. I think it was discovered in a funeral mound.
A small structure that used to sit on the deck of the ship.
Smaller boats that went with the ship.
After the Viking ship, I went to a wonderful museum that did not allow photography. Following that I returned to the train station where I caught the night train north to Trondheim and further adventure.