With customs behind us, we all climbed in the rental van and headed to the Vikingskipene, the Viking Ship Museum. Since the airport is northeast of the city, we took E16 heading south to E18 going through Oslo to Bygdoy where the museum is located. While driving, my father told us about the historic buildings in Oslo he and his brother Thoralf had seen while on their trip to the American Embassy after the war ended. The two buildings he talked about most were the Royal Palace and the Parliament. He and his brother had not had time to take a tour, but they did pass by them as they walked through the city the evening of their visit.
As we continued our drive, we soon learned that we were not going through Oslo, but rather under it. As you can imagine there had been many changes since my father’s last visit and tunnels were one of them. Just as we saw Oslo to our right, we entered the longest tunnel in Norway and when we came out the other end, Oslo was in the rear-view mirror. This just made the city more mysterious and I could not wait for the next day when our schedule would take us downtown.
Shortly after the tunnel, Dawn pointed out the sign for the Viking Ship Museum and we pulled in and parked. To me, the building looked like a church with its cross-shaped footprint and the grounds were beautiful with a lot of open space to relax and seasonal colors in the flowerbeds. The history and artifacts we experienced in this museum was amazing! If you are a Scandinavian-American and visit Norway this is a must see. From the full sized longboats to the wagons and sleds, it is all presented in a way that lets you see every detail.
