Wendy's Norway Adventure - Welcome to Oslo

 

VELKOMMEN TIL NORGE, 

Welcome back to those of you who have traveled with us before!  And welcome aboard to those of you who haven't. It's been quite some time since our last travel blog (summer of 2024 to be exact).   We've been doing this blog for close to 20 years with close to 300 subscribers.  Certainly, communication has changed significantly since we started and, for many, email is a total pain.  Additionally, we have not had any interaction with many of our subscribers for many years.  So, if you're not interested, you can "unsubscribe" in a flash. No judgment. 

As review (and for new subscribers), our blog enables you to travel to wacky, wild, exotic and/or just plain fascinating parts of the world . Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to read along-- no shots, airline hassles, masks, luggage fees, sea-sickness, jetlag, Montezuma's revenge, or altitude sickness.    

This time, Wendy is off to the fjords (and more) of Norway with two dear friends--Jane and Mona.  Wayne opted out. So, for long time readers, you'll get lots of attitude and photos and extensive food reports--but not quite as much history and/or nature-oriented detail. 

Here's the map--we'll be small ship cruising with Tauck (my 14th trip with them). I arrived in Oslo on Tuesday afternoon, June 23rd and will return to the States via Bergen on July 3 (just in time for the big 250 celebration wrap-up--timing I am pleased about).  Along the way, you see there are multiple stops with varying excursions--I'll blog about them all.  

Tuesday, June 23

Mona and I met up at the Frankfurt airport on Tuesday mid-morning and arrived in Oslo mid-afternoon. To fight jet lag, we immediately went out into the sun and walked for two hours with a little retail therapy thrown in. Even though Europe is suffering a huge heat wave, weather is extraordinary here so far— sunny and in the upper 70s, simply delightful.

Shortly after we checked in, we ran into one of our guides in the lobby. I told him he looked familiar and when he identified himself, I realized it was Larry Abbott from our 2006 Japan trip! OMG! Looks the same but both of our hair colors are a different color. Let’s just say we have evolved.

We then went out to explore the town.

What is something you think of when you hear Norway? Trolls of course!

and of course....donuts! (No eating; just a photo op.)

For dinner we chose Engebret Cafe — established in 1857 but you wouldn’t have known it from the food. Really delicious. Both of us chose fish— so fresh— Norway is known for its fish so more of that to come and I was ravenous as the food on the airplane earlier (business class) was absolutely inedible; shame on you. United Airlines. 

We started with crab bisque. Mona chose turbot and I had red fish with scallops. We topped it off with a blackberry mousse on a chocolate cookie. yum! 

We returned to the hotel to greet Jane and went off for some well-deserved and needed sleep. This may be the land of the midnight sun, but my eyes were closed so not an issue.

Wednesday, June 24

We had a Jewish tour this afternoon, but Mona and I decided to do some morning touring, so we left the hotel around 10:15 and set off for the National Museum (which has had a recent renovation).  Along the way, we marveled at the statues outside City Hall. This city has statues everywhere!

Our mission was to see the Edvard Munch's "The scream".

Just like the actual Mona Lisa at the Louvre, this painting is actually quite small, In the galleries surrounding it, we saw many famous paintings, including a copy of the Mona Lisa , and a Van Gogh self portrait. They have done an extraordinary job with this museum.  

We then went across the plaza to the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. We had been told it wasn’t worth the effort, but it was really quite lovely and refreshing to see Barack Obama in several exhibits. Just to clear the air, when we bought the tickets, I mentioned to the ticket agent that we were American and we hated Donald Trump and he said “I hear that from a lot of Americans and I also hear them make a strong request not to award him the Noble Peace Prize”.

Both the National Museum and the Peace Museum sit right at the dock.

At 1:30 we met up with our guide Rami Kafarov— a Jewish transplant from Azerbaijan— Mona found this five star guide for us and he was fantastic, highly recommended. Over the next 2 1/2 hours, Rami stepped us through the history of the Jewish community in Norway. There are approximately 2,000 Jews in total in the country today and, under the Norwegian constitution in 1825, Jews weren’t even allowed in the country. As in other countries throughout Europe, we saw buildings that had been occupied by Jewish businesses, but perhaps one of the more interesting spots was the Oslo Cathedral, a famous Lutheran Church built in 1697, which Mona and I had visited yesterday. There is a painting of the Last Supper above the altar. Apparently, originally the participants in the Last Supper in this particular painting were depicted with distinctive (stereotypical) hooked noses. The painting was “updated” in 1825 through “plastic surgery“ to give the participants more Nordic noses.

The rationale given for this update was clear in a brochure set outside the sanctuary. Specifically, it mentioned the update happened because of the change to the Constitution (see above). Interestingly, the brochure was available in French and Norwegian (not English!), so I did the best I could to translate it.

Rami shared a number of other stories about the Jewish community. It has historically received less than open arms in Norway. Antisemitism is rampant but because the community is so small, people tend to keep a low profile. He made a particular point of sharing that the government has gone as far as forbidding Israeli manufactured products and that pro-Palestinian protests are quite common. He also said that there have been some instances of anti-Semitic graffiti tied to the war in Gaza.

He also shared that two of the other reasons the Jewish community in Norway is so small (particularly for observant Jews) are: first because of the midnight sun - observing the technical rules of Shabbat become challenging to say the least!! Second, kashrut butchering was outlawed several years ago (though apparently there is ONE Kosher butcher in the Jewish Community Center; not quite sure how that works). 

Unlike in Denmark (where so many Jews were spared transport to the concentration camps), because the Norwegian government did not cede to the Nazis, Jews in Norway were not protected. Of the 1,800 Jews there in 1940, a full 800 were deported and sent to Auschwitz. The remainder, through the resistance movement, were able to escape to Sweden, where they were safe and returned to Norway after the war.

Another highlight was a visit to the synagogue (modern Orthodox). 

The was the first Siddur (prayer book) published in Norwegian.

A full day and that doesn’t even include our stop for ice cream cones after the tour insert picture… or the welcome dinner where our tour officially starts.

 

On Thursday, we tour Oslo. Then all 153 of us (with our 5 tour guides) get on the ship!

love,

wendy