Yup, I do it the old fashioned way, so I had to wait to go to Jean Coutu and pick them up. I'm not going to post the works (you'll have to come over to see the rest of the four rolls), just ones whose stories I've told here already. No fjørds, I'm afraid - they're on the remaining unfinished roll...So, here we are at the corner of Hjelms gate, the location of our hotel, the Gyldenløve...
Then on to Rådhuset (City Hall) - first the view from the entryway, then one top-down:
And the murals that covered the majority of the walls in Rådhuset. Unfortunately, my fears of indoor dim light were warranted - most turned out not-so-clear and a bit dark, but I had to scan the one of the memory man thinking back in the post-war (the brighter mural to his right) present anyway. If you peer real close, up near the top, you can make out the bees and the fencing:
Then on to Rådhuset (City Hall) - first the view from the entryway, then one top-down:
And the murals that covered the majority of the walls in Rådhuset. Unfortunately, my fears of indoor dim light were warranted - most turned out not-so-clear and a bit dark, but I had to scan the one of the memory man thinking back in the post-war (the brighter mural to his right) present anyway. If you peer real close, up near the top, you can make out the bees and the fencing:
Ah, and the royal portraits. I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like these "official" representations, and although Harald (at least I think I've got the royal names right) was interesting, Sonja was the most captivating. I can't for the life of me figure out who the artist was/is who crafted them, but I'll keep looking...
The Royal Palace (Slotter), surrounded by the open-to and heavily-used-by the public Slottsparken became a real marker for me while I was there - if I could find the palace, I could find my way back to the hotel! I'm still taken aback by the freedom of the public to walk the grounds, picnic, sleep or game in the park - with no walls or rails or gates - and the guards doing their rounds around the daily lives of the locals.
The guard house (here on the left) looked like a little cottage, and if you walked around its side you could see a TV hanging from the ceiling in a corner...Changing of the guard, second on the left...
Karl XIV Johan - who ruled both Norway & Sweden - ordered the building of this palace (from 1825 to its completion in 1848), but croaked before it was finished...so they made him a statue...
If you stand in front of Karl and look down into the city center, you get this gorgeous panorama.
One of the more fascinating statues at the park is on the left here - it's one of four representations of adult humans being enveloped by a lizard-like creature: and no matter how closely you look, you can't tell if they're being crushed to death or lovingly embraced.
The image on the right is of the Vigeland Monolith - composed of 121 figures (16m high) carved into a single block of stone. The column apparently represents the struggle of life - a theme that runs throughout the park - although it could easily be construed as a mass grave...
At the bottom of the monolith is a circle of steps with 36 groups of other figures:
Just as we were leaving, I snapped this shot of the view from the monolith, surveying the full kilometre of sculptures depicting Vigeland's interpretation of life's beginnings, middles and end. The ominous clouds seemed very appropriate:
If you stand in front of Karl and look down into the city center, you get this gorgeous panorama.
And then on to Vigelandsparken (the park of 227 figures):
One of the more fascinating statues at the park is on the left here - it's one of four representations of adult humans being enveloped by a lizard-like creature: and no matter how closely you look, you can't tell if they're being crushed to death or lovingly embraced.
The image on the right is of the Vigeland Monolith - composed of 121 figures (16m high) carved into a single block of stone. The column apparently represents the struggle of life - a theme that runs throughout the park - although it could easily be construed as a mass grave...
At the bottom of the monolith is a circle of steps with 36 groups of other figures:
Just as we were leaving, I snapped this shot of the view from the monolith, surveying the full kilometre of sculptures depicting Vigeland's interpretation of life's beginnings, middles and end. The ominous clouds seemed very appropriate:
And of course we couldn't leave without finding Vigeland's most famous piece, "The Angry Boy." The little guy's popularity shone through in the most literal of senses - the bottom front of the statue was rubbed to shining from people's hands. He really is little - we missed him completely on the way down the stretch, and almost did again on our way back...He stomps in a corner. Behind and below him is a circular sitting park full of sculptures of infants.
And finally, to Pilestredet no. 30. These, I think, need no editorializing:
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