The Munch Museum
After the National Gallery, I took the metro to get to the Munch Museum to see the other half of the Munch 150 exhibition. It runs to October the 13th, so you’ve about four weeks.
I was also able to get some excellent Swedish meatballs at the museum.
Munchies At The Munch Museum
Were they Munchies?
Anybody Fancy A Drink?
I saw this outside the National Theatre in Oslo.
Anybody Fancy A Drink?
You don’t see many these days. Especially, in such a prominent location.
Exploring Oslo
The hotel I was in, wasn’t bad, but it was in the wrong position, as the web site said it was ten minutes from the centre. I assumed that was walking, but it was by car or taxi and there wasn’t any Metro station nearby. However I took a bus to the centre and friendly young lady, told me to get off at the National Theatre.
Norwegian National Theatre
It was a good place to start, as a lot of the museums and other places to see are around that area. There was also a customer service centre, where I was able to buy a 24-hour ticket for the trains, trams, buses and ferries. It is also a station from which you get the train to the airport.
One thing about Norwegian and Swedish for that matter, is that a lot of the words can be guessed. For instance the stop for the Nation Theatre is Nationaltheatret. At least the Norwegian National Theatre is more centrally placed than ours in London.
From the theatre, I walked around for an hour or so, until I got to the National Gallery, as I wanted to see the Munch paintings.
Norwegian National Gallery
At the moment there is a celebration of Edvard Munch, so I bought a ticket for the two venues at both the National Gallery and the Munch Museum.
A Crazy Train Ride
it should have been very easy.
I was dropped back at Vasteras station and then all I had to do was take a train to Hallsberg, where I would get a fast train to Oslo, where I would arrive around nine o’clock. The aim was to then spent a day in Oslo, coming home on the Wednesday to London by British Airways.
The first part of the journey was uneventful, except that to me it seemed that no-one had adjusted the heating system on the train I got to Hallsberg. But it was in time to get my connection to Oslo at 17:06.
Hallsberg was a station that was the mix of old and new and had a wide bridge over the tracks like Reading and other rebuilt stations in the UK.
Hallsberg Station
But the train that arrived to take me to Oslo had seen better days. But if I thought that was a bad train, we were then informed that we’d be changing to another train to continue our journey.
Changing Trains
The new train was one of the worst I’d travelled on in the last couple of years and I’ve even been on a Pacer that was in better condition. None of the toilets were working.
No Toilets Were Working
All of this game of musical trains was because there works on the lines and they had to get the passengers through on only one line.
Eventually, we got to Kongsvinger, where Swedish Railways had assured us the fast train to Oslo would have been held.
But it hadn’t been held, so about fifty of us gathered in the waiting room at about eleven. Luckily, I had details of my hotel in Oslo and was able to get them on the telephone to assure them I was on my way. But I know others weren’t so lucky, as they hadn’t any rooms to go to in Oslo. They’d just hoped they’d get there early enough to find one.
Customer service was non-existent and even the toilets needed a credit card. Luckily a forceful Swede knew how to fix them, so everybody could have a much-needed pee.
Eventually, a train arrived and although it was fairly new and very clean, it wasn’t the fastest, as it crawled its way to Oslo.
A Train Arrives
It was an enjoyable journey though, as the Swede was handing out beer to fellow passengers, who included a teacher from Devon and his German girlfriend. Just as we did on that memorable night in Venice, we enjoyed ourselves and put the world to rights.
I got into Oslo about midnight and wandered around for perhaps half-an-hour until I found a taxi to take me to my hotel.
Bears
We went four hours further north to spend a night in a hide in the heart of bear country.
The bears, like the wolves, didn’t play along with us and didn’t show up.
But still it was a good experience for me, as I found that after a night in the hide, my rhinitis and most of the pain in my left arm had disappeared. I’ll put that down to the humidity.
These sort of experiences will get better and better, as technology will help in finding and showing bears to those who want to see them.
Mizar And Alcor
In the wonderful skies over Sweden, I was able to identify both Alcor and Mizar in the constellation of Ursa Major.
That is something, I haven’t seen for a few years. Even in Suffolk, it was difficult, as there was so much stray light from the prison at Highpoint.
No Close Encounters Of The Wolf Kind
After supper, Marcus the main guide from Wild Sweden, tried to call the wolves, who were undoubtedly in the area, as they had left their calling card.
He tried first on a rock by the lake, but despite it being a clear still night, he got no response to his calls.
My walking must be getting better, as I was able to negotiate the track back to the minibus with the light of the head torches of others.
Then he tried three more times at other places.
The last time was almost surreal, as there was a flashing orange light on a mast about a kilometre away and we were watching and listening intently under another magnificent sky, whilst Marcus did his best wolf impressions. Any aliens from wherever, who’d encountered us, would have thought it all very strange.
Perhaps, the wolves had moved on?
A Walk And A Meal In The Forest
Before we actually tried to make contact with the wolves, we went for a walk by a lake and then had supper by a fire.
It was surprisingly warm and I actually fell asleep in the sun for twenty minutes or so.
I think it is true to say, if I’d saw a video about the walks before I booked, I might have declined as they looked difficult.
But truthfully they weren’t as bad as they looked and I had no trouble with any of the places we walked either here or earlier, when we saw the ants.
Wolves And Wolf Research
We went to see if we could find any signs of wolves, but first we went to see a presentation about wolf research.
It was fascinating to see how wolves are migrating south through Sweden and the research that is being done to make sure the population is healthy and able to live easily with the human population.
I asked the researcher, if he had any views on our badger problem. He would not have any common ground with Brian May on the cull.
On the other hand, the wolf research will hopefully lead to the understanding of how wild animals and people can live together in harmony.
Hunting For Moose
After a supper by the lake, we started hunting for moose and I took these pictures.
The next evening, we also saw a lot more moose and actually lost count of the number we saw, but it was at least thirty. It made one of the party’s day, as she had come particularly to see moose.
We also saw several roe deer and a solitary brown hare.
The Anonymous Widower 