Back in Oslo, we took the opportunity to explore the city a little more and see some new museums.  Our main destination was the Bygdøy peninsula, which houses a number of great museums.  We could have taken a short ferry ride there, but decided instead to try out the tram and bus – Oslo’s public transportation is so easy and reasonably priced!

We spent several hours at the Norwegian Folk Museum, a living history museum with many open-air exhibits and live demonstrations.  Susannah especially enjoyed the folk music and dancing, which included a number of traditional Norwegian folk instruments such as the one pictured below.  Our guide on the mid-day tour was a font of information, regaling us with stories and descriptions of Norwegian lives and customs in centuries past.  Did you know that a man who wanted to marry would carve a clothes iron out of wood and present it to his intended  bride?  If she accepted his offer, she would take the iron (presumably thus being all set to iron his clothes), but if she rejected his offer he was supposed to hang the iron in his house in shame – and he couldn’t offer that same iron to anyone else.   We visited several historic houses, getting to see the log and stave construction and sod roofs up close, and we also saw another stave church – this one from 1200, and much more spectacularly decorative.

In the afternoon, we split up, some staying at the folk museum, others visiting the nearby Vikingship museum, and others exploring the neighborhoods and harbor of the Bygdøy peninsula.  We reconvened at our hotel to give one last goodbye to Oslo before heading to the airport.

At the train station, we were approached by two young entrepreneurs to give some product feedback on their latest prototype for a personalized cinematic experience – check out MovieMask for more info…

We were all spread out on the airplane to Copenhagen so the kids got to board at the back of the plane.  They look nearly ready to head off on their own – so glad we still have these family times together! 

We arrived safely in Copenhagen, hopped in our rental car, and zipped over to our B&B in the village of Borup, the home of Susannah’s dear friend Christina.  We were greeted with a warm Danish welcome from Christina and her family – more details of our adventures with them to come…