Working through Jetlag at the Gustav Vigeland Park

                                                                             The center of Vigeland Park

The Monolith. So named because it was carved from one BIG piece of rock.

We touched down in Oslo at 8:30 a.m. local time. My confused body thought it was 11:30 at night. Despite a really comfortable row of seats to myself  (I highly recommend going ANYWHERE Scandinavian Air flies), I only got about four hours of sleep the “night” before. I staggered off the plane, breezed through customs, and folks from Linblad expeditions were waiting to whisk me to my hotel in downtown Oslo. My initial impression of this  company is that they don’t mess around with anything other than first class.

     A bus met us at our hotel to take us on a 3 hour tour of Oslo. Most of it was a “don’t-blink-as-you-go-by-the-parliment” driving tour, which isn’t my favorite way of seeing things.  That changed when we spent an hour and a half (not enough time) at Vigeland Park. It is 80 acres and contains close to 200 sculptures of people in every stage of life, and expressing every emotion under the sun. They were all created by Gustav Vigeland, an incredibly hard-working, dedicated Norwegian sculptor. My understanding is that Gustav never  gave any explanation to his life’s work. He wanted people to take away their own impressions.

A self portrait of Gustav talking to his girl friend.

I was only there for an hour and a half, taking pictures, and listening to tales of Gustav’s life. I am no art expert, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a complete artistic expression of the human experience.