Akershus Fortress, Oslo, Norway

Akershus Fortree from the Deck of the Cruse Ship

 Our departure from Oslo was going to be late, which gave Ray and me some time to explore Akerhaus Fortress.  We could easily walk there because our ship docked right beside the fortress.  There is no entry fee to visit the fortress, but we did pay about five dollars to visit the Resistance Museum which was one of the buildings inside the fortress.  The museum closed at 4:00, which gave us time to see most of the exhibits, but we could have spent a lot more time there.  There were other buildings in the fortress that we will have to visit our next time we are in Oslo.

The Akerhaus Fortress has a 700 year old history.  It was built as protection from a Swedish earl who attacked it in 1363.  The attack was unsuccessful, and Akerhaus Fortress became a stronghold in Oslo.  I lost count on how many times the castle has been besieged, but in those many times, it was never conquered by a foreign country.  It did did surrender without combat to Nazi Germany and was under Nazi control from 1940-1945.  The Germans used it as a military headquarters, prison and and also a place of execution.  There were many who resisted and at the end of the war, a memorial was built to honor them and later this amazing Norwegian Resistance Museum was built.  I am glad we chose this museum to visit.  It was sad, in many parts, but that sadness made me realize the importance of resistance, and how difficult it can be.

This is the memorial for those in the resistance.

I am going to show you a picture of the part of Akerhaus that we saw.  The one with the toilet paper was the most difficult for me to grasp.  The human spirit in such dire times and such horrible conditions was a large part of the success the end of the war.

This is the toilet paper that was the diary of Petter Moen.  He would prick letters in the toilet and stuff the sheets of toilet paper in a ventilating shaft.  I found this heart wrenching as I pictured the difficulty he must have had punching holes to form letters, to form words.  He did not know if this diary would ever be found, and yet he documented what life was like as a prisoner of the Gestapo.  He never lived to know that his story is now part of our history.

Toilet Paper Diary

               Here is a closer view of the toilet paper.  The letters and words are easier to see.

These are rifles with bayonets that the Nazi's used while occupying Norway.   There is a letter stuck onto one bayonet that we think the resisters put there as protest for what the letter says.  There was a sign that said the rifles were put together in the shape of a swastika, but neither one of us could see the shape.

                                            Here is the note.  I translated it the best I could.

Translation:  (I did translate a lot of this on my own, but I do thank, Google Translate to make my words make sense.)

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Recording

The Reich's government asks the Royal Norwegian government to immediately take the following measures.

     1.)  Call on the government to the people and the Wehrmacht to refrain from any resistance against the German troops in the occupation of the country.

     2.)  Order to the Norwegian Wehrmacht to (?? This is where the bayonet goes through the letter.)  with the incoming troops and to make the necessary arrangements for loyal cooperation to German commanders.  The Norwegian troops are left in possession of their weapons as far as their behavior allows.

           As a sign of the willingness to cooperate, the white flags of the parliament are to be shown next to the national flag on the military installations to approaching German troops.

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We did not have time to visit the former living quarters of one of the Royal family (Princess Margaret of Denmark lived there in 1363 when she married Haakon the Sixth.).  There was also a church that we did not get to visit.  This is why I hope we make it back to Oslo.  There was so much in this one fortress that we would like to see.

This is one of the gates in the fortress.

This walk through a small tunnel took us to another part of the fortress.

This is a small tower and a cannon.

I don't know if these are the original cannons, but they looked cool and had pock marks on them from what I think are battle scars.

Damage from bullets or shrapnel.

This is damage from bullets or shrapnel.

His Majesty the King's Guard is responsible for guarding the fortress.

It was night time when our ship sailed to our next destination.  Akershus Fortress was a beautiful sight.  It seemed to glow in the night.

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Hoppin' Oslo

The first port on our Baltic cruise was Oslo, Norway.  I had visited Oslo one other time when I was a teenager and the Chapel Choir from Monroe Street United Methodist Church toured Scandinavia. What I remember most about that Oslo trip is that I got lost.  I had left my guitar in the hotel, went back to get it for rehearsal at the church where we were performing that evening.  I won't go into the whole story about how I got lost and what happened, but I finally found my way to the church.  Actually, I think (at a later time) that might make a good blog entry.

This trip was a busy one.  We (Linda, Ray and I) hopped on a "Hop On Hop Off" bus to take us to some of the key places.  We should have taken the advice of some of the reviews about doing this.  The loop was a long one and we got a later start than we intended.  We were given ear buds to use with a recording of all of the places we passed, or where we stopped.  The recording was off a couple of stops, so when we wanted to get off stop 7 to see "The Scream" we realized that it was really stop 5.  We would have no time to go through the loop and then get back in time.  So, we just stayed on the bus and listened to the recording telling us about places we had already passed.

Edward Munch created four versions in paint and pastels of The Scream.  One is in the National Gallery and another is in the Munch Museum.  We we did not get to go to either.

The Scream by Edward Munch.

Another reason we did not get off the bus, was because the traffic patterns were changed a bit because it was also the 50th Wedding Anniversary of the King and Queen.  They were celebrating and some of the roads were closed.  We did not get to see them either, but here is a picture.

King Harald and Queen Sonja

We got to see a lot of the city from the bus and this is a great mode of transportation while visiting cities that have such buses.  It was our fault that we did not start earlier and that we did not have a good plan for the day.  I do not fault the Hop On, Hop Off bus for that.  I do wish that their recording numbers matched the stops.  Here are a few places we did see.

University Aula

Norwegian Capital, Parliament 

Since this was our first port, we did not have our timing down yet.  We probably could have taken the bus for another loop, but we worried about being left in Oslo,when the ship left.  It wasn't until we got back, that we realized that the ship was leaving late, like 11:00 at night.  Oh well, Linda was having major pain from the sciatica (and the bus was bouncy which aggravated the sciatica) and my leg was still bothering me, so walking around and standing in lines at museums, would have slowed any healing we had hoped to have and been quite painful.

                                                     Here are a couple more pictures.

Grand Hotel

And, of course,  A McDonald's 

When we boarded the ship, Ray and I explored the decks.  We had been on this same ship on a different cruise.  While standing on the ship's deck, I was fascinated by this fortress that was right next to our ship.  We could see inside, from our view and noticed that it was opened for people to tour.  Ray and I disembarked the ship again, crossed the street and took the steps into the fortress.  The next blog post will be about this amazing fortress.