Viking Ship Museum

The Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy was designed by Arnstein Arneberg - the same highly renowned Norwegian architect who designed the Oslo City Hall. He won the architect competition in 1913.

In the musuem, you will find the grave finds from Tune, Gokstad and Oseberg. When the grave finds were found in the late nineteenth century, there was not specific museum used to display the finds. They were exhibited in the University Garden in Oslo, a temporary shelter for them. Only in 1913, it was proposed by Professor Gabriel Gustafson who led the excavation of the Osberg ship in 1904.

Date back to the period from 800 to 1050 A.D., the Vikings actually came from what is now Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They were not only strong-willed warriors and seafarers but also excellent farmers, merchants and craftsmen.


The followings are the pictures of the Osberg ships, the grave finds from the Oseberg Farm in Slagen, not far from Tønsberg. It was excavated in 1904.


The Gokstad Ship was excavated from Gokstad farm in the county of Sandefjord in 1880.


The Tune Ship was found at the Nedre Haugen farm in Rolvsøy, Østfold and was excavated in 1867.

The City Hall of Oslo

Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson won the architectural competition of Oslo City Hall in 1918. Their final design was done in 1930. After being delayed for some times by the World War II, the building was finally completed in 1950. It consists of two office towers and a central building containing the main hall and the city parliament chamber and is richly decorated with sculptures and paintings. The east tower and the west tower are 66 and 63 metres high respectively. In addition to being a work place for running the city's political and administrative management, the main hall has been used as a venue to present the Nobel Peace Prize every year on the 10th December since 1990. It also attracts more than 100,000 visitors every year. The main hall covers more than 1,500 sq. metres with a ceiling height of 20.8 metres. The paintings on the wall of the main hall were done by Henrik Sørensen and Alf Rolfsen as shown below.


The followings are some other paintings that can be seen inside the town hall.


"Life", painted by Edvard Munch, can be seen in the Munch's room in the town hall.


The front of the Town Hall, the bird statues on the top of the fountain and the postbox at the main entrance.

Flowers found in Trondheim, Norway

It is amazing to see all these flowers in the summer. Enjoy the photos as much as you can.