Oslo

14 July- day 2 in Oslo and I dressed as a raincoat today thereby guaranteeing very little rain. Caught ferry to Bygdoy which is I guess an outlet of land- that's the opposite of an inlet that houses a number of museums. Possibly my favourite was the Viking Ship Museum. The Vikings ships and various artefacts have been found in boat graves around the Oslo Fjord. The boats are stunning. So slick looking. Also visited the maritime museum briefly - Norway is definitely a maritime nation and lastly the Polar ship Fram museum which was all about the various polar exbitions including the discovery of the NW Passage. The Fram and Gjoa boats are in the museum and you can walk onto the Fram. Again really interesting for us except when SA insisted I poke my head through an Inuit costume photo opportunity thing. Why!!? The Bygdoy area itself was interesting - huge houses around this part- nearly all are bright white. Don't know why. We caught a bus back which gave us a bit more of a look at different parts of Oslo. Pretty wealthy place.  My no doubt ignorant conclusion of Norwegian history is that post the Viking era, Norway was the poor cousin to Denmark and to a lesser extent, Sweden for a few hundred years. Finally became independent in 1905 and then was able to shrug off the poor cousin look once oil was discovered in the 1960's.