Oslo-Geilo

Coolest train car for kids, ever!  A family car with a playground and changing stations.

Oslo Central Station:

Geilo mountain train station:

SCREAM!

We checked out the Edward Munch museum, arguably dedicated to Norway's most famous artist.

The Scream, by Edward Munch.

SCREAM.FOR.THE.SCREAM

Abby's version of "The Scream."

Reese's version of "The Scream."

And after all of that existential angst served up in  Munch's artwork, why not visit a cathedral?  Here's the lovely, if somewhat underwhelming, Oslo Cathedral.  17th century,

The Vikings

In the late 19^th- and early 20^th-centuries, Norwegian farmers discovered Viking burial mounds with entire ships underneath.  The remains were carefully extracted and reassembled, becoming the most comprehensive and intact discoveries of the Scandinavian Viking period.

The ships were once actively used for trading, battles or local royal voyages, but subsequently used to bury their rich owners and carry them into the afterlife.  The skeletons of one man (a chieftain) and two women (probably an elite, elderly woman and her slave girl) were also discovered, along with various artifacts like cookware and tools.  In one of the burial mounds, an entire chariot and three sledges were also found.

It’s almost impossible to imagine the ships were constructed in the 9^th century and used to sail ferocious seas and wage war with neighbors.  The craftsmanship is breathtaking. 

Th oar holes.

Matching Viking ship hats.

Slushy Scandinavia

Oslo is situated around a fjord, and it’s usually quite cold in the middle of February (so much so that our Amsterdam friends questioned our sanity when we said we were headed to Norway to go skiing during the kids’ February school break).  It’s been a mild winter, however, and when we arrived for our weekend in Oslo, prior to taking a train west to go skiing, we encountered a mix of rain and snow with relatively mild temperatures for this far north.  Slush . . . falling from the sky and piled in heaps on the street.

Grey as the skies were, the Oslo Opera and Ballet House stood out like a light, white beacon in the Oslo harbor.  Like a glacier jutting out of the sea. This is what the Norwegian architectural firm Snohetta intended--to create a "building  [that] is as much landscape as architecture and thus fosters public awareness and engagement with the arts."    

The firm won oodles of awards for this gem and became famous internationally.  They are currently designing the reconstruction of Times Square and the Ground Zero Memorial, among other high visibility projects.

Photo taken from Opera House website.

This photo from Opera House website.

Grey skies prevail in my photos.

The interior was designed so that every wall, every hallway, every courtyard was a work of art in its own right, in addition to being a part of the whole.  The mix of textures and materials are tremendous.

From the inside, looking out onto the fjord.

Hallways taking audience members to various levels of the auditorium.

Giant wall in main lobby, designed with greens found in glaciers.

Only the main auditorium supposedly prioritizes function over art, with every material (down to the seat fabric) chosen for its ability to reflect sound.  Even the amonia-treated Baltic wood enhances the acoustics. The balconies were carved by boat builders from northwest coast of Norway.

If you ask me, I can’t see where they sacrificed one bit of “art” in this auditorium-it’s beautiful. 

The architects also wanted to open up the back-of-the-house operations to the public, therefore much of the “factory,” as the call it, is exposed with open floor plans and glass windows at street level. In this way, the public can see the “art” of bringing these performances to life.  And in keeping with the spirit of inside-outside perspective, visitors can even walk on the roof without ever coming inside. 

Ballet Buds

Different classes. Same teacher. Same moves.

Uh, maybe . . . the boy's a wild man.

Reese, after his first ballet class this week, with une amie from French school. 

Meet Miffy!

Meet Miffy!!  She's the little girl rabbit created by Dutch artist, Dick Bruna.  Miffy appears in over thirty children's picture books written and illustrated by Bruna.  She's called Nijntje in Dutch, which is short for "little rabbit."

We're collecting the book series for Abby and our goddaughter, Amelia.  So far, Abby has acquired these titles:

The books have a great rhyming pattern and are perfect for budding readers like Miss Abby. Great set of games, coloring pages and read-along tools at miffy.com.

I got a real kick out of this Miffy!  Abby dressed up one her Miffy dolls, and she's so Dutch with the faux fur collar and the hair whisked up into a crazy hair wrap.  Love it!  All Abby, all Dutch.

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Knittin' Fools

She's gone and done it again.  My mom's latest knitted creation is a pink, tweedy poncho for Abby.

This is just one of the many, many sweaters, hats, cowls, scarves, skirts that my mom's made for our family.  Her work is gorgeous, and she's just down right prolific.  All that, and she just learned to knit six years ago.

Nana always smiles and responds gracefully when Abby and Reese say, "Blah, I'm not wearing that itchy thing." 

Luckily, Abby loves this one. Wearin' it to school tomorrow!

Go Hawks!!

We're thousands and thousands of miles away from Seattle and our NW friends, but we've still got Seahawks fever!  

The Superbowl airs at 12:30AM over here, so I'm thinking we're going to miss it.  Well, I know I can't stay up that late, Doug, on the other hand, has high hopes of hanging in a sports bar into the wee hours getting his "american" on . . .

Happy for Seattle today!

L'Atelier d'Agnès

Our French tutor, Agnès, is more than just a tutor.  She's a painter and our friend. 

To our delight, she invited all of us to her studio last Sunday to celebrate Tirer les Rois (Find the Kings), a French tradition celebrating the Epiphany (arrival of the three wise men).

What a pleasure to view her art for the first time, see where she works, and meet her partner!

Find the Kings is celebrated every year on January 6, although the tradition is so popular that people gather throughout the entire month of January to share in the fun and especially to eat more of the special cake, called galette, that the holiday centers around. 

The history of The Galette des Rois goes back to Roman times, and survived through the Middle Ages and even the French Revolution (when all things royal were suppressed). 

There are three main styles of galette throughout France, but the celebration is always similar.  Above all, a lucky charm is always hidden in the cake, which traditionally is a fava bean (la fève), but in recent times could be a porcelain or plastic trinket. At a gathering, the cake is sliced to the exact number of people at the table, plus one.  The pieces are then distributed randomly (often by the youngest person in the room, who is considered the most innocent and fair) and the fun begins to see who will find la fève. 

Whoever finds the lucky charm becomes king for the day and chooses a queen to join him.  It is also customary for the king to then host the next gathering and provide the galette. 

Et bien sûr, champgagne!

So yummy.  Maybe next year I'll try my hand at homemade galette.

Doug found the lucky charm in his piece of galette, which means he became king for the day.  And who better to become his queen than Mademoiselle Abigail . . .