Dancing on the Ceiling (Oslo, Norway part 2)

Our last full day in Norway was not the beautiful day of sunshine we had yesterday, but it wasn't raining or snowing so that meant getting out and about again.

Even the statues get cold.

The Münch Museum, as opposed to the Münch display at the National Museum, was originally on the agenda. We had seen The Scream and although we understand there other iterations of it, we opted to explore the Opera House instead.

Across the road from the hotel.

The Opera House is near the Sentral Station and right next door to the Münch Museum, about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. Having already had a positive experience of a guided tour of the Sydney Opera House, we booked a tour for 1pm.

The tiger at Sentral Station.

Prior to the tour, we wandered around checking out the shopping searching for the Pandora store that had eluded us in other parts of Norway. Success! A Norway charm was purchased, a heart with a viking ship engraved onto it. Sadly, my attempts to purchase the softshell jacket I didn't buy in Tromsø were not as profitable for me or the local stores.

One purchase made, we continued to dodge the gypsies and whatever 'worthwhile' cause they were collecting for on the way to sentral station. They were easy to identify. All female as usual with a specific skirt made of some very shiny material.

Sentral Station

The last of gypsies accosted me as we walked across the forecourt to the station. I held out my hand up as she approached and said "No thank you". To which she replied, obviously miffed, "How about hello"? 

A sculpture at Sentral Station.

Sentral station is quite the destination and not just for trains. It in expansive inside and has numerous shops and restaurants. I imagine it is the sort of thing they are attempting with the redevelopment of Central in Sydney. I look forward to it and hope they don't take the usual Australian option and consider the likes of McDonalds and KFC as restaurants.

Oslo Opera House

After ascertaining exactly where we needed to be to catch the train the next day, with nearly an hour before our scheduled tour time, we set off to locate the opera house which was supposed to be in generally the same area as the station. We literally walked across the road towards the harbour and suddenly, there it was, right in front of us. 

The saunas on the water.

With time on our hands, we decided to take a stroll along the wharf area, across from the Opera House. Here we found for hire a group of floating timber sauna houses, replete with chopped wood to fuel the saunas and platforms with ladders so that after your sauna, you could plunge your overheated body into the literally freezing harbour waters. Hmmm not so appealing for us but we observed a number of hardy souls performing this masochistic ritual so it clearly is a thing, if only for gullible tourists.

The library next door to the Opera House.

We then made our way back around the foreshore to the Opera House itself, a modern (2008) building glistening with glass and white tiles that formed sloping lines rising from the water's edge to a viewing tower atop the building. This "roof" was populated by many people walking all over it. We found our way inside, located the tour meeting point and then sat down to take in the interior of the main foyer while we waited for 1pm.

The Opera House and Münch Museum.

The open space is again principally white with marble floors and sweeping windows that allow the harbour views to dominate one side. There is a restaurant within the foyer as well as a box office. The other dominate feature is an expansive timber staircase that leads to an upstairs mezzanine level that is lined by textured timber panels.

Precisely at 1pm, our guide arrived, gathered our tour group to welcome us and provide some general history around the design and construction of what is actually the home of both Norway National Opera and the Ballet. The building design apparently has some basis in the Sydney Opera House but apart from them both being white, on the water's edge and used for performance arts, we couldn't see it.

The foyer.

The guide invited us up to the mezzanine which is specifically visually distinct from the foyer area to denote a movement to the performance area of the complex. The oak clad walls are for acoustic purposes as well as aesthetic effects and they continue to dominate the decor as you move along corridors to arrive in the concert hall.

The wall changes colour as the day goes on.

Before we left the mezzanine, the guide spoke about the redevelopment of the whole foreshore, showing some before and after photos to highlight the transformation. A significant feature of the harbour is a sculpture made of glass and metal that is positioned on an island of concrete in the water. The work rotates around on an axis, driven by the wind. It is based on a painting that hangs in a gallery in Hamburg so maybe we will see the genesis of this work later on our journey.

The sculpture of the artwork.

Before we entered the concert hall we were informed that there would be no more photographs allowed. We sat in the darkness of the hall for a few minutes to hear about its features and capacity. The seating is very steep and not for those afraid of heights as it is a significant drop to floor level from the stalls. Each seat has its own video screen so you can choose in which language you would like your opera subtitles to appear.

After this, we headed away from the public performance area behind the scenes to the practise and workshop areas to see what goes on to stage an opera or a ballet. This was the really interesting part where we saw dancers practising, costumiers making all sorts of outfits, milliners, shoe makers, set designers, painters, lighting technicians... a veritable hive of activity in a maze of spaces yet every craftsperson or technician was very quiet, calm and individual in their pursuits. I'm not sure this would be the atmosphere just before the curtain goes up but the feeling was serene and purposeful as we wandered finally into the backstage area to observe the commencement of the creation of a set design for an upcoming performance.

The first statue of a woman that we've seen.

One unexpected feature of the corridors of creativity, was the laundry bags that regularly hung outside the practise rooms with instructions to put used underwear inside... in fact artists are not apparently very good at following instructions since there were items of personal apparel dropped on window sills, in alcoves, on exercise mats all over the place. Had we had any fetishist tendencies, we could have scored a goldmine of maybe famous people's smalls!!!!!

All too soon we were in a lift and back in the marble floored lobby - as it turned out, a far more interesting tour than we had in Sydney where the backstage, behind the scenes areas were not part of the deal. 

Münch Museum from the roof.

After the tour, it was time to walk outside on the ceiling to see the harbour from atop the house. The tiles up here were textured but that did not mitigate the slipperiness of the ice that was widespread across the roof. We saw a number of people slip and slide across the roof. They weren't exactly dancing on the ceiling, but from a distance ... anyway, that is where we arrived at today's title. Dancing on the Ceiling by Lionel Richie from 1986.

A short walk part way up the slope was sufficient temptation of fate for Jayne. I beat a careful retreat back to the flat path surrounding the area, negotiated the ice field at the top and crossed to the other side where there was no ice due to the sunshine. Rookie error, should have started on that side.

It was time to head back to the gastronomic options of the railway station where we had our usual late lunch/early dinner and then headed home to pack and prepare for our departure the next morning - our last night in Norway before heading to our next Scandinavian destination, Sweden. 

Until next time.