NORWAY - WORLDWIDE TRAVEL INFORMATION
Posted September 4th, 2012
LATEST WORLDWIDE TRAVEL NEWS
NORWAY
Information and photos provided by Cruise Norway AS
Update September 2012
News from Hardanger
NEW TUNNEL OPENS EXCITING NEW SHOREX POSSIBILITIES
In September 2012 the new Jondal Tunnel opens in Hardangerfjord. Built at a cost of almost EUR 120 million, the 10 kilometre long tunnel links the two cruise ports Rosendal and Jondal. The new connection makes it easy for visiting cruise passengers in the port of Rosendal to travel to Norway’s third biggest glacier, Folgefonna, where a summer ski center is located. The centre is open from May until August/September, weather permitting. Cruise passengers arriving at the port of Jondal can visit Maurangerfjord and Rosendal, passing the stunning Fureberg waterfall. Rosendal is the location of Norway’s only barony, with its beautiful rose garden, as well as the Stone Park. The distance by road between these two tender ports will be about 40 kilometres.
The Folgefonna Glacier
News from Hadeland
Only one hour’s drive north of Oslo, in the countryside, you find the oldest company in Norway and a great attraction: Hadeland Glassworks.
For 250 years, Hadeland Glassworks has been making mouth blown and hand made crystal. The still very vivid factory is encircled by 20 small timber houses like an old romantic town. With gleaming white snow and illuminated spruces and sprigs of spruce by the doors and candles in the windows, we find ourselves re-living the joy of Christmas from the fairytales of childhood.
Added to the Christmas Market inside the warm small houses, a cup of Christmas punch, a traditional Norwegian Christmas dish or a Christmas cake in the Bakery in front of the open fire makes the experience complete. Traditional local handicrafts, food, souvenirs to fill the Christmas stockings and all kinds of Christmas gifts - decorations, tableware and art pieces - are all available. Blow your own glass, decorate it and fill it up with Norwegian honey. Or dive and color your own candles. Join in with the children and sing Christmas Carol and take the Christmas coach ride.
Everybody, old and young, men and women, they all enjoy these activities - so much so, that for many it has become a tradition to start Christmas with a trip to Hadeland Glassworks. It is open all year, and the Christmas Market is from November 1st to December 23rd.
News from Oslo
TJUVHOLMEN SCULPTURE PARK
The sculpture park at Tjuvholmen in Oslo was officially opened to the public on August 10th 2012. The sculpture park has been created on a small island linked to the new Astrup Fearnley Museum.
The park is part of the ‘gift to the city’ requirement in the purchase agreement between the developer Tjuvholmen KS and the Oslo port authority Oslo Havn KF. Tjuvholmen KS is a joint venture between the Selvaag Group and the Aspelin Ramm Group.
Almost all the sculptures are on loan from the Selvaag collection, apart from ‘Things for a House on an Island’ and ‘Untitled (Totem)’, which are owned by Tjuvholmen KS. The park has been designed by the renowned architect Renzo Piano, who – along with the Selvaag brothers and the artists themselves – has tailored the park to the artworks on display.
Background:
The Selvaag family has a passion for sculpture. So much so that the installation of sculptures in its housing developments has become a signature of the Selvaag Group. Over 500 sculptures have been put in place since 1958.
The company founder Olav Selvaag’s vision was to take figurative sculptural art out of the museums and into the places where people live, for the enjoyment and inspiration of the public at large.
His son Ole Gunnar Selvaag took this enthusiasm for sculpture one step further when in 2004 he took the initiative to establish the Peer Gynt Sculpture Park at Løren in Oslo. Famous sculptors from many countries have interpreted a different scene from Peer Gynt, whose story visitors can follow act by act. A total of 20 sculptures make up the entire sequence here.
Now the younger generation of Selvaags are inaugurating a new phase in the family’s sculptural tradition, with the emphasis on international contemporary art.
ASTRUP FEARNLEY MUSEUM
The Astrup Fearnley Museum opens on September 29th 2012 in a new building in Oslo designed by the world renowned architect Renzo Piano. Located in a park along the waterfront of the city, it will embody the museum collection and temporary exhibitions, as well as a shop and a cafe.
The Astrup Fearnley Museum is a privately owned museum which collects and presents contemporary international art. The Museum was opened in 1993, but the Collection has a history that dates back to the 1960s. The Astrup Fearnley Collection has always concentrated on individual works and artists, rather than on movements or historical periods – a distinctive focus on acquiring major pieces of contemporary art that push the boundaries of the artistic canon. Over the last decade, the Museum has concentrated intensively on American contemporary artists – Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney and younger artists like Paul Chan, Frank Benson, Nate Lowman and Dan Colen, to name just a few.
Most recently, the focus has been on works by important Japanese, Chinese, and Indian contemporary artists. The Museum’s aim is to collect and present major works by international contemporary artists in illuminating depth, but also in a dialog with the Norwegian art scene, and to have a real presence both in the city of Oslo and in the international art world.
THE NEW FRAM MUSEUM
Our museum is one of the most popular attractions in the city. We tell the stories of some of the most daring expeditions in history to the coldest and most challenging regions of the world - the North Pole and the South Pole!
Experience the spectacular Northern Lights.
Walk the freezing cold dark walk – if you dare!
Brand new interactive exhibitions in 10 languages. Cafeteria serving tasteful dishes from the summer of 2012 The finest customer restrooms from the summer of 2012 The best polar shop in the world Enter the original polar ship Fram!
Cold is the new hot... Enter our polar simulator, haunted by the nightmare of sailors, in a freezing -10°C!
News from Vik at the Sognefjord
RE-OPENING OF VIKØYRI CULTURAL WALK
Vikøyri is the name of the historical quarter of the village of Vik in Sogn, situated at the southern shore of the Sognefjord. On September 2nd the Vikøyri Cultural Walk is re-opening, telling the story of this typical shore-dweller site with its tiny wooden houses, which around 1900 was the pulsating center of the village.
The Cultural walk consists of 14 re-designed information boards providing information on different historical sites in Vik, in Norwegian, English and German. They also tell the history of several preserved houses and their former inhabitants, like e.g. Fisher-Guri or Frans Olsen who ran a music school and clothed himself in a self-made wardrobe made of goatskin. The starting point is the Tourist Information, just beside the tender quay.
The Tourist Information in Vik also offers guided tours in Vikøyri, including entrance to two of the houses.
News from Åndalsnes & Molde
TROLLSTIGEN – WITH NEW ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 2012.
An exceptional driving experience along a route steeped in tradition, through spectacular scenery with deep fjords and lush valleys – wild, wonderful and vibrant – to Trollstigen. Excursion from both ports of Åndalsnes & Molde.
On the Trollstigen plateau the passengers can experience the overwhelming and majestic landscape at close range.
The architectural design is adapted to the landscape, with materials that can withstand the force of the elements. The viewing platforms hover above the Trollstigen road, which meanders along precipitous mountain roads and curves upwards on the near-vertical slopes, with waterfalls cascading down the mountainside.