Country Images Magazine North Edition May 2017 | Page 9

on a shoestring
Brian Spencer disputes the idea that Norway
is an expensive place to visit.
The Royal Palace at the head of Karl Johan’s Gate
fl owerbeds all the way to the palace, which in turn is set in a public park
on its low hilltop. Like our Queen when she is at Buckingham Palace or
Windsor Castle, the Norwegian monarch has a royal guard, but while our
Queen’s guards are professional soldiers, their Norwegian equivalent are
fulfi lling their national service obligations. Dressed in dark blue uniforms
topped by a trilby-like hat bearing an eagle’s feather, the guards’ drill can
compete favourably with their British equivalent.
Karl Johan’s Gate is a place to stroll, no more so than on each May 15th
when Norway celebrates its National Constitution Day. Th is when the
country commemorates the fi rst stage of the country’s independence from
Sweden and Denmark in 1814, something that was not comple ted until
1905. On this day, May15th, hundreds of children waving their red white
and blue national fl ags, walk up Karl Johan’s Gate as far as the palace where
the King waves to them from a balcony overlooking the entrance.
At the bottom of a side street linking Karl Johan’s Gate to the harbour, Oslo
City Hall is a place not to be missed. Built soon aft er the end of World
War 2, the outside of the building though attractively built in its solid,
Scandinavian design, has little to indicate what is inside. Murals fi lling the
huge naturally lit walls of the main hall where the Nobel Prize giving takes
place, graphically speak of Norway’s and the country’s development as a
socially caring society and also commemorating the bravery of its citizens
in the grim days of Nazi occupation. Climbing the marble staircase leads
to displays of treasured gift s presented to the city by foreign dignitaries. At
One of the many sculptures in Vigorland Park
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