The click of a padlock and we are locked out. We were visiting the Sverresborg Trondelag Folk Museum, a open air museum with buildings collected from all over the region and assembled in a folk park. I particularly wanted to see the stave church, but it was locked, along with every other building we had encountered. This was the first building we found open and the docent was locking it. She explained that she was walking with a tour group form our ship on a guided tour and she had to keep up with them. She could not keep the building open for us to see, not even a peek. I understand, we are early in the tourism season and the park is not geared up for lots of visitors. Many staff are hired once school is out. There just were not enough people to keep all, or even many, of the exhibits open. Also, the day was not predicted to be as sunny and warm as it was so the museum had more people than they expected. She told us which buildings were open, and we visited them. Of course I was disappointed, no one likes being locked out of something you paid for. But living in Sitka I understand the problems of early season tourism so I thanked the young woman and headed for some of the buildings that we could go into.
The folk museum was one of the four things I wanted to do in Trondheim but there just wasn’t enough time. We were scheduled to get in at 8 AM but were late so the captain decided to stay a little later. That was good for us because on Sunday most of what we were interested in seeing opened at 11 AM. We used the captain’s half hour well.
The Folk museum took more time than I expected, it was more spread out and had hills, which slow me down. Also, the quickest road to the park was closed for repairs so the local bus line #11 was not working and the cab took longer than planned (but the driver, kindly, shut off the meter when we reached the closed road, just before the park so it did not cost us more for the extra drive.) We decided we didn’t have time to visit the Nidaros Cathedral, (a pilgrimage site that honors St. Olav) but we had been there several times before so settled on a drive by in the cab home, same for the planned walk through the old town. A drive by, We skipped these because I wanted to spend time in the Rockheim, the Norwegian rock and roll and pop culture museum. It was closed the last time we were here.
The museum was a technological wonder. You wave your arms and things happen. You walk by a room, and it changes. You can work in an electronic music lab and compose a piece. And you learn about Norwegian pop culture. For instance, in the 1950s there was a Norwegian rocker named Per Elvis Granberg. TV didn’t come to Norway until the ‘60s. Radio was king and they had an old Tandberg Radio on display. That made me happy because WCAL, at the Norwegian Lutheran St. Olaf College where I learned the trade, had Tandberg equipment. It was the only radio station in the US I’m aware of with Tandberg equipment. The trademark brought on a smile.
With no TV in the 50s the Davy Crocket craze hit Norway a decade late. In the ‘60s when NRK, the Norwegian TV service did not have enough programs to fill its schedule it ran a continuous loop of fish swimming in an aquarium, in black and white. Norway has continued that tradition in the color era, with 8 hours of knitting, 12 hours of a log burning, and 18 hours of salmon spawning. It was born of necessity but now NRK prides itself as a pioneer in “Slow TV.”
In the ’60 there was a Norse rock group “The Beatniks” who looked suspiciously like a group form England, only better, there were five of them!
We learned about John Teigen, Norway’s 1978 Eurovision entry who received NO POINTS for his performance. He parleyed that into a career. The record became a hit in Norway on the solidarity vote and stayed at the top of the Norse charts for 4 months. He put out an album “This Year’s Loser” and then made a career of spoof and parody songs. The Docent explained this to us and I said “Well, I wouldn’t hold Eurovision to be the standard of rock ‘n roll, look at Abba.”
He said “I’m not allowed to comment, but – yes.”
And, of course, the Norwegian Rock and Roll Hall of fame included Ah Ha, the one Norwegian rock group with big hits in America and the UK.
This museum was just plain fun. I’m glad we were there and had the extra time to spend there before the ship left.
