Grunerlokka

July 12th

I biked through Grunerlokka the first time we were in Oslo.  That's the up-and-coming district that housed water powered factories in the 1800s.  Local boosters now term it Oslo's "Greenwich Village."  Gail and I decided to take a closer look on foot.  We veered west after stopping at our favorite coffee shop near the Cathedral.  Few of the streets were straight.  Same as Boston.  Most were empty too.  Norwegians enjoy a collective vacation in July.  Many people already had skipped town.  Of the ones we did see, quite a few were loading up their cars.  Gail and I climbed a series of steep hills.  Finally we reached Var Frelsers cemetery,  That's where the politicians and other famous folk are buried.  We don't know the history very well.  And the monuments were inscribed in Norweigan, hard for us to understand.  The grounds were beautifully maintained.  Gail did spot some of the artists' graves, including Henrik Ibsen.  She's an art history major.

We descended back to the Akers River.  Then it was uphill again, past three increasingly large waterfalls.  This section of town was full of people.  The path was packed with bikes and walkers.  Sunbathers filled the nearby lawns.  Young mothers pushed strollers up the steep hills, earning quite a workout in the process.  Part way up we spotted a landmark of sorts.  A group of former grain silos had been converted into student housing a few years ago.  Story has it that many of the beds are curved to fit the shape of the walls.  The best parties in Oslo are on the roof decks.

We stopped at Olaf Ryes Plass on the way back.  It's one of many parks in the area.  This one is surrounded by trendy shops and restaurants.  The place was packed with locals and tourists alike.  Gail and I had been told the prices were lower than downtown.  The locals probably know where those places are.  In the square it was business as usual.

A few places remained on our to-do list.  Gail and I knocked them off in the afternoon.  The Akershus Fortress stands on a high ridge and offers great views of the harbor.  The Danes reinforced the complex in the 1600s after they took over.  It originally was built in 1299.  Enemy ships had no chance getting past.

The Resistance Museum was on the fortress grounds.  It told the story of the German occupation in great detail.  The Nazis invaded Norway with a blitzkrieg strike in 1940.  The ill-prepared army bought time for the king and navy to escape to England.  But the official battle ended in a matter of weeks.  The underground took charge after that.  Germany devoted an unusually large amount of resources to Norway.  As many as 300,000 troops were assigned.  Hitler needed harbors to attack American supply ships in the Atlantic.  Scandinavia also was a major source of iron ore.

Several members of the Lauvrak clan participated in the Resistance.  Bjorn, Oddvar, and Gunnar described their escapades.  Their fathers and uncles hauled weapons and ammunition from air drop sites, with Germans at their heels.  Skis proved faster than boots.  Nobody was caught.  They also relayed troop movement and other intelligence to the Allies.  British paratroops were escorted to military targets.

The Germans confiscated 50%-60% of Norway's industry during the war.  The occupation also eliminated key trading routes.  Incomes collapsed as a result.  Widespread hardship was endured.  The Germans offered a variety of bribes to enlist the citizens' cooperation.  The Quisling government was soundly rejected.  After the American invasion of Normandy in 1944 hopes surged that a similar operation would follow in Norway.  Hitler never really reduced his forces there.  The Americans just went straight to Berlin..

Norway abandoned its neutrality after World War Two.  It became one of America's most reliable NATO partners.  Hitler was generally correct about needing naval access to the Atlantic.  After NATO was established Norway made it difficult for Russia to get its ships in and out of the Barents Sea.  If push ever comes to shove Norway still could halt the Soviet fleet in its tracks.