Friday May 26, Lillehammer and Munch Museum

We were off early on Friday to see the Ski Jump used at the 1994 XVII Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer; Olympic sites are another thing we do.  It was a 2+ hr. train ride to Lillehammer, the train left about 9:34.  From the train station in Lillehammer we took a 12:15 B6 bus to the 7^th stop that Google Maps told me was as close to the Ski Jump as we could get, then it was about a 10-15 min. to the Ski Jump.  There were no signs at the bus stop where we got off, but there was a gravel path that led off into the woods.  After a couple of minutes we saw some flags on poles through the trees, which we took as a good sign.  After a few more minutes we saw the actual Ski Jump above the trees.  I took some photos of the Jump and then it was off to the Olympic Museum.  The Museum was about a 25-30 min. walk.  At the Jump site we met two young men, and we asked if they were familiar with the area.  They were American sailors from the new, world’s largest aircraft carrier the Gerald R. Ford that was visiting Norway.  We walked and talked with them for about 15+ min. when they headed back to the Lillehammer train station.  We continued on to the Olympic Museum, and thankfully found it without any problems.  After looking at the exhibits, and taking a few photos we walked about 15 min. to the Lillehammer train station to catch the 15:09 train back to Lillehammer.  The Munch Museum is open until 21:00 Wed thru Sat, and it was only a 10 min. walk from the train station.  The museum only has works by Munch, so we saw another copy of “Girls on the Pier/Bridge”.  The museum has three versions of “The Scream”; a TEMPERA and OIL painting on cardboard, a LITHOGRAPH and a CRAYON drawing on cardboard.  They have an unusual way of displaying these three works.  There is a special dark room, three of the walls each have an opening, with sliding doors.  Each of the versions of the Scream is behind its own doors.  The museum will show only one of these works for one hour.  After that hour is up the museum will randomly show another version of “The Scream”.  We arrived around 18:00, and the CRAYON version was on display.  We then went through the rest of the museum to see all the other works by Munch that were on display.  We went back to the “The Scream” viewing room a little before 19:00 to see which version would be displayed.  This time the LITHOGRAPH “Scream” was shown.  We went up to the bar restaurant on the 13^th floor to have a beer and then dinner.  Just before 20:00 I went down to see which version of the “Scream” would be displayed until the museum closed.  You can probably guess that we didn’t see the OIL painting, the CRAYON version was again the version on display until the museum closed at 21:00.  Thank goodness we saw “The Scream” at the National Museum.  I wasn’t the only person disappointed at not seeing the Oil Painting.  My guess why the museum uses this random method is that most people want to see the Oil Painting.  If people could know when the Oil Painting would be on display the attendance could surge when it would be on display.   I went back up to the restaurant and had dinner with Sue.

Friday May 26, Lillehammer and Munch Museum