1936 On the Continent

very attractive blondes out in Karl Johan wearing rakish black peaked caps are university undergraduettes. The soldiers with black horsehair-plumed hats and wide white stripes down their trousers belong to the Guard, and are on their way from the Akershus fortress, at the head of the harbour, to the Palace for watch duty.
    Across the street from the Grand is the Stortingshus, the Norwegian parliament building, and a comely little garden with seats under the trees. This is another pleasing spot in which to loiter and see life go by. The blue Oslo trams whirr along the streets; from the harbour sounds the note of a ship’s siren. Beyond the end of the Rosenkrantzgate the fjord shows, and the dark humps of the islands form the background for the white sails of the yachts.
    The route to Oslo from England is maintained by the Fred. Olsen line, whose neat comfortable little steamers, the
Blenheim
and the
Bessheim
, run twice weekly from Newcastle during the summer, and once a week in the winter.
    Lindesnes, the most southerly cape of Norway, is sighted twenty-four hours after leaving the Tyne; thereafter the way lies along the coast and through the calm waters and lovely scenery of the Oslo Fjord—a journey of twelve hours, with stops (in summer) at Arendal and Horten.
    One of the most characteristic features of Norwegian life is the amphibious summer holiday—bathing, sailing, fishing, camping—along the shores of the Sörland (south Norway) and the Oslo Fjord. Here there is none of the stern, rocky bleakness of the western seaboard. The mountains lie far in the interior, and the mainland hil$$$ that run down to the coast are gracefully undulating $$$ covered with pine and fir forests whose scent carrie$$$ far out over the water.
    Along all its length the Oslo Fjord is studded with small islands, tufted with pines and all possessing snug little inlets where a boat can be anchored and a camp made. Every fjord-side town has its yacht club—jovial, utterly democratic clubs where the stand-offish Cowes atmosphere is nowhere to be found.
    A man can own a yacht in Norway as he owns a second-hand baby car in England. Week-ends are spent in small cruises, sleeping in the boat’s cabin, or in a tent pitched on an island strand. The Norwegians have brought the preparation of tinned food to a perfection unknown elsewhere; and such dishes as
lapskaus
, a very first-class kind of stew, taken from a tin and cooked up over a camp fire, or on a Primus stove aboard the boat, provide an open-air meal on a level with the cooking-craft of the best housewife.
    From May until September the Oslo Fjord is the play-ground of the capital, and of every other town and village that lies along its shores. The islands, and the narrow waterways and lesser branches that they form, are spread along both sides of the fjord, leaving the wide central fairway for the big shipping. Local steamer services link up the different resorts, sailing intricate routes through sounds so narrow that at times the stretching branches of the firs almost brush the decks.
    In an hour’s journey from the busy heart of Oslo one can reach wild, untouched surroundings, finding a remoteness and a peace that only the primordial scenery of rock and forest and deep, still water can give.
Where to Go, What to Do, What to See in Oslo
    One of the best ways to see Oslo is to take the electric railway (the Holmenkollenbanen) that starts from the end of the Karl Johansgate, near the National Theatre, and get out of the city. From the heights of Holmenkollen, or, still higher, from Frognerseter, the views embrace a huge panorama of city and fjord and the nearer forested hills.
    There are good restaurants at both these places, and the walks lead through forest paths. Another good view-point from which to see Oslo is at Ekeberg, also reached by railway in a few minutes.
    Having gained these bird’s-eye views and a general lay-out of the city and its environment, one can descend—by rail, or on foot until the trams are met with—and enter Oslo again.
    Oslo is not large, as capital cities go. Its population is only 300,000, but Oslo has the true metropolitan note. There is nothing provincial about it.
    A large number of its inhabitants live in the suburbs, pleasant places that expand out of the city along the edges of the hills and round the curve of the head of the fjord. Here in the suburbs all the houses are of timber. Painted white or red, or sometimes just treated with protective