1936 On the Continent

wife is broad-minded take her there. She will enjoy it. Otherwise, don’t. The Dovrehallen does not pretend to be other than what it is—a lively resort of the people, where much good beer flows and much good spirits are shown.
    Out in the fjord, easily reached by ferry or tram, are two very attractive restaurants, Kongen and Dronningen. They are built on islets and linked to the land by long piers. The water is deep around them, so that the yachts sail close in to the diners on their verandah terraces.
Oslo—Museums, Art Galleries, etc.
    In the Nationalgalleriet is assembled the finest collection of Norwegian paintings and sculpture in the country. Particularly interesting are the pictures of Norwegian peasant life painted by the artist Tidemand fifty and more years ago.
    Tidemand put a story into all his paintings. It is a form of art that is scoffed at to-day, where strange distorted torsos and morbid “problem pictures” are thought to represent the summit of creative achievement.
    By the study of Tidemand’s work one can gain a wonderful insight into Norwegian peasant culture. He haspainted the Norwegian peasant in all his activities—his weddings, fishing expeditions and farm work; his boyhood days in the catechism class in a small country church; his courting episodes, with a lass up in some small mountain
seter
; his dances and merrymaking; his religious meetings in a peasant house; his life, his death.
    In an altogether different genre to the work of Tidemand is the art of Edvard Munch, whose pictures are stark and fierce in their portrayal of human character. Munch’s portrait of a girl suffering from advanced tuberculosis is one of the most savagely poignant pictures the world has to show. And there is another one—a mother watching her sick child, falling to sleep from sheer anxiety and exhaustion—that stands eternally among the great masterpieces of art.
    After an hour or so of Tidemand at the National-galleriet it is a good plan to take the ferry from Piperviken quay across to Bygdö, where there is the open-air Folk Museum. Here old peasant houses and farm buildings have been collected from all over Norway and re-erected. Again and again the settings of Tidemand’s work is seen in actuality, and the attendants, who are mainly women, wear the local dress of the particular district of Norway from which the building has been transported.
Museum of Applied Arts
    One of the most striking exhibits at the Bygdö Folk Museum is the timber stave church from Gol, in the Hallingdal valley. And in a special house may be seen the remains of two Viking ships in a remarkable state of preservation.
    The collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (Kunst-industri-museet) displays the wide range of Norwegian folk crafts. There is some very fine gold and silversmith work to be seen, and the tapestries woven on peasant looms in past centuries reveal the innate sense of colour and design that is so noticeable in all Norwegian art forms.
    In the Ski Museum, at Frognerseter (reached by electric railway to Holmenkollen, and then a pleasant walk), are many articles used by Nansen and Amundsen in their polar expeditions, and a collection of skis illustrating their development from Viking times to the present day.
Norwegian Food and Drink
    The craft of the cook stands high in Norway, as it does in every country whose people have their roots set deep in the homely peasant tradition.
    Norwegian cooking is rich, careful and exceedingly tasteful. But never fussy; and portions are never niggardly. The menus tell you exactly what you are to consume, and do not mislead with exotic French terms.
    The home meals are
frokost, middag
and
aftens
. The breakfast consists largely of cold slices of ham or veal roll or smoked salmon or various kinds of cheese, laid on buttered bread—the inevitable and always tasty
smörrebröd
. Eggs, boiled or fried, are also on the family table; and a lot of milk, thick, creamy, excellent milk, is taken. Coffee always, never tea. And you will never drink a bad cup of coffee in Norway.
    Middag
is the main meal, and is usually taken late in the day. For Norwegian business hours run consecutively from nine to three or four in the afternoon, when the working day of the towns ends. The only break is a few minutes about mid-day, when
smörrebröd
taken in a packet from home is eaten in the office, or a short visit made to a nearby café for a glass of beer and a light snack.
    Middag
menus are good and