NORWAY - Scandinavia - page 434

The museum also tells the chilling tales of other Arctic and Antarctic ad-
ventures undertaken beneath the Norwegian flag. The polar sloop Gjøa, dry-
docked outside next to the ferry dock, is the ship that Amundsen and a crew
of six used from 1903 to 1906 to “discover” the Northwest Passage.
▲▲Kon-TikiMuseum(Kon-TikiMuseet) —Nexttothe Fram isamuseum
housing the Kon-Tiki and the Ra II , the ships built by Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002). In 1947, Heyerdahl and five crewmates constructed the Kon-
Tiki raft out of balsa wood, using only pre-modern tools and techniques. They
set sail from Peru on the tiny craft, surviving for 101 days on fish, coconuts,
and sweet potatoes (which were native to Peru). About 4,300 miles later, they
arrived in Polynesia. The point was to show that early South Americans could
have settled Polynesia. (While Heyerdahl proved they could have, anthropo-
logists doubt they did.) The Kon-Tiki story became a best-selling book and
award-winning documentary (and helped spawn the “Tiki” culture craze in
the US). In 1970, Heyerdahl's Ra II made a similar 3,000-mile journey from
Morocco to Barbados to prove that Africans could have populated America.
Bothshipsarewell-displayed anddescribed inEnglish. Shortclips from Kon-
Tiki, the Oscar-winning 1950 documentary film, play in a small theater at the
end of the exhibit.
Cost and Hours: 70 kr, daily June-Aug 9:00-18:00, March-May and Sept-
Oct 10:00-17:00, Nov-Feb 10:00-16:00, Bygdøynesveien 36, tel. [phone],
www.kon-tiki.no .
▲Norwegian Maritime Museum (Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum) —If you like
the sea, this museum is a salt lick, providing a wide-ranging look at Norway's
maritime heritage. Its dusty collection includes the charred remains of Nor-
way's oldest boat (2,200 years old), artifacts from the immigration days, and
a case devoted to World War II. Don't miss the movie The Ocean: A Way
of Life , included with your admission. It's a breathtaking widescreen film
swooping you scenically over Norway's dramatic sea and fishing townscapes
from here all the way to North Cape in a comfy theater (20 minutes, shown at
the top and bottom of the hour, follow Supervideografen signs).