Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
changed—stay for the blast that killed the dinosaurs), to day-to-day life on
an offshore platform, to petroleum products in our lives (though the peanut-
butter-and-petroleum-jelly sandwich is a bit much). Kids enjoy climbing on
the model drilling platform, trying out the emergency escape chute at the plat-
form outside, and playing with many other hands-on exhibits.
Severalincludedmoviesdelveintospecificaspectsofoil:Thekid-oriented
“Petropolis” 3-Dfilmisprimitive butentertaining andinformative, tracingthe
story of oil from creation to extraction. Other movies (in the cylindrical struc-
tures outside) highlight intrepid North Sea divers and the construction of an
oil platform. Each film is 12 minutes long, and runs in English at least twice
hourly.
Even the museum's architecture was designed to echo the foundations of
the oil industry—bedrock (the stone building), slate and chalk deposits in the
sea (slate floor of the main hall), and the rigs (cylindrical platforms). While
the museum has its fair share of propaganda, it also has several good exhibits
on the environmental toll of drilling and consuming oil.
Norwegian Emigration Center (Det Norske Utvandrersenteret
Ble)
—This fine facility, in an old warehouse near the wharf where the first
boatssailedwithemigrantsto“Amerika”in1825,isworth▲▲▲foranyone
seeking his or her Norwegian roots.
Cost and Hours:
Library—free, museum—20 kr, Mon-Fri 9:00-15:00,
closed Sat-Sun, Strandkaien 31, enter through the door just to the left of the
tacky souvenir shop, tel. 51 53 88 60,
www.emigrationcenter.com
.
Visiting the Center:
On the first floor up, the modest but nicely presented
People on the Move exhibit
traces the Norwegian emigrant experience. It
tells the story of the first emigrants who left for America—why they left, the
journey,andwhatlifewaslikeintheNewWorld.You'lllearnhowtheNorwe-
gian population boom in the early to mid-19th century (from 882,000 people
in 1810, to 1.7 million in 1865) led to a critical shortage of basic resources.
While only 78,000 Norwegians emigrated before 1865, the number leaped to
677,000 in the steamship era (1865-1915). Once in North America, Norwe-
gians (unique among immigrant groups) tended to settle in rural farmlands
rather than cities.
