Wandering Scandinavia

A tour without itinerary proves just how much there is to do

Author: By Jan Shepherd, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, November 3, 1996

Page: M1

Section: Travel

Based on pre-trip information from the Scandinavian Library in West Newton, the Scandinavian and Danish tourist boards in New York and a few guidebooks, I knew I wanted to see Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Bergen. Natives also recommended Goteborg, Navrik, the Lofoten islands, Odense, Legoland, Skagen, Gotland, Bornholm, Krunia and Jutland. Brochures enticed with glass blowing, folk districts, fiords, country bike jaunts, hikes above the Arctic Circle, Viking ships, museums, Munch, Zorn, Grieg, Samis.

I would do it all. Wrong.

Within a few days of my arrival in Copenhagen, I realized these countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland -- were much larger than I had imagined. After all, Sweden is the fourth-largest country in Europe. With about two weeks left in the trip, I realized I didn't have enough time to get to Finland. Next time.

A trip without an itinerary may seem scattershot, but interests and themes influenced my decisions as I traveled: history, art, Vikings, museums, folk traditions. Despite a few glitches caused by some indecisiveness, the trip was one of my most memorable.

Each country is different and each appealing in its own right. English is usually Scandinavians' second language, so it was easy to find someone to translate a menu, answer a craft question, help find a street. As a woman traveling alone, I felt safe, although I never abandoned my urban conditioning to be wary of dark walkways and subways. Unfortunately, petty crime has made its way there -- the Oslo tourist information office had signs posted: ``Beware of Pickpockets.''

My travel time was in July and early August -- the season of long days -- so the light in each region was special. I didn't make it to the Arctic Circle, where everyone raves about the midnight sun, but I experienced some magical blue skies at 11 and midnight; the streets were always full of people enjoying the summer light and warmth. Their spirit was contagious.

On those sunny, almost festive nights, tables were at a premium at scores of sidewalk cafes in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. Even on a cool evening, Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen was bustling with people of all ages enjoying the 153-year-old playground. The Gardens is considered the soul of the city, and why not? On the night I was there, everyone was smiling, families were sampling the amusement rides and stage shows, dining in restaurants housed in their original 19th-century buildings. No wonder the founder, George Carstensen, told the king that when people have fun or are amused, they don't think of politics.

Almost every evening, in every city, I loved just walking around, taking out my camera occasionally, trying to capture the night sky, to prove that the sun really was shining at 9 or 10.

Capturing the northern light has always challenged Nordic artists. In Goteborg, the art museum's top floor houses the Furstenburg collection of 19th-century paintings by artists such as Anders Zorn, Carl Larrson and Richard Berg. One of the most famous works, Berg's ``Nordic Summer Evening,'' dominates one room and reveals the allure of summer light.

In Skagen, the 19th-century artists' colony on the northern tip of Denmark's Jutland Peninsula, the art museum features the work of artists drawn to the light of sand and sun. In Oslo, the Edvard Munch Museum is devoted to the paintings and prints of Munch (1863-1944). In his later years, he, too, painted the bright scenes of summers by the sea.

Copenhagen had more museums than I could visit in four days. I had every intention of visiting the new Museum of Modern Art, which opened in March, but I never had the time to get to its seaside site south of the city.

One of the best Copenhagen excursions combines literature and art on the north shore: the Louisiana Art Museum and Rungstedlund, the home of Karen Blixen, author of ``Out of Africa'' and other books. They're on the same bus route (No. 388 to Helsingor) from Klampenborg (a 20-minute commuter train ride from Central Station). Admission to both museums and round-trip transportation are both covered by the Copenhagen Card, which saves you money on many attractions and can be purchased at tourist offices.

Blixen's 40-acre estate on the Oresound, the sound separating Sweden and Denmark, is where she lived after leaving Kenya in 1931. She stayed there until her death in 1962. With the encroachment of suburban housing and yacht clubs on the sound, she had tremendous foresight to set up the property as a foundation and museum to preserve its history.

In the home, visitors put cloth booties over shoes to protect the floors and rugs because the rooms are as she left them. Each room has an overseer to answer questions, but descriptions of furnishings are on printed fliers.

Several rooms have mementos from her 17 years in Africa, including the Green Room, where she did her writing. A small photograph of Denys Finch-Hatton, the love of her life in Africa, sits on a windowsill near her desk.

The Lousiana Art Museum is a gem on the sound, about 15 minutes by bus north of the Blixen estate. At the museum, I was torn between touring the outside sculpture garden and arboretum or going inside for ``Get Lost,'' a temporary exhibit set up for Copenhagen's status as Europe's Cultural Capital for 1996. The permanent collection was in storage. The best advice? Give yourself time to do both. Bring your own lunch for picnics or enjoy food from a lovely cafe and terrace overlooking the water. A Calder sculpture adds interest to the terrace setting. As for the museum's name, it has nothing to do with our Southern state. The 1855 owner of the property had three wives named Louise; when it was purchased for the museum in 1958, the name was retained.

Oslo has three artistic gems. City Hall is a showcase of contemporary tapestries, mosaics and paintings that capture the history and legends of Norway. The Vigeland Park and Museum draws tourists to the 80-acre site designed by sculptor Gustav Vigeland to display 212 bronze, granite and wrought-iron works. The beautifully landscaped park is dominated by the ``Monolith,'' a tower of human figures of all ages.

The Munch Museum was my favorite of these three sites, not because of its setting, but for the sheer number of paintings and what they revealed about the artist. About halfway through the galleries, I became more curious about Edvard Munch and why he painted works like ``The Scream.''

The paintings and lithographs are truly autobiographical -- death scenes with his mother and sister, portraits of friends, beach scenes, self-portraits.

A downstairs gallery answers some questions about his life. Old photographs show where he was born in Oslo, where he grew up, his art training, family friends, artist friends, places where he lived in his later years. It's there you learn he had a nervous breakdown, followed by a yearlong treatment at a sanitarium in Copenhagen.

Munch was a prolific artist -- there are scores of paintings at this museum, but other museums also proudly show his work. In Bergen's Rasmus Meyer Museum, the guide points out the paintings that show Munch's pre-breakdown dark mood and his post-recovery bright mood.

Meyer, 1859-1916, was a collector of Scandinavian art and donated his collection to the city when he died. Some of the artists are not familar names because they never achieved the level of fame of Munch, Karl Larrson and Anders Zorn, but the common threads of Nordic love of nature, outdoors, majesty of landscape are obvious.

In Mora, about 5 hours northwest of Stockholm via train, one can connect with artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920), who was a friend of of Boston art patron Isabella Stewart Gardner. He painted scenes of Venice while he was staying at her villa there.

In the region where he grew up and loved, his work is shown in the Zorn Museum. Like the Munch Museum, a fuller picture of the artist and his favorite subjects -- nature, women, self -- emerges.

The museum is adjacent to his estate, where he and his wife, Emma, designed a Nordic-style manor house and gardens. It's a fascinating house that showcases their collections of Swedish folk art and designs incorporating themes from the past. A separate old timber building was his studio.

On the outskirts of the town, Zorn's Gammelgard (Ancient Village) is a museum of old regional timber buildings, which he saved and moved to this site to preserve the heritage of the area known as the Folk Region, where he grew up.

Oslo's City Hall is a showcase of modern artistry with tapestries, murals, mosaics and wood and textiles that tell the Norwegian story of country, city, strife, invasion, industry. I lucked out on timing and arrived in time for a guided tour in English. It's one of those places I almost skipped -- in fact, a 40-year-old Oslo native I met had never been in the hall -- but I'm glad I visited.

On the literary side, Hans Christian Andersen, a vague memory from childhood, comes to life in his Danish hometown of Odense, on the island of Funen. His mark on the city and Denmark reminded me of Mozart's impact on Salzburg, Austria, with parks, streets and plazas named after him.

Once you arrive in his neighborhood, the oldest in Odense, you know those who lived in his time -- he was born in 1802 -- were not tall. His boyhood home and those around it seemed liked storybook houses. The exhibits are static -- no furnishings, just etchings of him, the town and people from his era in tiny rooms with doorways that most people duck in order to pass through. But then you pass into a domed addition with a 360-degree mural and adjoining rooms with drawings and books. An auditorium screens movies from around the world that were made from his books and stories.

In summer, the outside attraction is the ``HCA Parade,'' a colorful pageant where actors portraying Andersen and fairy-tale characters perform on a castle stage. It's a must for families.

Odense also was home to composer Carl Nielsen and his wife, Anne, a sculptor. I had 30 minutes before the museum closed for the day; it was long enough to appreciate his career, but I was more intrigued to know she was the artist for statues I had seen in Copenhagen. Photographs of the installation of the statue of King Christian IX on horseback were fascinating.

Learning about Scandinavian history is easy, because each country is proud of its heritage. Often the histories are intertwined.

Copenhagen's Gefion Fountain portrays the founding of Denmark as the goddess Gefion taking the land from Sweden and pulling it across the water with four oxen (she transformed her sons) to create the island of Zealand.

The Danes and Swedes were always fighting. The 15th-century St. George and the Dragon statue in Stockholm's oldest church, built in 1279, represents Sweden driving out the Danes. On Stortoget Square in Old Town, one building marks the number of noblemen killed in 1520 when King Christian of Denmark executed those opposed to his reign.

Norway was part of Sweden until 1905, but Norway was never an invader, which is why Oslo's City Hall is the site of the annual Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, while Stockholm plays host to the other Nobel events.

The Viking story runs through their histories. There are many sites to learn more about the period of 850-1100. I visited Viking ship museums in Roskilde, Denmark and Oslo. In Sweden, important archeological excavations in the last five years at Birka on the island of Bjorka -- an easy excursion from Stockholm -- has made historians realize that most Vikings were farmers and village people. The warriors and sailors were only a small fraction of the population. The Viking Age, AD 900-1100, is important, but as a tour guide in Bergen's history museum said, the Vikings were only 200 years of their history. The guided tour of the site was one of my trip highlights.

The Hanseatic League, a medieval German trading organization with centers in Norway, England and Sweden, is another common thread binding their histories of exploration and commerce. Bergen, one of the trading centers, has an important museum devoted to this period.

The folk heritage is preserved in living-history museums. I visited the Folk Museum at Oslo, Funen Village in Odense and Skansen in Stockholm. They all feature actual buildings moved from farms and villages to the sites; demonstrations of life before the 20th century are part of the fun.

At the Oslo museum, I loved the lefa, a traditional sweet pancake-like treat usually made for Norwegian holidays, which was being made at one of the old farmhouses. Glassmaking, pottery and silver engraving were set up in traditional workshops in Skansen. At Odense, the farmer brought out the cow for midday milking and asked youngsters to try their hands at milking. Tougher than it looked.

More contemporary history, such as World War II, is represented in Resistance museums in Oslo and Copenhagen. It's a part of World War II I didn't know much about. I was able to visit the Oslo museum and found its details of invasion and resistance riveting. The fact that Norwegians were sent to concentration camps abroad and at home was a fact I didn't know. The story of the resistance is powerfully told.

It may seem that all I ``did'' was history, art and museums. That was not the case. I gave myself plenty of time to act like a native, buying hot dogs from street vendors, sitting in some of the most beautiful parks, visiting the wonderful fish markets in Bergen and Goteberg and trying some traditional foods like herring, salmon in as many ways as I could, meatballs with ligonberries, and waffles with cloudberries and cream. By the time I left Stockholm, I almost felt as if I belonged. I even had my hair cut there, possibly the best haircut I've had. A great finish to the trip.

Train ride from Oslo to Bergen (Norway).

The Viking ship museums in Oslo (Norway) and Roskilde (Denmark).

Smoked salmon sandwiches at Bergen fish market.

Goteborg canal-harbor tour (Sweden).

Day trip to Karen Blixen estate and Louisiana Art Museum (Denmark).

Old Town Stavanger (Norway).

Gates of Sandhamn (Sweden).

Anders Zorn in Mora (Sweden).

Old Stockholm.

Stockholm.

The Scandinavian Library and Information Center at206 Waltham St., West Newton (a small building behind the Swedish Home for Scandinavinans). Telephone (617) 965-0621. Hours: Saturdays 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Volunteers can answer questions about their native countries. You can also leave phone message.

Scandinavian Tourist Boards, PO Box 4649, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-4649. Write for all information related to travel in all Scandinavian countries: Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Once you're there: Most cities and towns have tourist information centers where you can book accommodations, get information on sightseeing, pick up brochures on area attractions, events schedules.

Most major Scandinavian cities offer tourist cards for 24-, 48- or 72-hour use. The cards usually cover admission to most museums, historic sites and attractions, an introductory sightseeing excursion, plus unlimited use of buses, trams and trains. The cards are sold at tourist information centers and hotels.

If you're not a big museumgoer, the city card may not be your best buy, but if you're going to do a lot of exploring of the major cities, consider buying a transportation-only tourist card for single or multiday rates. The card provides unlimited use of subway, buses, trams and commuter trains. Tourist offices and transportation centers sell them.

Norway offers a Fjord Pass (about $12) that provides discounts at 250 hotels, motels and pensions during specified periods from May through September. The savings on a $100 room in Stavanger was about $25. You can buy the pass from travel agents before you go or at participating establishments. It's valid for two adults and their children under age 15.

Transportation: I flew on Scandinavian Airlines (800-221-2350) from Newark, N.J. Special rates and coupons marked the airline's 50th anniversary. Icelandair (800-223-5500) flies from Boston. Book through travel agents or call.

A Scanrail Pass is available through most travel agents or by calling DER Tours at (800) 782-2424. Adult, senior and youth passes are offered for various numbers of days of use. The pass comes with a bonus coupon booklet that has hotel discount coupons plus suggested sightseeing routes. The pass must be purchased in the States.

Once you're in Scandinavia, most train stations have information kiosks where you can get information on schedules and sightseeing, and even maps detailing primary and secondary rail routes.