«Norwegian Tourism»
The history of Norwegian travel and tourism
Duration: 30 minutes
The tour offers a comprehensive overview of the museum’s main exhibition. It highlights the striking contrasts in living standards between the first, mostly wealthy, visitors from abroad and the local farmers who lived here in the 1800s. The introduction of tourism led to considerable efforts around the country in terms of road and rail construction, and the establishment of lodging and dining places. People became quite creative as they sought to figure out ways of earning some extra income.
Why did we attract such sophisticated tourists and what could we offer them?
«The Quay Side Walk»
A stroll along the jetty
Duration: 45 minutes
The tour starts at the old museum buildings by the steamboat dock. You will learn how regular scheduled steamboat routes to Bergen helped change and modernise smaller coastal communities. While taking a short walk, you will discover what things were like back when the fjord was the main thoroughfare, and how local communities adapted to new travel and tourism trends, for example through hotels. The tour ends with a stroll through the museum.
A short walk in the museum area. Dress according to the weather. It is possible to participate with a wheel-chair.
«Seeking the Nordic Light»
An introduction to the artists’ colony of Balestrand
Duration: 30 minutes
Norway’s fjords and mountain landscapes were ideal motifs for national romanticist painters. Artists based at the Düsseldorf academy started wandering across the mountains from east to west in the early 1800s. Many of them had summer residences built in Balestrand. The exhibition is located in one of the many dragon style houses from that era, all belonging to the artists’ colony.
«Women conquer the mountains»
- reaching the summits with trousers in the backpack
Presentation/lecture
Duration: 45 minutes
In the late 19th century, women began to conquer the Alps, and to explore the rugged mountains of the North.
William Cecil Slingsby - known as «the father of Norwegian mountaineering», was an early advocate for female climbers.
Here we meet Therese Bertheau and Margaret Sophie Green Kvikne, among others. They pushed the boundaries of what was accepted female behaviour for the time. The transition from wearing skirts and corsets to climber-friendly clothing was a struggle that ran parallel to the fight for women’s rights.
«The Grand Tour»
A cultural walk through Balestrand
Duration: 90 minutes
You may also combine your museum visit with a walking tour through the picturesque Balestrand village and learn how its cultural history helped pave the way for its emergence as a tourist destination.
The tour begins at the old steamboat dock, and takes you past dragon style houses and ancient burial mounds, before taking a short break at the St. Olafs Church, a small church with its own interesting story.
This walk is 2 km long. Dress according to the weather conditions. The tour requires extra measures for wheelchair users. Please contact us in advance to be well prepared.
