They give another insight into how much of old Christiania - as Oslo was called - used to

They give another insight into how much of old Christiania - as Oslo was called - used to be. Until recently nobody wanted to live in them and they begin to fall into disrepair, but now the few houses that are not inhabited have become studios and offices It's almost trendy. One doubts that that was the case when Munch grew up in the area His father was a doctor with a meagre practice His mother died of tuberculosis when he was five His sister, Sophie, followed nine years later. These two events are said to have created his hypochondria and obsession with both sickness and death.But to see Munch and Hamsun purely as angst-ridden souls is to misunderstand the Scandinavian psyche. Hamsun can be outrageously funny; Munch was a hedonist who spent his evenings downing bottles of wine and enjoying whores, only to spend his days deep in alcoholic remorse.The Munch Museum lies to north of the old town I took the underground to Toyen station.

Surrounded by a few trees, the museum lies a short stroll away. The full breadth of Munch's work hits me in the face like a blast from a furnace. It's the sheer scale of some of the paintings as much as anything, as big as houses. Their colours are the light of Norway itself, sharp and clear primaries. I come away my head a buzz of stark Nordic imagery.From the wharves in front of the town hall - where Hamsun's hero, escaping debt, takes a ship bound for England - I look up to the blue-green horseshoe that is Oslo and its surrounding hills gradually descending into the fjord, and suddenly something makes sense.

At the moment when the setting sun transforms a myriad glass panes into glinting sheets of gold, I see what Hamsun must have seen It's in the last few lines I never quite know what he was alluding to. He's swabbing the deck of the ship when he looks up to bid farewell to Christiania. I knew there was more to it; "the windows of the houses shine brightly back at him".Ryanair (0541 569 569) flies from Stansted to Torp airport (some way outside Oslo), while SAS, Braathens and BA all compete from the London area to the main Oslo airport You can pay as little as pounds 100 return. It's nice to know that there's still a chance to find treasure in London at toytown prices.