It’s been a slow couple of days, brought on by occasional showers, frequent downpours and torrential, heavens-opening, deafening, so this is what real rain looks like kind of sessions. Good days to catch up with some reading, some accreditation stuff, and start a series of taped shows. Today has been better, allowing us to walk around Kristiansand, only occasionally taking shelter under trees and, once, more expensively, in a coffee shop.
To end the day we are parked next to a greened area, lovely large park with lakes for swimming and a real network of walking trails. The area used to be a real dump (literally) before being cleaned up in the mid-1800’s by troops – cheap labour – and is now a great resource. Lots of people of all ages running, some obviously keen on beating a previous time, others more inclined to use a calendar for timing purposes, but all having fun.
Kristiansand has been an interesting stop, particularly along the waterfront. We visited one of Norway’s largest cathedrals – for free (SO unusual). The building itself is quite simple by Gothic church standards, but has that usual Norwegian sauna feel. The air is warm, the church smells of wood, it’s dry (not so saunish I know), and generally relaxing. I was particularly interested to see a model ship hanging from the ceiling – a gift from Denmark’s hereditary prince in 1964 on the 100th anniversary of the battle. The ship, Jylland (Jutland) is currently berthed in Denmark and is the last remaining wooden screw driven warship.
Also … Sorry we missed the organ recital this morning – we would have loved to hear this monster at work. How any one person can control all of this is simply amazing!
We are going to try find a less direct road to Oslo, but so far this is proving a little difficult. It’s also interesting to see that ferries from here to Denmark will probably be cheaper than driving south from Oslo – thinking for another day.
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