Along the coast
Our port today was Kristiansand, not to be mistaken for the similarly named Kristiansund where we called on our Norwegian cruise last year. King Christian IV has surely created quite a bit of confusion with these place names! (We’d made a similar error confusing Columbia MO with Columbia MD a few years ago)
We were greeted in a charming way, firstly by the beautifully dressed lady in the atrium, wearing her lovely bunad and then on the quayside by this similarly well-dressed couple and the sound of Solveig’s Song, which echoed around the harbour.
A somewhat quieter local resident was attracting quite a bit of attention too.
We headed off on another boat trip, along the coast. The weather wasn’t too promising but we sat up top and hoped for the best.
Our guide, Nils Henrik, spoke beautifully and his gentle introduction to “my city” was filled with pride. He gave a great overview of what was planned for our tour and we settled in, ready to enjoy the experience.
The landscape was rather similar to that which we’d seen from the boat in Lysekil, though this area felt less remote.
Meanwhile. we were handed a map to show where we were heading. We were sailing the blue route and would disembark the boat at Stokken and transfer to a coach to drive to Lillesand later.
It being Sunday morning, there was a little traffic in the fjord. Waving to one another seems to be the tradition the world over!
At times we sailed close to the rocky coastline; close enough to admire the strata of the rocks, described by Nils as “the foundation of Norway”.
He confirmed that a great deal of local seamanship skills are required to sail these waters and explained about the lighthouses, most of which are solar powered and available to rent for overnight stays.
Not everyone greeted us with a wave though!
A bit of sunshine added to the beauty of this area and we could understand why it was a popular choice for holiday homes and boat-based camping. Nils explained the tradition of holiday cabins here, adding a little background about the laws of where it’s allowed to build one. Unsurprisingly, these laws are much more strict now and no new homes are permitted within 100m of the coastline.
We were now sailing in a small arm of the fjord where there was quite a community of both holiday homes and year round residents. Nils pointed out the old schoolroom, where children were expected only every other day when their number increased and there wasn’t room for everyone to attend on the same day.
Such discussion prompted the game of “which house would be ours?” Would it be the traditional white painted home or the old schoolroom, now converted into a modern residence?
Or might we prefer a sleek modern glass fronted construction? This one must have got in before the new laws, I think.
Or, might we sail with the wind and build a floating cabin ready to moor anywhere we wanted? Nils told us there’s a bit of controversy about this little one, since the owner is considered to be bending the rules a bit!
We were coming to the end of the boat part of the trip and yes, the sky was indeed getting darker by the minute, partly due to the automatic sliding roof on the boat, which was closing. The Captain has seen rain ahead and wanted to keep us dry.
As we arrived at the jetty, the rain was falling steadily. We felt thankful we’d seen the fjord in the dry, but what was to come!?
By the time we reached Lillesand, it was raining quite heavily. We donned our raincoats, put up our hoods and debated whether to join Nils Henrik on his guided walk or to go it alone, deciding that, in view of the weather, we’d go it alone and spend the hour we had here in a cafe if need be.
We walked along the main street, quiet because it was Sunday - or maybe the weather made it feel that way? We noticed this charming old house, historic enough to have a blue plaque which Google translate enabled me to read. Sadly I didn’t save the translation!
I did, however, notice the cute guard dog on duty!
Thankfully after half an hour or so, the rain eased off, just in time for us to appreciate this small corner of a garden outside the Town Hall. It was a war memorial with a list of names upon it, beautifully planted in a similar way to those we have at home.
To one side of it was a special, more personal memorial and once more, I took out my phone to translate the text. Why was Nils Onsrud deserving of this, we wondered? Well, the link will take you to the answer and to his remarkable story. It might have been a rainy morning here in Lillesand but how pleased I was to have “met” Nils here.
We were back at the coach on time (of course) ready to drive back to Kristiansand. On the way though, we noticed that at the foot of every lamp post was a plug. Of course there was…we’re in Norway!
