Kristiansand, Norway (I)

Thursday | June 30, 2016

The morning began slowly before I dragged myself to the gym for a training session, and then the golf simulator for a lesson. Then, I enjoyed a light lunch onboard during which our chef made me a specially prepared dish of four types of herring.

Then, we were off on a tour for the day. We got off the ship and, to my great surprise, I was greeted by a moose!

As is almost always the case with these tours, our guide provided us with some statistics about the city and the country.

Norway’s population is 5 million persons, and Kristiansand has a population of 87,450. Kristiansand is the fifth largest city in Norway; Oslo is the largest. Although the city was formally founded by King Christian IV in 1641, its roots go back as far as 400 AD.

The city is laid out in a grid pattern, but more like a rectangle. There are nine streets going north to south, with only six going east to west.

Presently, we are on the same latitude as Minnesota or Scotland, and the weather is consistent with those venues. Migrants, especially from the Middle East, are present in Norway, although not as much as in southern Europe. Our guide told us they are spread out evenly throughout the country, so as not to force a ghetto type of environment in any particular city.

Kristiansand fell victim to four fires between 1641 and 1892, most of which wiped out the city. At that time, it was deigned that all construction be made of brick or concrete. There are still several wooden buildings around town, but they all predate 1892.

It was at this point that our guide told us about the power station and the wonderful salmon fishing nearby. She even boasted that the salmon closest to the station have been caught weighing over 40 pounds. One has to wonder how much nuclear waste is in the salmon and how healthy it would be to eat them.

Our first stop was Vest-Agder Museum, featuring some 40 authentic structures dating from the 17th to 19th centuries, gathered from farms throughout the region and brought to this location.

These attractive Norwegian girls, each of whom had to be 6 feet tall, provided the narration and historical background for us.

We saw this little one room home, constructed in 1640, that housed 14 people.

The parents and grandparents each had a bed, but all the others slept out in the barn with the sheep and cows to keep warm. Moreover, in the beds, everyone slept sitting up, which was the custom at the time, and which helped the inhabitants breathe considering the heavy smoke from the unventilated stove.

Most shockingly, people actually inhabited this ancient enclave until 1951.

This particular edifice was constructed in 1582.

The roofs of these houses (as was the case in other parts of the city and country we visited today) were constructed of typical pine or oak, but then covered with six layers of birch bark, on which moss and grass were permitted to grow. The purpose of that was to provide insulation, but the bushes had to be moved for fear that roots would come through the roofs, which did happen on occasion. Furthermore, it was not uncommon to see sheep or goats grazing on the roofs of the houses.

When courting, men sought women who had large, thick legs. That identified them as stronger workers, which was important on the farm where a woman had to carry heavy loads all day long. (I'm, not sure the same dating criteria is being applied in New York City, as we speak.) In fact, a woman had to carry at least 20 buckets of water a day for each cow. It was customary for the man to take care of the horses, while the women took care of the sheep, cows, and goats.

Because we were bit ahead of schedule, we stopped for a well-deserved soft ice cream before our next stop. We were at a typical Norwegian seaside resort.

Then, we drove out to the country to visit Hollen and the 400-year old church in Sogne. Built in 1641 in a Baroque and Renaissance style, this is one of the oldest wooden churches in all of Norway.

The entirety of the inside of the church – walls, ceilings, and beams – were hand-painted in the 1600s and the paint is still visible and somewhat vibrant today.

We were treated to a lovely concert by three of the locals.

The lead singer bore a striking resemblance to Reese Witherspoon.

She lifted her skirt and displayed the white dress underneath. When Norwegian women got married, they had seven of these white everyday dresses and those seven were to last them a lifetime. (The black over-layer was for special occasions, since it was difficult and expensive to achieve a black dye.)  I can only imagine the difficulty my own daughter would have wearing only seven identical dresses for the rest of her natural life!

The band played several unusual instruments, which I had never seen before. At one point, the guitarist actually played his guitar with a violin bow.

Our next stop was a strawberry field where we were invited to go out and pick our own quarts of strawberries. One of our fellow residents made an insightful comment. He asked: “What do you do to entertain a dozen gazillionaires? You let them pick strawberries for free!” Bearing in mind what my mother taught me when we went strawberry or blueberry picking in Buffalo and Maine, I utilized the adage: One for the basket, one for the belly.”

I freestyled my poncho into a large plastic bag so I could hold almost three quarts of goodies.

At the end of the tour, we walked through downtown Kristiansand. We saw the main square, and a long pedestrian street that seemed to be the highlight of the town.

One of the interesting sights involved sand sculptures which were only a few days old.

With the rain that is expected tomorrow, I am sure they will not be long for this world, but they were beautiful today.

Also noteworthy is this McDonald’s, which we were told is well known throughout the world. McDonald’s acquired a 110-year-old bank and opened their food service in this uncharacteristically well designed building.

We walked to a fish market which, although closed, still had much fresh fish on display, as we have seen in every Scandinavian city we have visited.

Finally, we walked back to the ship, but not before we saw at the striking Kilden Performing Arts Center, designed by the Finnish architecture firm ALA and opened in 2012.

Back on the ship, I enjoyed a great big, fat martini - two olives - before a lovely dinner in Marina with good friends.