We popped into Kristiansand for a look around, and it was a pleasant city. The weather is continuing to pack up after such a long fine spell, so we had rainy spells during the day.
The old fishmarket has been gentrified. Even PWC has an office here.
Kristiansand is proud of its concert hall, and the wavy wooden form is pretty cool.
There's always a fort in a harbour town and there was no exception here. The city was a target for the German invasion. The fortress managed to get a few shots off to deter the invaders for a while, and sunk a German transport that came too close. The commander was court-martialled after the war for not putting up a stiffer fight, as they didn't fire a shot at the third and final assault. The defence was that a French flag had been seen and a signal received saying an Anglo-French flotilla was expected.
The fort has been here a while. This is the oldest part looking over the city. It was later a quarantine station
A big explodey thing
Some of the WW2 defences
A Tobruk showing a little wear
Not a bad view if you are trying to stop an invasion
The pre-WW1 period defences - the howitzer battery - with a few more modern defences as well
Ready, aim, fire! ;^)
Back in town there were a few more places of interest. The original fortress had fired its guns in 1806 against the British.
There were a number of sand sculptures on the promenades. They were beginning to develop cracks so may not be there much longer.
Brutalist architecture. Maybe the German bunkers were simply intended to be expressions of this style? OR was this style influenced by the functionality of German wartime structures. What we need is an art critic.
The old (circular) fortress on the strand. When built it was joined to the town by a 100m pier, but that distance has now been filled in so it is onshore.
The old quarter of the city still has hundreds of white wooden houses. The fire risk must be huge! We've seen a few burnt out on our travels, but I suspect they must have some pretty strict fire protection regulations
Who wouldn't spend the extra 5kr?
Outside Kristiansand is the second largest calibre gun battery still in existence (unless the Russkies have some tucked away?). It has one remaining mounted 380mm gun, the other having been scrapped in the 50s. (The largest battery is a 406mm apparently, which I believe is also in Norway.) A battery in Denmark covered their side of the Skaggerak,and this battery covered this side, each with about a 40 km range. The gap in the middle was a deep minefield.
Gun #2, Battery Vara
I don't know how legit the colour scheme is. The battery stayed in Norwegian use until the 50s and was last fired on decommissioning in 1957. The blast would smash windows 10km away
A shell storage room for the 38cm shells. Against the far wall is a shell lock that allowed the shell to enter the emplacement while avoiding risk of blast.
View to sea. The turret had fittings on the side to allow for camouflage netting which blended it in with the rocks
The shootey end. No J, don't press that button!
Cartridge and additional charge for full range
The non-shootey end
Cannon #1's casemate. It was all complete except the barrel by the end of the war.
The blocks to each side are remains of the railway that was built to install the gun.
(Click to play) A fascinating shape-shifting sculpture in town.
We only made it a few 10s of kms down the road to our next stop, Sogne.
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