Last Day - Monday
Kristiansand, Norway
We took the morning to pack and gather our things together as tomorrow we arrive in Oslo. They want our bags out in the hall by 22:00. They want us out of the suite by 08:00 tomorrow morning. Our motor coach to the airport is scheduled for 08:30. So trying to be prepared.
Last night was the first real sunset I have seen on this cruise. This morning was the the first real sunrise. We had so many beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the world cruise.
We started out in Kristiansand Havn and boarded the bus to Søgne where to got off the motor coach and walked though part of the town which had buildings from the 19th century. We visited the quaint harbor (Havn). Reboarded the motor coach and rode up the hill to Kristiansand Kommuneskog which overlooked Kristiansand Havn. Wonderful views of the city below and the fjord below. We could see the many islands that actually make up the city.
The guide pointed out approximately 80% of the population has a boat of some sort, and for those that don’t there are “city” boats for rent. People love to go out to the uninhabited islands on the weekends and for holidays. They love the out of doors. Mary and I are just not boating people. Cruising is not boating!
Afterwards we visited the Vest-Agder Fylkesmuseum. Vest-Agder Museum Kristiansand or simply Kristiansand Museum was founded in 1903 with the express purpose of trying to hold on to the traditional way of living in Norway. The Museum is an “open air” museum which consists of a collection of old buildings, grouped by where they previously stood.
Norway has “existed” for a long time as a geographic feature. Twelve thousand years ago people began to inhabit what is now Norway. They were drawn to the coastal areas which are warmed by the gulf steam. Six or seven-thousand years ago the first agricultural settlements were established.
Five- or six-thousands years ago during the Migration Period the first chieftains to take control and hilltop forts to be constructed. From the 8th century Norwegians started expanding across the seas to the British Isles and later Iceland and Greenland. The Viking Age, which was between 800 and 1,000, saw the unification of the country.
Then the Christians arrive and Christianization was completed during the 11th century. Trondheim became the capital for the Christian kings. The population expanded quickly until 1349 when it was halved by the Black Death and successive plagues. Bergen became the main trading port, but it was controlled by the Hanseatic League.
Norway entered the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Sweden in 1397. From 1397 to 1523, it the three kingdoms, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, were joined under a single monarch. The three kingdoms of included not only what we know as Denmark, Sweden and Norway, but also including much of present-day Finland, and Norway's overseas colonies (then including Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland.
The union was not quite continuous; there were several short interruptions. Legally, the countries remained separate sovereign states. However, domestic and foreign policies were directed by a common monarch. Gustav Vasa's election as King of Sweden on 6 June 1523, marked Sweden's final secession from the Kalmar Union. Formally, the Danish king acknowledged Sweden's independence in 1524 at the Treaty of Malmö.
In 1536/1537 the Danish Privy Council tried to unilaterally declare Norway to be a Danish province. This did not happen. Instead, Norway became a hereditary kingdom in a real union with Denmark. Norway continued to remain a part of the realm of Denmark–Norway under the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three centuries, until it was transferred to Sweden in 1814. The Danes had sided with Napoleon and when he lost they lost Norway. The ensuing union between Sweden and Norway lasted until 1905, when prince Carl of Denmark, a grandson of both the incumbent king of Denmark and the late king of Sweden, was elected king of Norway. It is from this point that Norwegians county history as an independent country.
The Norwegians continue to struggle with their history. They want to have something more than 120 years of history and they do. So, they have started to gather information about their past which includes how people lived. This open air museum is one of those attempts.
There are four distinct collections. The first we visited was the Vest-Agdertunet consists of farmhouse, storehouse, barn/stable, barn and schoolhouse from Eiken in the Hægebostad municipality Vest-Agder County, originally built in the period 1859-1875. But the houses had been lived in a modified as late as 1930.
There was a second area called Bygaden (the town street) consists of houses, taken from town centre Kvadraturen in Kristiansand. The collection includes general store, workshops and houses for living with interiors, time typical for the late 19th century. The guide explained that on one side of the street were examples of the homes of rich people and the otherside of the street were working class people. The painting of the houses was strictly regulated. The front had to be white. The boards must run parallel to the ground. This was practical since the boards closest to the bottom tendered to rote quickly, and if they did you could simply replace the bottom board if they were parallel to the ground. The other way around and you would have to replace the entire board.
We then visited Mini city is a miniature model of Kvadraturen, the city centre of Kristiansand, as the city appeared in the 1880s and 1890s. There is also a model of the former Kristiansand Cathedral which burned to the ground in 1880. It was interesting to see the layout of the town.
Unfortunately, our time was cut short, and we didn’t get to see Setesdaltunet which consists of buildings from Valle and Bykle in Aust-Agder County, containing houses for living, stabbur, sauna and barns. The oldest buildings date from the middle of the 17th century. The farm shows how the housing and living conditions developed in Setesdal until 1920.
Nor did we get to see Refugees cabin that was used by resistance fighters on the run from Gestapo during World War II.
It was a good thing they cut the exclusion short as the motor coach returned to the ship as they were getting ready to raise the gangplank. Then it was dinner in Compass Rose. Mike and Maddie ran off to pack after dinner. We went back and finished up our packing and put our bags out for pickup.
Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria
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