The tour today is a walk through old Kristiansand and old cannon. There was a minor wrinkle this morning. There is no room for us at the piers so we are being tendered in. The seas are calm so it will be easy unlike one we took previously in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. The high today will be 21C under cloudy skies…. not bad.

Norway has the 2nd longest coastline after Canada.

Theatre opera house on the pier.

Poorer people lived in the old part (Posebyen) section with the wealthy nearer to the water. Apparently the insides of these buildings are modern even if they are old on exterior. All harbours in Norway are ice free. Homes built on the west coast have horizontal planking and those on the east coast are vertical. It has to do with the climate and rain. White paint shows more wealth. Sign on outside says wet paint and thing on left of is m so fire department can get in if a fire without you not necessarily being home. We have that at home but only on apartment/condo buildings.

Named Kristiansand after King Christian IV is built on sand. Pop. Of 115,000… half own a 20-30 ft boat. In 1893 there was a fire that destroyed a big portion of the city and so anything built after that is concrete or brick. 80% of the people own their own home/house. 80% of new vehicles purchased are electric.

Bigger door is used as main door including for animals.

All homes have a device on exterior in order to give access to nurses to keep everyone in own home as they age. On average those that go into care homes only last less than a year because they are beyond keeping at home by that time. All medications are paid for incl. diabetes meds etc.

Norway is a very strict gun control….. even police who have to ask permission to take a gun out that is locked somewhere in the police car. Otherwise the police do not carry. Having guns by police has only happened since there was an attack in Oslo a while ago.

The tower in old city centre is of a firehouse tower used for hanging hoses … pretty elaborate for that.

The spire on the cathedral is 70 meter high but because of the sand they had to build 70 meters below in order to make it secure. The old town square was dug up so there is parking garage underground.

Nickel refinery….99.99% pure. Underground tunnel underneath the sea that is 3 kms long. Norway is into windmill production but they prefer to install them far out in North Sea.

The Krupp co. of Germany manufacture submarines but are tested here because of the depth of the ocean which they don’t have in Germany

Next we go to the old cannon museum. These were built by the Germans. It is kept to show the children how bad war can be. The tracts that we see are used for munitions delivery. There were 4 cannons. The biggest was the 2nd largest in the world. It was built for the future ….was never shot at the enemy but was only used for practice. This cannon at Kristiansand had bullets that could travel 50+kms and another in Denmark that would travel the same distance. The area in between had mines suspended just below the surface of the water. This way they could control the marine traffic to and from the Baltic. Built by Germans, Danish and Norwegian contractors and Russian prisoners of war. They changed the paint colours for different seasons. The 330 ton gun only needs 2.5 minutes to do a full 360 degree turn. Norway was invaded by Germany from 1940 til 1944.

The bus driver had to blow into a device before driving the vehicle. If he has had anything to drink, the bus will not start.