NOTE: The Norwegian language contains a lot of letters that are not on my keyboard. In most cases, I have typed in English without them.

Sunday, June 22nd, 2025
Flekkefjord, Norway to Kristiansand, Norway
Distance travelled 112 kilometres

After so much smugness, about my sleeping, I have to report a disturbed night. The biggest problem I have is that, should I wake up and have even the tiniest thought, that is it for me and I may as well get up. Sadly, that happened. I do not know what time it was. My iPhone was on the charger and the prevailing light conditions, even there, quite a long way south, made guessing impossible. I felt like my arms were burning up – they were not red but I guess they had not seen so much sun since we had been in the Falkland Islands over five months before. Of course, registering the hotness was a thought, followed by more thoughts when I heard a group of Norwegians singing Mid-Summer songs somewhere in the street below. Basically, that was it.

I got up, which disturbed Lucie – so she went up to the roof terrace for a smoke. I grabbed my e-reader and read. Lucie came back and was asleep again in just a few seconds – I had to read quite a bit of Richard Osman’s book before I felt ready to try sleeping again. It eventually worked.

The next time that I opened my eyes, the light levels looked no different at all, but a quick trot to my ‘phone revealed it was 06:40, so that was alright.

I made Lucie her coffee and myself some tea as Lucie had helpfully blagged some milk from the restaurant.

I supposed that this was, effectively, the last day of the holiday proper, even if we still had about three days to go.

I described the Grand Hotell breakfast yesterday. I am a creature of habit (and not all of them are reprehensible) so, if you want to know about it, flick back to yesterday’s blab.

Because Kristiansand was really very near, not much above a hundred kilometres, we could not leave too early as we would not be able to check in to our hotel there. So I read a bit more Richard Osman. It was quite a catchy tale, but (in my opinion) the structure of some of his sentences could use a bit of work…..

We (well Lucie) began to pack, which as you probably know by now was a swift and efficient process. Nevertheless, it still lasted just long enough for the sun to disappear and drizzle to start pattering on our window. We checked out and, in the covered parking, we donned our day-glo waterproofs yet again. By the time we pulled out into the quiet streets, it was a bit more than just drizzle.

We joined the E39 which, according to our SatNav we would follow to within a few kilometres of our hotel in Kristiansand. The initial way was a bit familiar, as we had used it on our way to the Avik, sorry the Solesnes, lighthouse. I now noticed that the latter lighthouse was quite clearly signposted ….

With the road improvements still pending, we still followed our previous route for some time before hitting “new” territory. We seemed, after a while and a lot of tunnels, to leave the rain behind so, at the halfway point of what was a short journey anyway, we stopped for coffees. While we were drinking them, a German bike club, including a pleasing proportion of lady-bikers, pulled in en-masse. A couple of the ladies acknowledged Lucie, but they were not over-friendly and they all lit up cigarettes. This, according to my dear wife, meant they were from the former East Germany ….

Some of the names of the Norwegian candies on sale in the shop made me chuckle !

On the brand new, four lane, divided highway into Kristiansand, I saw some things I had not seen before in Norway. Firstly, a 90 (yes NINETY) kilometre per hour speed limit sign followed by one for ONE HUNDRED AND TEN ! Initially, I thought that, for some reason I had begun to hallucinate, but then I saw it again. I did not actually stop and touch it though, mind you ! However stupid it might seem, even the 100 kph that I got up to seemed almost insanely fast …..

We found our hotel, the inventively named Thon Hotel Kristiansand (Markens Gate 39, 4612 Kristiansand) with only a slight kerfuffle in the one-way system. We were able to park in a motorcycle parking area directly across the road from the front entrance. That conveniently saved us the hotel’s 400 NOK parking fee.

We were still too early to check-in. The cheerful receptionist lady (who said she was a moped rider), not only let us put our bags in the luggage room, but also let us change into our “street clothes” there.

Thus, in “civvies”, we were able to hit the streets until we could check-in. Admittedly, Kristiansand is a city, but the area where we were was thronged with people and had scores of cafes and restaurants that seemed to cater for all tastes, except those people who like to eat fish. We wandered the neat grid of streets and found the cathedral.

Naturally, inside the Christiansholm Fortress, I did my usual thing with a cannon !

The centre of Kristiansand is a calm and very ordered place and a lot of people were just walking around. There were lots of statues and even some “Pisek-like” sand sculptures (though not quite so cleverly done).

In the harbour there was a huge cruise liner docked. A group of elderly (even compared with me) passengers were hesitantly navigating the pathways on SegWays. Really, at the speed they were all going, walking would have been quicker.

Lucie instinctively managed to locate the “fish restaurant” part of town, some modern, yet quaint, buildings around a small inlet. Some of them even had boat parking for patrons.

We selected a restaurant for the evening and then had a quick drink in a pizza place called Dolly Dimple’s which was next door. Dolly, represented outside by a plastic statue, was obviously Kristiansand’s alliterative counterpart to Dublin’s Molly Malone. Instead of cockles and mussels she had plastic fish (probably, they were real ones in her life) in her basket.

The beer inside was good, but I saw the pizzas being delivered in a pre-prepared form. My advice would be, do not eat one.

As we were about to depart, the long line of geriatric SegWay riders reappeared, snaking their leisurely way through the restaurant area. It took the line an almost unfeasible amount of time to pass by. If you have ever been at a railway crossing in New Mexico when a train is going through, you will know exactly what I mean.

We wandered back to the hotel and were allowed to check in. Little Miss Moped was just going off duty. She was parked right next to us and I saw her glance wistfully at the Harley as she groped under the seat of the moped for her helmet. I thought about offering her a ride around the block but, with a noise like a mildly irritated wasp, she was gone.

Our room was nice and airy and well equipped.

After a decent interval, we wound our way back to the harbour for dinner. Alas, when we got back to our selected place, the kitchen was already closed and the place itself was on the verge of shutting. Sunday evening and a lack of passing trade ….. All the other places round about were closed too.

We walked back to Marks Gate, the same street as our hotel, only to find that all the places that we might have chosen as substitutes were on the verge of closing as well. It was not looking good. Even the pizzeria had a sign, in English, saying “Sorry, out of pizza”.

In the end, we chose the restaurant Egon which was actually part of our hotel. We were not desperately hungry, so we chose three “sharing dishes”, lobster tostados, beef tostados and cottage pie. It was enough to send us home happy and, as we only had to walk fifty metres, that is what it did.

The following morning we would have a really early start as our ferry to Denmark would leave at 06:30.

So ……. you can guess what I did next …..