Kristiansand, Norway
The second port in our Norway cruise adventure was Kristiansand, Norway’s southernmost city. Few places get more sunlight in Norway than Kristiansand. In fact, it is home to one of Norway’s beautiful beaches, Bystranda Beach.
We had booked a two-hour walking tour of historic Kristiansand for our shore excursion. Our guide for this trip was another wonderful local, Kristi. She had such a fun and spunky demeanor and such a love for Kristiansand and she just made the tour extra special.
We started our tour at Fiskebrygga harbour which is right at the cruise port. It is a beautiful canal lined with restaurants and even an ice cream shop! The harbour is also home to the Kilden Performing Arts center, which is just a stunning piece of architectural art right on the water. After walking through the harbour, we came to the lovely downtown area of Kristiansand. We started our tour in the area of Kristiansand known as Posebyen. It is filled with charming old, white buildings which are in fact one of the few things that remain original in the town due to a fire that occurred in 1892.
While there, we stopped by to tour a historical building called the John Benstens Hus. John Bensten’s was a lieutenant in the military band and built the house in 1855. In the early history of the house and during war time, up to 40 soldiers lived there at one time. The house is filled with historical period pieces and is neat to walk through as it gives you an accurate picture of what life was like there in the mid-1800’s.
After the house tour, we headed down towards the water to check out the Christiansholm Fortress. This fortress was built in 1672 by Fredrik III to defend the town of Kristiansand. It is built on an inlet about 100 yards from shore. The only time it was used in battle was in 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. Today it is owned by the municipality and used for cultural events and recreation. It was so amazing to see the original cannons and the building as it was so many years ago. Plus, it gave us a beautiful view of the inlet and part of Kristiansand. This was the last stop on the tour and very close to the Fiskebrygga harbour where our tour began. After saying goodbye to our wonderful guide, Kristi, we headed to Markens Gate which is a pedestrian street lined with shops.
I had done quite a bit of research before our trip, and knew that the McDonalds located on that street is one of the fanciest McDonalds in the world so we knew we wanted to stop there for lunch. In all the pictures we had seen, there were beautiful marble columns adorning the outside and crystal chandeliers inside. Imagine our surprise when we approached it and saw construction barriers and a facade covering the entrance. Thankfully, it was still open but they were in the middle of a major remodel and so none of the inside or outside matched the pictures we had seen. It was now much more modern inside and gone were the beautiful chandeliers and marble accents. The menu was very similar to ours at home but with even better options (like lettuce and tomato on all the burgers) so we were excited about that. Our family has a tradition of eating at a McDonalds’s in every country that we visit so it was fun to keep that tradition going and try out a Norwegian McDonalds’s.
After lunch, we did some shopping on Markens Gate and in the surrounding area. They had a wonderful toy/bookstore that I found some really cute things in and a Norway themed gift shop right across the street from it that we also loved. There is also a shopping mall located in that area as well. One word of advice though if you do plan to do some shopping there: Bring cash (Norwegian Krone). For some reason, I couldn’t get any of my credit cards (Visa, Amex, Mastercard) to work at several of the shops there. It is the only town in Norway that I had this experience in and I am not sure why. There are some ATM’s on the second floor of the mall in that area in case you need one.
Kritiansand is a very walkabale city with many places to shop, eat and explore. You can even visit the beach, rent a kayak or ride the ferris wheel located near the fortress. It is a charming and welcoming town and I recommend visiting it if you are in Norway.