The Schmidgalls in Denmark: A Ride on the Ferry

We recently took the ferry from Denmark to Kristiansand, Norway. We really loved Norway, we saw only a little bit of it, but it was gorgeous. Big granite rocks with amazing colors, very green and a lot of water. Denmark is pretty flat so it was nice to see some elevation changes.

Broderick liked the boat ride and enjoyed looking at the ocean.

Coming into Kristiansand.

The place we stayed really talked up these brand new steam showers they had recently put in. They were the most confusing things we had ever seen. We finally managed to get the water running, but beyond that, we were clueless on how the rest of it worked.

Our first full day there we went to the "Dyreparken" or Animal Park. Its like a zoo, but with a little more. It was not that warm out, but that didn't stop Broderick, Fiona and Brad from riding the water ride. I guess it didn't really matter because if you look at the picture below, you can see how the day turned out.

Needless to say, our day ended a little earlier than planned there, but it was fun while it lasted.

The next day was beautiful weather, in the 70s. We drove north of where we were staying about an hour to Evje, just south of Byglandsfjord. We decided to do a beginner hike since we had Broderick with us. It was a 6 km hike and yes it was beginner, but very steep. Broderick did pretty great considering, he climbed up, but wanted to be held most of the way down.

It was nice enough that day to spend some time at the beach, so after our hike and a short nap for Broderick, we went there.

Norway really was so beautiful - very picturesque everywhere you looked.

After dinner at a seafood place on the coast. Good thing we have Fiona, we now get pictures with all of us sometimes. =) Except Anika this time.

The next morning we went to the canon museum. The 2nd largest canon in the world is in southern Norway and there is an identical one in Denmark. The nazis placed these during WWII to control the water way between Norway and Denmark. These canons covered most of the water except for a small area that was heavily mined. It must have been a good deterent because the allied forces never tried to cross these waters.

Here is one of the mines.. It was huge.

The canon. The bunker that this canon is in is unchanged since WWII and they actually turn everything on each week to make sure everything still works. It was pretty amazing to see. My engineer husband could have spent hours there.