Norwegian Fish Soup - Round 4

 Today, Friday, we are in Kristiansund (as opposed to Kristiansand), Norway.  Our plan for the day was to do some island hopping by taking the free ferry, the Sundbaten, to three islands.  The Sundbaten claims to be the world's oldest public transit company.  It follows a circular route with four stops, the entire loop taking less than 30 minutes.  The ferry pier was just a very short distance from where we were docked.

Our first stop was Innlandet Island where we walked up to the Bautaen, an old battery and now an overlook with a stone monument.  There we watched some school children playing an intense game of hide and seek.

  

We then followed a trail through the woods to another view point.

We returned to the pier to catch the ferry to Nordlandet Island.  There we walked up to the stone church which was unfortunately not open.  Actually, it seemed that everything on the island was closed.  Not even a place to get a cup of coffee!

The next ferry stop was Gomalandet Island which was a place where clipfish (salted and dried cod) was processed.  We wandered past some of the old buildings including the Clipfish Museum which was closed for the season.

Then it was decision time - we could hop on the ferry for the short ride back or we could walk around the harbor to return.  Needless to say, we opted for the walk around the harbor.  The harbor is very much an historic area with many old buildings related to the fishing and boat building industry.

Linda says that this is an old boy with an old buoy!

I didn't realize that the Norwegians were so short - even I could slam dunk!

As we continued our walk, serendipity struck once again.  We passed an old building that was once the location of a blacksmith shop built in 1786.  It is now the Smia Fiskerestaurant.  The timber walls are original!  And they have fish soup so how could I resist?

The fish soup definitely ranked up there with the best.  Number 2 or 3.  And the shrimp and crawfish salad was excellent as well.

After lunch it  was time to head back to the ship for our 4:00 pm massages.  It's a tough life!

Tonight the skies seem to be clear but the forecast is for no Northern Lights.  Tomorrow will be a welcome day at sea as we make our way up the coast of Norway and hopefully to Northern Lights.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry