Telemark Part 1: Boats and Things

This is the first in a four part series on my trip to Telemark this past weekend. These posts will be a little on the long side, since so much has happened, but in an effort to hold everyone's attention, I've split the trip up into four smaller posts.

As part of the International Summer School package, we are entitled to take one excursion, several are offered, and the one I chose was to Telemark, south of Oslo (for those of you who are skiing fans, you may know Telemark for the variation developed here, using cross-country bindings for downhill skiing). I chose Telemark partially because it offered a chance to see the ocean, mountains, and the dale country all in one go, but mostly I chose it to go down to the sea-shore. 

We left early on a cloudy Saturday morning, and our first stop was the town of Stavern, on Norway's south-eastern coast. Stavern was a sleepy little sea-side town, with a healthy boating industry and a brightly colored church. It was a naval base from the 17th to 20th centuries, but after the war, it's grown up as a popular place for the rich to buy seaside houses. In true Norwegian fashion, it started misting slightly as we arrived, and so the town was pretty deserted. 

The large gold thing above the church's doors is the symbol of the King of Denmark

We were only in Stavern to eat lunch, but since we arrived at 10:30, I wandered around before eating the cheese sandwiches I had packed at breakfast. I went down by the wharf and looked at the boats for a little bit, and then followed a path down to the sea. The shore was very rocky; there were no sandy beaches, but up above the rocks, there were lush growths of sea-grasses and wild-flowers, flourishing with the water that the persistent mist off the sea provided. 

I absolutely love these wooden boats. This is definitely what I want for my birthday.

After clambering over rocks for a little while and peering down into the water expectantly, it started to rain instead of mist, and so I reluctantly headed back towards the bus. On my way there, I was given some free fish soup, which was quite good (only in Norway would they hand out free fish soup), and stopped by a rummage sale, where the man complimented my ability to speak Norwegian (in an effort to flatter me, so I'd buy something I'm sure), and where I successfully haggled in another language for the first time, talking him down from 50 to 40 kroner on my purchase. It was raining quite hard by the time we all got back on, and then our bus headed northwest towards the Telemark Canal and the famous Vrangfoss Locks.

If this picture showed my face, you'd see me staring
pensively out to sea at the approaching squall.

I will be honest, at first when I heard that we would be going to watch ship's going through the locks, I was not all too excited. Mostly it was because I was under the impression that these were modern mechanical locks. However, much to my surprise (and enjoyment), there is no electricity in the Vrangfoss locks.

One of the locks

The locks at Vrangfoss are opened and closed entirely by hand; the locks are staffed by one old Norwegian, who also does the blacksmith work repairing the opening system and a bunch of college students.

There are five locks in the system, and they raise/lower the level of the river an astonishing 23 meters (almost seventy feet) in a little over 100 meters. The first lock opens with a winch and chain, and the rest with a fascinating system of levers.

Opening the first lock.

I could have watched boats go through all day, but other people weren't of the same mind, so we only watched one boat go through, the Henrik Ibsen, the whole process taking about fifty minutes. Then, in true tourist fashion, we got back on the bus and prepared to head further into the interior, to see some farm country.

The grizzled, old Norwegian man in charge of Vrangfoss