Off season - 1

Winter sports is quite big here in Kongsberg (for those of you that don't know: Our winter is from early November to late April). This is a photo from our local ski jump area. It looks a bit different now with green grass all over it than it does in winter when it's covered in snow.

City mall construction - update 1

It's about a month since I posted the first photo from the construction site of the new city mall. Here is an update. Not to many changes yet, but it has been a lot of digging and other ground works. I guess it will speed up a bit now.

Toilet transport

Well, for many of you I guess that the summer holidays are coming up soon. If you really *need to go* while travelling, this is your solution. Hook it up, drive on, and *go* anytime you like...

Nice duck

Remember the photo a few weeks back where my daughter was feeding a duck? Well this is a close up of the same duck. The interesting thing about this duck is that it was the only one up in the woods. All the others usually hangs out near the river in the city, but this one had found a new place to find some food as well.

Small building

This little *thing* is hidden away in one of the smaller streets in Kongsberg. It's quite a few years old and I'm not sure what it originally was used for. If anyone have an idea, please let me know.

Birger Ruud

This bronze statue of Birger Ruud is situated in the city centre of Kongsberg. Birger Ruud was ski jump World Champion several times in the years before World War II. Wickipedia and IOC have more information about this great athlete from Kongsberg.

Evening skies

The view from our balcony this evening.

New stage - cool view

As I mentioned the other day, I didn't get the best view of the stage because most of the area around it was closed. Well, now it's open and I think it looks even better from this angle.

Memories from a summer day

The day was hot. The children were playing in the water. After a good meal prepared on the barbeque we heated marshmellows over the coal. Warm, sweet, and perfect....

New stage - part 6

The stage is up! Today they finished the main part of the construction. From this angle you actually don't see the whole stage. There is a part in the back as well, but I couldn't get a picture from a better angle since the area on the sides were closed. More pictures will follow when the festival starts.

New stage - part 5

They have started to lift the top part of the stage off the ground today. This is how it looked around 18:30. I think they will finish the work in a day or two now.

Summer

The last couple of weeks has brought some really good and warm weather. These ones are enjoying that summer finally has arrived.

New stage - part 4

This is the stage from another angle. Most of the work is done now and I think they will rise it up to full height on Monday. I'm not sure if they will work on it during the weekend but I'll check and see what's happening.

New stage - part 3

The stage is starting to get its shape now. I have heard that it will be about 18 meters high when it is finished. If they keep their schedule the stage will be finished on Monday.

New stage - part 2

Ok, it's day two of building the new stage. A lot of the tubing is up now. I think they are supposed to have it completed early next week so I will follow the progress.

New stage - part 1

Kongsberg Jazzfestival is going new ways this year, and will build a one-of-a-kind stage to be used as one of the concert arenas this year. What you see here is the first part of the process of mounting the stage. When it's finished it will look quite spectacular. You can see some illustration pictures of the scene at Kongsberg Jazzfestival's homepage.
I will post pictures as the work progresses.

Inside the mine

This picture is taken inside one of the mines. it shows an opening where you can go further inside the mine. When they started the mining here in Kongsberg there was no explosives so they had to do the job manually. That included building a big fire next to the mountain wall and heating it up. Afterwards they threw cold water on it to make it crack. After that they had to use hammers and other small tools to dig into the mountain. It was a tedious process and they did not get very far each day.

Mining tools

In Norwegian this is called a "hjulstue". The building housed a large water wheel that they used in the mining. As far as i remember the water wheel was (among other things) used to run pumps so they could pump water up from the mines.

Spooky

This is the remains of a dead tree I found the other day. With a little imagination it almost looks like a person wearing a hooded cloak.

Back again

I have been away for a couple of days and haven't been able to post any pictures. Now I'm back so new pictures are on their way... :o)

Scenic view

This picture is taken from a local area in Kongsberg called "Knuten". It's about a 15 minute drive from the city centre. The tower that can be seen in the background is where the tv signals is taken down and distributed to Kongsberg. Before cable tv and satelite dishes this was where everyone in Kongsberg got their signals from.

More water

Found this little waterfall when we were out walking the other day.

The legend

According to the legend a bull found the first silver in Kongsberg in 1623. The present king, Christian IV, came here in 1624 and named the place Konnigs Berg (the King's mountain). Later the name was changed to Kongsberg. This picture shows a statue of the bull revealing the silver with one of the horns.

Church

Kongsberg Church is Norways largest church built in the rococo and baroque style. You can read some more about it here.

Cinema

This is the cinema in Kongsberg. We only have one. The special thing about this cinema is the shape. When I was growing up I thought that all cinemas was round so I was a bit surprised the first time I saw a cinema in another town that actually just looked like an ordinary building on the outside. Anyway it's a bit cool that they built it in this shape.