More photos coming soon...

Sorry for the lack of photos lately. I haven't been able to take any pictures the last few days. More photos coming soon....

Bridge refurbish

I think that I mentioned that the city centre bridge was going to be refurbished this year. Well, now they have started and one side of the bridge is now under reconstruction. Here is a shot so you can compare when they are finished.

End of a series - Walking the ladder

I have told you about the different elevators that they used in the mines, and also mentioned that they had to climb ladders in the beginning. This shot shows how the ladders were placed in the mines. All ladders went down to a kind of platform where they could get to the next ladder. You can imagne that doing this for a couple of hundred meters or more is quite hard.

Working in the mine 2

This shot is taken from a part of an exhibition inside the mines that shows the visitors different work situations. It wasn't explained exactly what these to guys were doing, but they might be working with drills to get further into the mountain, or they could be repairing and fixing the tools used to drill. Sorry for the "spots" on the photography but it was taken through a plexi glass window that made some reflections.

New elevator

This is the second generation of lifts in the mine. This one at least start to look like what we think of as an elevator today. They stuffed four to five people inside this elevator, and on the way down one or two people were riding along on top of it as well. At least they could relax a bit more in this elevator compared to the one in the previous post.

The first elevator

This is the first type of motorized elevator that they had in the mines. Before this one the workers had to claim ladders up and down which caused quite a few accidents.

As you can see there are two solid beams with a platform on each. The beams are much longer than you can see on this shot, and they have platforms every ten meters or so. When one beam goes up the other one goes down. So if a worker wanted to go down in the mine he stepped on to a platform on the beam going down. Just before the beam started to go up again he switched over to the platform of the other beam that now was about to go down. Working his way from one beam to the other he could than go down into the mine.

This kind of elevator was called the "Fahrkunst". It is a german word and would translate into something like "The art of travelling", which is a good description since it's not the easiest kind of elevator to use.

Ready to explore

I just had to post this picture of my daughter (to the left) and her cousin. They were really exited to explore the inside of the mines. They even enjoyed the bright yellow helmets :o)

Where is the path...

It's obviously very dark in the mines, so you only see a few meters ahead when walking on the different paths inside. Considering that there sometimes might appear holes in the "floor" it was a risky business walking there. The tourist path is made safe by a boardwalk as you can see.

Working in the mine

This shot shows one of the tasks that had to be done in the mine. Lots of stone had to be removed from the mine to the outside. Before they had engines to pull the wagons, they had to do it manually.

No way back

The doors are securely closed, the train has started, and a few meters ahead total darkness is waiting.... (a bit scary, isn't it?).

The train ride takes about 10 minutes. Everybody is warned about the danger of putting head or arms outside the wagon. And with good reason, because at some parts of the train ride the mountain walls are just centimeters away from the wagon. The ride is very noisy and bumpy but it's exiting as well.

Start of a series - Into the mines

As I mentioned in a post the other day, I said I would try to get some photos from inside the mines. Well, my wife went in today with one of her brothers and his family, and a family from England that was visiting them. I had to work but I asked her to take som pictures.

This shot shows the train and the wagons that take you into the mines. The wagons are quite small and it's a bumpy ride. The ride is a bit over 2 kilometers and takes about 10 minutes. It's quite noisy as well so you get free ear plugs :o)

Sakkerhusene 2

This is one of the other houses that together makes what we call Sakkerhusene. You can see that it's not a modern style, but I like the way they built the houses back in those days as well.

Mining Wagon

This is the kind of wagons they used to move the remains after digging in the mines. It was not until the later years that these more modern wagons were used, but I'm not sure exactly what year they started to use them.

Sakkerhusene

This is one of three buildings called "Sakkerhusene". I don't have any translation to english. The buildings were built by the Silver Mines as a place to live during the week for the workers that had to long way home to travel back and forth each day. Today the buildings are used for arranging dinners/parties, and there is a museum there as well.

Magician

We went out with for pizza with some friends the other day, and stumbled upon a clown/magician that was having a show nearby. He was quite good so we watched his show. Here he is *cutting* a volunteers arm in two with knives.

The Mine Entrance

One of the big tourist attractions here in Kongsberg is to visit the mine called "Kongens Gruve", that translated would be something like "The Kings Mine". This shot shows the entrance where the small train takes you about 2,3 kilometers into the mountain. At arrival you can enjoy the frisky temperature of 6 degrees Celsius (which stay the same all year) and the thought of the 330 meters of mountain above your head. If I get chance I will bring you some photos from inside the mine later.

Old Kongsberg

Here is a shot from one of the older parts of Kongsberg. The house owners in this area has kept the old buildings as close to their original looks as possible, and I think they have done a good job as well. Photo courtsey of my dad.

Fisherman

This statue of a fisherman is placed along the city river a little downstream from the city centre bridge. As you can see of his fishing rod he is about to pull up a nice catch. It is possible to do some real fishing in the river, so if you ever visit, bring your fishing gear. Photo courtesy of my dad.