Farsund

Farsund is a town on the Lista Peninsula along Norway's southern coast and was the first stop on our Norwegian road trip. We arrived in nice weather and after checking in at the Rederiet Hotel, we wandered along the waterfront. This older, more photogenic part of town obscures the fact that just over the hill there are a couple of large aluminum mills and a lot of much less interesting development.

Before becoming the hotel, the Rederiet had been the home of the the local shipping company. It was filled with large models of freighters and merchant ships that had been built and owned by the company and the rooms were all named after old ships.

The nice weather, extended daylight, and questionable forecast for the next day led us to take off after dinner and explore more of the area. The Lista Fyr (lighthouse) is ten miles west of Farsund and looks out over a low, boulder-strewn coast. It was our first introduction to robotic lawnmowers, one of which was quietly tending the grass while we were there. We saw a number of others over the course of the trip - they seemed like they would make well-behaved and low maintenance pets and I almost wished we had a lawn.

We swung by Havika(?) on the way back to town, allowing me to collect my first Norwegian beach of the trip. The drive west and north the next day was damp - we were glad to have visited the lighthouse the night before.