Europe

The ship arrived in Mandal around 8:00 am this morning. We got a nice view of the Hatholmen Lighthouse on the way in.

Mandal is the southernmost town in Norway. It has a population of around 11,000 and has a very cosy, small-town atmosphere. It is a popular summer destination, with excellent boating and fishing.

Since Mandal cannot accommodate a ship the size of ours, the ship was anchored just offshore, necessitating a transfer into town on a smaller tender boat. We caught the tender mid-morning for the ten-minute ride into the town.

We started with a nice walk around the very pretty streets of Mandal.

Next, we decided to get an overview of the town by climbing up to Utsikten (literally, “the view”), a viewing spot located on a hill just east of the town centre.

After admiring the view for a while, we descended back into the town and completed a walking loop of the main part of the town.

We quite liked the re-purposing of the local phone boxes, which have been turned into libraries.

Along the waterfront, we passed by the statue of Egil Skallagrímsson (circa 910–990), a famous Viking-Age warrior, poet, and farmer, from Iceland. His poetry is among the earliest surviving Old Norse literature. He symbolizes the Viking Age spirit: brutal in war, but deeply expressive in art and storytelling. He represents the Norwegian–Icelandic connection, since many early Icelandic settlers can trace their roots back to western Norway.

Since it was now lunchtime, we stopped at a local restaurant, where we ended up eating pizza, which is so popular in Norway that it is reputedly the country’s unofficial national dish!

After lunch, we explored some of the very cute shops (where we managed to buy something that will not fit in our luggage, so there will be a trip to a post office in our near future so we can get it home!).

With the shopping and sightseeing done, we decided to walk back to the dock to catch the tender back to the ship, stopping for an ice-cream along the way.

After getting back on the ship by about 2:30 pm, we opted to just relax for the rest of the afternoon.

The ship sailed out of Mandal around 4:00 pm, and on the way out we got a nice view of Lindesnes Lighthouse, Norway’s southernmost lighthouse, and one of the country’s most famous maritime landmarks. The red-and-white cast iron lighthouse tower was built in 1915. Behind the lighthouse is a stone obelisk daymark, which predates the lighthouse, and was used for navigation.

At about 6:00 pm, we met for a pre-dinner drink with Peter and Joy, before heading off for our last dinner on the ship.

After a very nice dinner, we headed back to our suites to pack our suitcases for collection at 10:00 pm tonight, in preparation for disembarkation tomorrow morning at 8:00 am in Oslo, where we will be spending the next two nights.