The Norway Photos: Bunker Coast

Kyle's sister, Sabrina played the role of tour guide very well while we were in Norway. She kept talking about an area she could take us that had some interesting remnants of Nazi bunkers along the coast. The drive to get there was only an hour, but we learned an important lesson during that time. Before getting in the car, we broke out some of the mosquito repellant bracelets that Kyle's mom had purchased for the trip. Of the five of us, only one person put the bracelet on at the house. About 30 minutes into the drive we were all getting nauseous from the repellant fumes coming off that one bracelet. Addison and I both felt and looked a little green as we finally arrived at the site. We joked about how deathly poisonous the bands were for the rest of trip. Blech.

The fort ended up being so much more interesting than I originally expected. The Kalvøysund Fort sits on the coast of southern Norway. The Nazi forces built the fort around 1941, during the the few short years Norway was occupied during WWII.

Sabrina, Kyle, Glen, Addison and I walked around and explored the area for nearly two hours – far longer than Sabrina thought it would hold any of our attention. In the end, Addison was the most excited about all of it. She thoroughly enjoyed poking her head into all the pitch-black dark tunnels, blasted-out caves and buildings. In fact, she showed a surprising lack of fear about walking into the abandoned tunnels and structures. They were so dark, I never ventured in farther than a slight lean past the doorway. Kyle and Glen actually walked through one or two with the help of their iPhone flashlights. Even so, they remarked on how incredibly dark it was inside. Eeep!

With the fort structures sitting atop a hill on the coast, there were also some great views of of the water. And, minus the super-vertical stairs we had to climb down, looking out over the water was delightful.