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At about half past 12, Burkhard eventually went to bed, but he already woke up again at half past 3 and couldn't manage to fall asleep again. He more or less just dozed until half past 7, then got up and took some pics from the window of our room.

View from our room.

At 8 o'clock he went downstairs to the breakfast room. The smell and sound of burning wood in the open fireplace created an atmosphere of cosiness and tranquillity.

The fireplace in the breakfast room and the table where Burkhard had breakfast.

The breakfast buffet at other places might offer more variety, especially in the bread department, but for Burkhard it was good enough: coffee, orange juice, a boiled egg and bread with cherry jam marked the perfect start of the first and only day of our holidays on which we didn't have to travel to another place. No need to hurry, to pack things, the entire day still ahead of us and the prospect of another concert by Kari Bremnes in the evening - it doesn't get better than this.

Even though this was already Burkhard's third trip to the Barony Rosendal, he hadn't seen the inside of the manor house yet. Thus after he had finished breakfast, he took a stroll to the Barony - it was just a few hundred metres from our accommodation - and took the guided tour through the manor house. The weather was still nice. There were some clouds, but you could still see the sun.

The gate to the yard of the manor house, where all the concerts in previous years had taken place.

In case you should be curious what it looked like inside the manor house, you will have to travel to this place and take the guided tour yourself, because it wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the manor house.

After the guided tour, Burkhard decided to do some more sightseeing and headed for the Kvinneherad Church which he hadn't seen yet, either.

A bird taking a walk in the park (of the Barony).

Beautiful view over the Kvinneheradfjord from the parking lot at the Kvinneherad Church.

Dwarf Vader and I.

In the distance you can see the waterfall Hattebergfossen.

The Kvinneherad Church - from the outside.

That's what it looks like inside.

Now it was time for another long march, because Burkhard finally wanted to pay a visit to the Waterfall Hattebergfossen. (He had already intended to get to this place when we were in Rosendal two years ago, but somehow hadn't managed to find the right way.) Thus we went down to the centre of Rosendal and from there it was up to our accommodation in order to pick up Bjørkisen.

Burkhard's car in front of the reception at 1 p.m. - obviously not many guests had booked the package with bed and breakfast for two days.

On the way to Hattebergfossen.

As you already know, Bjørkisen is quite shy, but this was the perfect place to finally also take some pictures of him out in the open.

Bjørkisen merges perfectly in the landscape.

Another group photo.

Hattebergfossen.

On our way back.

Sheep ahead!

One last look back.

Our room was the one on the far right on the first floor.

When we got back to our accommodation, it was half past 2. Since it was still several hours to the second concert, Burkhard took another walk in the park of the Barony.

The little fountain in the park of the Barony.

When we came to the fountain in the park of the Barony, Dwarf declared: "Now I would like to go swimming." He took off his cape, since he didn't want it to get wet, and put on a funny swimming ring and flippers.

However, once Dwarf was in the water, he immediately tipped over and fell with his face into the water, probably because of the overweight caused by his helmet which he by no means had wanted to take off. Thus Burkhard had to take him out of the water to save him from drowning.

First two pics: Dwarf ready to take a swim.
3rd pic: Manus ex machina. (Actually, it's Burkhard literally lending a helping hand.)

Continuing our walk through the park, we eventually came to a little pond which we hadn't seen on our two previous trips.

A pond in the park, a familiar looking bird and scenery which slightly reminds me of the Moomins.

Close to the pond, we ran into Arthur Ditto, an acquaintance from our last trip to Rosendal, who looks like a sophisticated dustbin and communicates by beeping, but who is, according to Dwarf, a druid. "How's it going, Arthur?" I asked. While it seemed that he understood what I was saying, Dwarf had to translate his answer for us, because we don't understand Beepish. According to Dwarf's translation, there had been a lot of rain this summer, thus we could consider ourselves very lucky. Otherwise, nothing special had happened there.

An unexpected encounter.

After Dwarf had put on his swimming ring and flippers, Arthur led us to a little bay of the pond where the water was so shallow that Dwarf could still stand with his feet down on the ground, thus there was no danger of getting drowned.

Once Dwarf had finished his bath, we sat down on a bench in front of the little mysterious "tower" near the pond.

I wonder what kind of weirdo put the stairs made of stones on this side, because there is no door to walk through. Maybe it's an entrance for ghosts who can pass through walls.

A little bit further up, Arthur led us to a hollow stump which he had discovered some time ago.

It had entrances from several sides and looked a bit creepy.

Then it was already time for Arthur Ditto and us to part ways.

The sky was now completely clouded and Burkhard wanted to take more pictures of the park and the rose garden in front of the manor house which still wasn't in full bloom yet, though it was already the end of July.

Entrance to the tea-room of the manor house where the 3-course-meal after the concert was being served.

Looking round the rose garden.

Clouds "creeping" over the mountain tops.

50 shades of green?

View from the first floor of our accommodation.

At about 6 o'clock, Burkhard went to the Riddarsal. The doors were, of course, still closed. There were already a few people in the anteroom, among them three fans Burkhard already knew from several Kari Bremnes-concerts in Germany and who had also been at the concert the day before. It's nice to meet people you know at such occasions, because the time you have got to wait until the doors finally open goes much faster when you can spend it having conversations with others.

Once again, Burkhard got a seat in the first row. This time he opted for the right side, in front of the bass player. The setlist was exactly the same as the day before, thus I'll just continue with some pics Burkhard took during the concert.

The bassist's setlist - the same as for the others, but written down on a paper napkin!

When the crowds are (nearly) gone - but the Krauts are still there. ;)

This concert was another jubilee, namely Burkhard's 25th concert with Børre Flyen on drums. After the concert, it was time to say good-bye to the musicians and to Kari.

Already during the concert, it had started to rain outside - weather as usual, as some might say. As if being less fortunate with the weather on this evening wasn't enough, it also turned out that this evening's 3-course-dinner was more like a 3-curse-dinner - OK, make that 2-curse-and-1-course-dinner - for Burkhard. For someone who isn't a fan of seafood, it was a kind of underwhelming surprise, to put it politely, to find out that the first course was scallop. Burkhard actually did eat it - after all it was included in the package-price -, but next time - if there should ever be one - he will ask if it's possible to have something else instead. The main course wasn't a huge improvement in Burkhard's eyes, because it was monkfish. Burkhard ate it as well - after all, he didn't want to go to bed with an empty stomach -, but the fact that it came with broccoli rather added to the disappointment. At least he did enjoy the dessert, an éclair, though yesterday's chocolate tartlet had tasted better.

When Burkhard woke up the next morning, it was still raining - the weather obviously meant to make it easier for us to leave. At the breakfast table, Burkhard got into a conversation with a 60-year old woman who had also been to Kari's concert the day before. Burkhard told her - among other things - about his previous trips to Norway and he found it interesting to learn that this woman liked Deep Purple. While he wouldn't consider himself a fan of this band, he likes some of their songs. And this is also another example which shows that the music of Kari Bremnes can also appeal to people who enjoy Hard Rock or - in Burkhard's case - Heavy Metal.

When Burkhard had nearly finished breakfast, Hallgrim, Børre, Bengt and sound engineer Geir entered the breakfast room, thus when he eventually left, Burkhard took the chance to say good-bye once again and expressed his hope to see them live with Kari in Germany in 2018.

One last look into our room.

We left Rosendal at about half past 10 and had a long trip to Kristiansand - about 390 km - ahead of us.

On our way to Odda, waiting in front of a tunnel which only allows traffic in one direction at a time.

On the way to Odda, we made a short stop near a waterfall which came down directly at the right side of the street. Because of the spray from the waterfall and the rain, it wasn't possible to take pics outside the car - well, unless you were owner of an underwater camera (which Burkhard isn't).

Short stop near a waterfall.

When Dwarf saw the sign announcing the Folgefonnatunnel which we were about to enter, he asked: "What? Is there something wrong with my eyes or did the sign really show a five-digit number followed by 'm'?" There was nothing wrong with Dwarf's eyes, because this tunnel was - and most likely still is - a bit more than 11 kilometres long and thus the longest tunnel we have ever gone through.

While we were driving through the tunnel, one could hear Dwarf mumbling every once in a while something which sounded like "Woe is me!" I guess this tunnel gave him the heebiest jeebies he has ever had. At least it didn't rain inside the tunnel. When we eventually came out of the tunnel, the weather was still the same as when we had entered it.

A few kilometres later, we drove through Odda which we already had gone through - though in the opposite direction and under better weather conditions - 7 years ago on our way to Voss.

After we had left Odda behind us, we made a halt near another waterfall called Låtefossen. Luckily, the rain had nearly stopped by now, though the sky was still clouded.

Another few kilometres later, we had to turn left onto the E134. Our way from Odda to Kristiansand was exactly the same as the one on the first day after our arrival in Kristiansand 7 years ago, only into the opposite direction. Thus if I were lazy, I could stop just here, tell you to go to my report of our trip to Gåte's concert in Oslo in 2010 and read the passage of our trip from Kristiansand to Odda backwards. But since there may be readers who are either too lazy to check out my aforementioned report and search for the passage I've mentioned or who actually don't mind seeing more pics, I'll continue.

By the way, this part of our trip until Haukeligrend had also been a part of our trip from Haugesund to Skien four years ago, though way back then the sun had been shining from a clear blue sky.

So what was next? Yes, more heebie-jeebies time for Dwarf.

Røldalstunnelen lurking ahead.

Also on the other side of the Røldalstunnel the weather wasn't much better, though it seemed that some mountain tops caught a glimpse of the sun.

A look back and then down the winding road to Røldal.

On our way over the Haukelifjell.

In Haukeligrend we turned south and drove over Setesdalsheiene.

This could be at Langeidvatn.

Near Hovden. Obviously not the right weather to have some fun in the water or to play beach volleyball.

When we were just about 30 kilometres away from Kristiansand, the sun came eventually through. At about half past 6, we arrived at our hotel - it was the same where we had spent our first and our last night in Norway on our trip in 2010, namely the Yess! Hotel.

The next morning, we had to get up very early, because our ferry, the Fjordcat, already left Kristiansand at about a quarter to seven and the check-in already started about an hour before. Since breakfast in our hotel didn't start before 6:30 a.m., Burkhard had to skip it. The evening before, the guy at the reception had suggested that one could try to make a lunch-package for oneself as soon as the breakfast-buffet was opened, because it was only 2 or 3 minutes from the hotel to the ferry terminal, thus one might still be there in time. Luckily, Burkhard didn't listen to this guy, because otherwise he would have missed the ferry. It already left the harbour about 10 minutes before (!) the scheduled departure time.

Parts of the Fjordcat being mirrored in the windows of the gangway to the Colorline-ferry.

It was a sunny morning, though some showers had passed by and when the ferry left, you could still see a bit of a rainbow.

Leaving Kristiansand.

Monitors showing the current position and speed of the ship and a look through windows at the ceiling of the Fjordcat.

We arrived in Hirtshals at 9 a.m. Since he hadn't had any proper breakfast and it wouldn't be a wise decision to continue our trip back with an empty stomach, Burkhard made a halt at a rest area in Denmark where we suddenly saw this:

Parking their cars properly was obviously not the drivers' forte.

Except for a bigger traffic jam only a few kilometres behind the Danish-German border, which fortunately coincided with Burkhard's plan to leave the motorway anyway in order to have dinner and refuel the car, everything went fine on our trip back home, where we eventually arrived at about 10 p.m.

Text: Miss Loona
Pics: Burkhard
- 11/2017 -

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