Sorlandet and Tjome

After our visit to Lindesnes on Friday afternoon, we drove 2 hours north and east along Norway’s southeastern coast. It is known as the Sorlandet and is a popular summer vacation area.

We spent the night in Grimstad, which is one of Sorlandet’s “white towns.”

These white-painted towns dot the coastline, strikingly pretty against the deep blue of the Skagerrak Sea.

On Saturday, May 19, we drove north along the coast. The roads were tiny, and the traffic on this Saturday of a holiday weekend was bracing. Once again, we were in white-hair-inducing territory.

We got a sense of how beautiful this rocky coastline is. It would be a lovely area for a summer cottage (or a vacation rental). It must be a boater’s paradise.

There were few opportunities to pull over or stop. The one place we planned to stop—Risor—was completely overrun with holidaying families. People were four deep on sidewalks. Everyone seemed to have an ice cream cone in hand, and the nearest parking was about a half mile out of town. Deciding it was unlikely we were going to enjoy our exploration in these circumstances, we opted to head further north—on a highway—to our planned stop for the next 2 days.

We turned off the highway in Tonsberg and drove south to Notteroy Island and onto Tjome Island. These are the two main islands of an archipelago of hundreds of islands.

We were staying at Engø Gård, considered to be one of the top three (or five, depending on who you’re talking to) inns in Norway. This was our planned indulgence on this trip celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. It is in a lovely setting, an old estate with converted buildings providing lodging, dining, swimming, and meeting facilities. I had booked one of the two rooms in Vinhuset, the old wine storage building. (How could I not?)

We thankfully settled into this quiet haven and left those crazy roads behind—that is, after traversing several more to get to the inn!

Vinhuset, where we had our room. Even here, we had stairs!

The building on the right was Reception.

The old barn, now the breakfast room, restaurant, and reception hall. This sloped entrance to the upper level is very typical of Norwegian barns.

The inlet on which Engø Gård was located.

On Sunday, we drove further south on Tjome to Verdens Ende (World’s End), the southernmost point in the archipelago. We clearly weren’t the only ones thinking this would be a great place to be on a sunny day. We found a parking place, but had to stand in a relatively long line to get our parking ticket.

We walked out onto the rocks to see the views. Almost as soon as we arrived, a runner came in to much applause. There were people sitting here and there awaiting runners. That helped to explain part of the crowd.

We went ahead and walked further out on the rocks, enjoying the incredible views. This is where the Skagerrak Sea meets the entrance to the Oslofjord. Beautiful place on a beautiful day. After wandering around and taking some pictures, we found some rocks to sit on and soak up more of the sea air.

The symbol of Verdens Ende is a vippefyr, a form of lighthouse that preceded modern forms. This is a replica of one that was located here. A fire would be built in the hanging basket and could be pivoted on the pole.

No other runners came in while we were there. That seemed a bit odd for a race. I noticed a man who seemed to be involved in the race and who stopped to talk to some of the friends and family who were sprinkled about. As we left, I asked him if he could tell us about the race. It turned out he was the race organizer. The race was an ultra marathon of 100km. It had started Saturday noon in Oslo. Wow! I asked the man if he had run this race, and he said no. But I noticed he was wearing a race t-shirt and got him to talk briefly about that race, which he had run in 2014: an ultra marathon around Mt. Blanc! Double Wow!

As we walked back toward the parking area, several more runners came in. We could hear the crowd welcoming them in.

In the parking area, cars were lined up in hopes of getting a parking place. A popular place.

We headed back to our idyll in Engø Gård. We had a lovely dinner and enjoyed the luxury of a fairly quiet day, sunshine, pink skies at sunset. The next day we’d be leaving this area behind.

Even without the indulgence of Engø Gård, the archipelago would be a wonderful place to spend more time.