Kristiansand was the first port of call for us on our week-long cruise aboard Sky Princess to Norway and Denmark in 2022, but I’ll cover that city in a subsequent post in this travelogue series. If you know us – and few people do – or if you read the About page on this site – and fewer people do – then you’ll know that we like to take organised excursions when we’re in new places or when the trips offer something that we can’t easily arrange ourselves, or are too lazy to attempt. Thus it was that for our first day ashore after a day at sea on our cruise ship, we were whisked away in a bus for a couple of highlights of the area. There’s an open-air museum visit to come after this, but to start with let’s take a quick look at the fishing village of Høllen.
There is not a lot about Høllen online. In fact, I fully expect that in a world where websites that tell you things about places get rewarded by search engines instead of relegated behind promoted rubbish only tangentially connected to the subject you’re interested in, this post would soon become the top-rated match for anyone looking for Høllen information simply based on it containing more than a dozen words on the topic. Sadly, we don’t live in that world. Even sadder, we live in a world where nobody will ever want to look up what sorts of things there are to see and do in Høllen. Had you heard of the place? No, us neither. But that’s part of the reason why we wanted to see it.
Okay, then. Høllen is less than ten kilometres south west of Kristiansand, so it didn’t take us long to reach there. The title of this post and your elite comprehension skills tells you it’s a fishing village, and that is true, but it’s possibly less village-like than maybe you’d be expecting if you’d booked the same cruise excursion as us. Which isn’t to say that it wasn’t small and filled with traditional wooden houses and generally pretty; it was simply closer to what we’d call a town than a village, without really being sure we could define what differentiated the two. You just know, you know?
Høllen probably has three things going for it if you’re looking at it through the eyes of a tourist.
Firstly, there’s a marina, and that’s clearly related to the status of the location as a fishing village. If a bit of fishing off the coast of Norway is your bag, then here’s somewhere that might be worth a look at.
Secondly, there’s a sandy beach. I don’t know about you, but when I think of Norway I don’t picture sandy beaches, so this is quite an unusual attraction. According to our tour guide, it was for this reason that Høllen is very popular during the warm summer months and weekends when hardy Norwegian types are forced against their will to take some time off with the family and enjoy themselves.
Thirdly, Høllen is actually pretty picturesque even under the clouds. There are some places that look great in the sunshine but grim as all hell when it’s overcast, but the combination of white timber buildings, boats, rocky outcrops, sandy beaches, and plenty of grass and trees means that for photographers you’re not going to be disappointed with the views whatever the weather.
Please remember to return the tourist’s eyes after use.
We didn’t have very much time to explore; this was one of those “drive to the place, mention that the locals like to hit the water when it’s warm, tell people they’ve got twenty minutes to nose around on their own” sort of stops on a short tour of the area. That was just about enough time to see just about enough of Høllen to think yeah, it’s an okay place. So let’s take a look at some photos, starting around the marina and those moody clouds.
Sculptures of heads! Who doesn’t like sculptures of heads? These are the Høllen Heads, one from Larvikit stone and one from Fauske marble, sculpted by Dutch artist Michael Rieu. As fans of abstract art we liked these a lot. Knowing Scandinavian folk as well as we do, we assumed that these were warnings to the giant underwater stone people that decapitation would be their welcome should they venture ashore.
Carrying on from the marina and past the heads brought us to the beach. I’ve seen bigger ones, but there was sand and grass and some benches, and I could certainly imagine it would be a very pleasant place to come for some sunshine and a swim.
It’s not just stone sculptures that Høllen has out on display to distract you from the pleasing scenery. Fans of rusted bits of metal with plaques on them won’t be disappointed with the sand bucket or the limestone slab wreckage. Sadly, my Norwegian doesn’t extend far enough to know the complete significance of these artifacts but they certainly imply that there’s at least a small amount of history attached to the fishing village beyond the fact that it hosted a Thing in the sixteenth century.
And that concludes a little look at Høllen near Kristiansand. Not a massive amount to see or do, but pleasant enough in its own way, and nice to see something that isn’t just fjords or mountains or lakes if you’re visiting Norway.
In the next post in this series we’ll visit an open air museum, and that will be followed by a walk around Kristiansand itself.