Åsgårdstrand
Åsgårdstrand is a small port town in Vestfold, Norway. It is the name of a former independent municipality and a center of trade; the town is situated 10 km south of Horten, 10 km north of Tønsberg and 100 km south of Oslo by the west coast of the Oslofjord. On 1 January 1965 Åsgårdstrand and Borre municipalities, plus a part of Sem were merged into the new municipality of Borre. By the time of the merger Åsgårdstrand had 488 inhabitants and was the smallest municipality in Norway.Åsgårdsstrand is a summer resort destination with a number of restored old homes. It is home to various cafés, a beach. Edvard Munch's former home is now open to the public, it is home to Borre Kystled, a hiking trail which leads to Borre National Park. The meaning of the name is the strand belonging to the farm Åsgård; the first element in the farm's name is´ás meaning'mountain ridge', the last element is garðr meaning'farm'. Åsgårdstrand was ladested from 1650 from 1660 under Holmestrand. In 1752 the center of trade was given the rights of doing business with national goods.
From the beginning of the 19th century, Åsgårdstrand, was a lively export harbor for lumber, of which most was exported to the Netherlands. By the end of the sail ship era, the trade stagnated; the municipality was founded as Åsgårdstrand formannskapsdistrikt in 1837. Merchant and ship owner Anders Riddervold was elected as the first mayor. Dating from the 1880s, the town had been known as an important center for artists and painters. A number of internationally noted painters has either visited or lived in the town including Edvard Munch, Christian Krogh and Hans Heyerdahl. In 1898 Edvard Munch bought a house in Åsgårdstrand; the house is now operated as a small museum, associated with the Vestfold Museum. Since the 1920s Åsgårdstrand has been recreational spot. Visitors spend their holidays in one of the four hotels. From 2007, the town has had the classification of a Tourist Town, which gives the shop owners in the oldest part closest to the sea the right to keep open every day of the week. In order to become a Tourist Town the number of visitors needs to exceed the number of residents throughout the year.
In June every year, Åsgårdstrand celebrates Midsummer - the longest day of the year - with a large fire on the shore. Hans Anton Apeness, lumber merchant born in Åsgårdstrand. A street in Calais has been named after him. Einar Thorstein Diesen, broadcaster from Åsgårdstrand Jahn Ekenæs, art painter, lived in Åsgårdstrand Øivin Holst Grimsgaard, architect born in Åsgårdstrand Hans Heyerdahl, art painter, lived in Åsgårdstrand Jens Kristensen, illustrator born in Åsgårdstrand Per Lasson Krohg, art painter born in Åsgårdstrand, son of Oda and Chr. Krohg Ingerid Paulsen Kuiters, illustrator lives in Åsgårdstrand Svein Døvle Larssen, former editor of Tønsbergs Blad bosatt i Åsgårdstrand Edvard Munch, art painter with summer house in Åsgårdstrand Ola Abrahamsson, art painter with summer house in Åsgårdstrand. A street in Åsgårdstrand has been named after him. Nils Johan Semb, Norwegian national soccer team head coach, 1998–2003, living in Åsgårdstrand Marthin Hamlet and mixed martial artist raised in Åsgårdstrand Map and aerial photo of Åsgårdstrand Horten kommune about Åsgårdstrand Photos from Åsgårdstrand on Flickr ScenicNorway, photos from Åsgårdstrand Åsgårdstrand Portal Åsgårdstrand Velforening
Aker Brygge
Aker Brygge is a neighbourhood in central Oslo, Norway. Since the 1980s and 1990s it has been a popular area for shopping and entertainment, as well as a high-end residential area, it was an industrial area. Aker Brygge is located just west of downtown on the westside of Pipervika, an arm of the Oslo Fjord, on the former ship yard of Akers Mekaniske Verksted, which ceased operations in 1982. Prior to the establishment of the shipyard in 1854, the area was known as Holmen, it was an old yard where some minor industrial activity, a suburban establishment grew in the early 19th century. Aker Brygge is served by the Aker Brygge tram station; the area contained shipyards and engineering industry - Aker Mekaniske Verksted AS - until 1982. The construction of Aker Brygge was carried out in four steps by the realtors Aker Eiendom AS. A few old industrial buildings were demolished, while several of the major workshop halls were rebuilt as shopping areas; the first step of the construction was finished in 1986, with Telje and Aasen as architects.
The fourth and final construction, the Storebrand insurance building facing Munkedamsveien, was completed in 1998. The area consists of a shopping center with shops and restaurants, a cinema, office space, apartments. Additionally, there is a small boat harbour, a terminal for the ferries to Nesodden; the area measures 260,000 m2. Today, about 6,000 people work in Aker Brygge and 900 people have their homes here. Aker Brygge was the scene of an infamous gang-related shootout 19 August 2006; the shooting happened in bright daylight, with several hundred bystanders, including children and tourists in the line of fire. Only two people were wounded and nobody was killed in the incident. A masterplan led by Space Group Company and Ghilardi + Hellsten reorganized the area between 2010 and 2014. Space Group worked on activating the parallel streets, created an inside street, going through the main buildings. Aker Brygge is a leader in Norway for waterfront development and it is one of the most visited place in Oslo with 12 million visitors each year.
Aker Brygge area today consists of 13 separate units and 9 of them are divided into a total of 823 owner units. The properties are bound together through a comprehensive working agreement thereby creating a new district of Oslo, unique in both a national and international perspective. A number of well situated public areas and arrangements have been developed through cooperation between apartment owners, business and cultural interests; the administration of the working agreement and the carrying out of such tasks is done by the owned company Bryggedrift AS. In 2010 a monument of Max Manus was moved away from Aker Brygge, after members of the Pelle group had pointed out that their group was responsible for the 1944 big ship sabotage at present day Aker Brygge; the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, designed by Renzo Piano, is near Aker Brygge. Official website
Oscarsborg Fortress
Oscarsborg Fortress is a coastal fortress in the Oslofjord, close to the small town of Drøbak. The best known part is situated on two small islets; the main artillery batteries are on the island Håøya and smaller batteries on the mainland to the west and east in the fjord and was military territory until 2003 when it was made a publicly available resort island. The fortress is best known for sinking the German heavy cruiser Blücher on 9 April 1940. In 2014, Oscarsborg Fortress was given protected status; the narrows at Drøbak, called Drøbaksundet, is a natural point for the naval defence of Oslo, the capital of Norway. The first defences were constructed during the reign of Christian IV of Denmark and Norway and were ready in 1644; the fortifications were however not involved in battle during the Hannibal War. After the war the fortifications were dismantled, only resurrected for a short period during the 1814 war with Sweden. Around 1830 the discussion started for a renewed fortification of the Drøbak Narrows and the first stage was ready in 1848, the next in 1853.
The name of the fortress was given by royal resolution on 23 August 1855 after a visit by the Swedish-Norwegian King Oscar I. By the end of the 19th century the art of war developed and the new fortress was soon obsolete; the tension was growing between the two countries in the union and so the Norwegians decided to upgrade the fortress. From 1890 new improved German guns were installed, an underwater barrier was built in 1874–79, an underwater torpedo battery was constructed; the main armament was three 28 cm calibre guns manufactured by Krupp. There were a number of guns with smaller calibres on the mainland. An underwater barrier went from the main islet of Kaholmen and south-west to Hurum on the western side of the fjord, thus making it impossible for large vessels to sail west of the fortress. Having been constructed in 1898–1901, taken into service on 15 July 1901, the underground torpedo facility remained one of the few Norwegian defence installations unknown to German military intelligence at the point of the 9 April 1940 invasion.
The battery was one of two in Norway and differed from the other torpedo battery, at Kvarven Fort, in that it was designed to launch its torpedoes from under the water level, instead of by torpedo tube from above ground as was the case with the battery at Kvarven outside Bergen. At Oscarsborg the torpedo battery is a concrete construction inside a cave mined into the rock of the North Kaholmen island. Two torpedoes are loaded side in two open steel frames. One of the two frames is lowered like an elevator down into the water to the tunnels below. After one shot, it took some time to be ready for the next; when fired, the torpedo's own compressed air engine was started and it propelled itself. The battery has three torpedo tunnels which could fire six torpedoes without reloading and a total of nine torpedoes was stored and ready for use; each weapon carried a 100 kg TNT warhead and targets were spotted from three observation bunkers just above the battery. The torpedoes were delivered in 1900 from the Whitehead torpedo factory in Fiume part of Austria-Hungary.
A back-up observation bunker is situated just outside the entrance to the battery. When Norway was invaded on 9 April 1940, all of the fortress' armament was over 40 years old, of German origin. Both the guns and the torpedo battery worked flawlessly when Oscarsborg encountered one of the German invasion flotillas. During the occupation of Norway, German forces were stationed at Oscarsborg; the fortress was returned to Norwegian control on 12 May 1945 when Captain Thorleif Unneberg took command of the fortifications and raised the Norwegian flag following the capitulation of all German forces in Norway four days earlier. The flag in question was the same that had flown over the fortress until it was captured by the Germans in April 1940. Colonel Birger Eriksen made a speech. During the Cold War Oscarsborg formed a last line of defence for Oslo, with the underground torpedo battery remaining secretly active up until 1 January 1993, having been modernized in the 1980s. After the deactivation of the last weapons systems, the remaining military activity on Oscarsborg consisted of the Coastal Artillery officer training programme.
The officer school was shut down on 28 June 2002. The fortress is now a civilian resort and attraction, open for visitors; the scenic surroundings is much used for excursions. Visitors take a short motor launch trip from Drøbak. On 8 April 2014 the 28 cm guns of the main battery were fired with blank rounds when the fortress was used as a location of a scene for the production of the 2016 film The King's Choice, directed by Erik Poppe. In their coverage of the filming the newspaper Aftenposten claimed that the filming occasion was the first time the guns had been fired since 9 April 1940; the claim by Aftenposten is however contradicted by the fact that the guns were last fired during testing in 1952. After a prolonged process, Oscarsborg Fortress was listed as a protected site in 2014, effective from 9 April 2014. Berg, Ole F.. I skjærgården og på havet – Marinens krig 8. April 1940 – 8. Mai 1945. Oslo: Marinens krigsveteranforening. ISBN 82-993545-2-8. Fjeld, Odd T.: "Klar til strid - Kystartilleriet gjennom århundrene", Kystartilleriets Offisersforening, Oslo 1999 ISBN 82-995208-0-0 Sivertsen, Svein Carl: "Sjøforsvaret dag for dag 1814-2000", Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen, Hundvåg 20
Norway
Norway the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe whose territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the kingdom. Norway lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land. Norway has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres and a population of 5,312,300; the country shares a long eastern border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, the Skagerrak strait to the south, with Denmark on the other side. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the Barents Sea. Harald V of the House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway. Erna Solberg has been prime minister since 2013. A unitary sovereign state with a constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the parliament, the cabinet and the supreme court, as determined by the 1814 constitution; the kingdom was established in 872 as a merger of a large number of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for 1,147 years.
From 1537 to 1814, Norway was a part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War. Norway remained neutral until April 1940 when the country was invaded and occupied by Germany until the end of Second World War. Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities; the Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with both the United States. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, the Nordic Council. Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals; the Norwegian state has large ownership positions in key industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, lumber and fresh water.
The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside of the Middle East; the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World IMF lists. On the CIA's GDP per capita list which includes autonomous territories and regions, Norway ranks as number eleven, it has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of US$1 trillion. Norway has had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world since 2009, a position held between 2001 and 2006, it had the highest inequality-adjusted ranking until 2018 when Iceland moved to the top of the list. Norway ranked first on the World Happiness Report for 2017 and ranks first on the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity, the Democracy Index. Norway has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Norway has two official names: Norge in Noreg in Nynorsk; the English name Norway comes from the Old English word Norþweg mentioned in 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north", how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the coastline of Atlantic Norway similar to scientific consensus about the origin of the Norwegian language name.
The Anglo-Saxons of Britain referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. There is some disagreement about whether the native name of Norway had the same etymology as the English form. According to the traditional dominant view, the first component was norðr, a cognate of English north, so the full name was Norðr vegr, "the way northwards", referring to the sailing route along the Norwegian coast, contrasting with suðrvegar "southern way" for, austrvegr "eastern way" for the Baltic. In the translation of Orosius for Alfred, the name is Norðweg, while in younger Old English sources the ð is gone. In the 10th century many Norsemen settled in Northern France, according to the sagas, in the area, called Normandy from norðmann, although not a Norwegian possession. In France normanni or northmanni referred to people of Sweden or Denmark; until around 1800 inhabitants of Western Norway where referred to as nordmenn while inhabitants of Eastern Norway where referred to as austmenn. According to another theory, the first component was a word nór, meaning "narrow" or "northern", referring to the inner-archipelago sailing route through the land.
The interpretation as "northern", as reflected in the English and Latin forms of the name, would have been due to folk etymology. This latter view originated with philologist Niels Halvorsen Trønnes in 1847; the form Nore is still used in placenames such as the village of Nore and lake Norefjorden in Buskerud county, still has the same meaning. Among other arguments in favour of the theor
Class 1 World Powerboat Championship
The UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship is an international motorboat racing competition for powerboats organised by the Union Internationale Motonautique. It is the highest class of offshore powerboat racing in the world. Class 1 is considered one of the most spectacular motorsports in the world. A Class 1 raceboat is twin-engined and can reach speeds in excess of 257 km/h, with V12 engines limited in performance to 850 hp at 7600 rpm and V8 engines limited in performance to 850 hp at 6100 rpm. All boats are limited by a minimum weight of 4950 kg; the sport of powerboat racing has undergone unprecedented change since early records of a race in 1887 in Nice, organized by the Paris Sailing Club. The French claimed the next two recorded races in 1903, a 62-mile race in Meulan on the River Seine organized by the Poissy Sailing Club and a 230-mile race from Paris to Trouville, but the first recognized international offshore powerboat race was a 22-mile event from Calais, France to Dover, England.
But the modern-era of offshore powerboat racing was kick-started on 6 May 1956 with the first running of the famous Miami-Nassau race, which would lead to the introduction of the Sam Griffith Memorial Trophy and a UIM sanctioned World Championship in 1964. From 1964 to 1976 the winner of the World Championship was decided by points gained from multiple races held at venues around the world. From 1977 to 1991 the winner was decided by series of races at a single event at the end of the year; the World Championship reverted to a multi-event format in 1992. The fabled Miami-Nassau races were hailed as ‘the world’s most rugged ocean races’ and brought powerboat racing to the attention of the general public and signaled the beginning of modern offshore racing; these races provided the sport with its first hero – Sam L. Griffith; the first Miami-Nassau race, run on 6 May 1956 was the brainchild of American race car promoter Capt. Sherman ‘Red’ Crise and yacht designer, "Dick" Richard Bertram. Of the eleven intrepid pioneers who entered this now famous 184-mile race, eight went the distance to complete the race.
The first boat home after nine hours 20 minutes, at an average speed of 19.7 mph, was the Griffith-Bertram entry, Doodles II, a 34 ft wooden Chris Craft with two 215 hp Cadillac Crusader engines. Griffith was a larger than life character, he was regarded as ‘the man’ and before his untimely death in 1963 he would win four Miami-Nassau races, break Gar Wood’s 41-year-old Miami-New York powerboat record and capture the Around Long Island Marathon. Many have since sought to emulate his skills and when Class 1 came of age in 1964 with a UIM sanctioned World Drivers’ Championship it was his name, selected to adorn the trophy, today the sport’s biggest prize. During the 1950s the Americans had the sport to themselves laying claim to the three major offshore races in existence, the Miami-Nassau, the Around Long Island Marathon and the Miami-Key West, but in the early 60s Europe entered the fray to challenge the Americans. Publisher Sir Max Aitken, inspired by the Miami-Nassau, established the Cowes-Torquay in the English Channel on August 19, 1961, with victory in the inaugural 179-mile race going to Tommy Sopwith in Thunderbolt.
A year the Italians added their challenge with the staging of the 198-mile Viareggio-Bastia-Viareggio, won by an Italian ex-navy submarine commander, Attilio Petroni, in A’ Speranziella. Over the next thirty years an enduring struggle ensued between the three founding nations for racing supremacy. In the 20 years following its recognition by the Union Internationale Motonautique and the inception of the Sam Griffith Trophy in 1964, the Americans were at the forefront of the sport’s technological development. Jim Wynne, Dick Bertram and Don Aronow led the way with the Daytona and Aeromarine powerplants reigning supreme. During this period the Americans posted the Italians six. Count Vincenzo Balestrieri Cosimelli, from Rome, was the first non-American to win the coveted trophy in 1968. Balestrieri repeated in 1970. Wally Franz, a Brazilian, won the title in 1975 with an American boat, engine and throttleman. In 1978 Italy’s Francesco Cosentino took the title in a boat designed by Don Shead and built on the Mediterranean at Viareggio, the spiritual home of Italian offshore powerboat racing, marking the first time that a Class 1 World Champion won the title in equipment not of American origin, nor assembled and tended by American engineers.
In the 1970s the pendulum swung to witness a period of European design dominance. Don Shead’s aluminum monohulls from Enfield, Italian manufacturers Picchiotti and CUV and the James Beard – Clive Curtis Cougar catamarans set the pace; the European resurgence was completed by the genius of Fabio Buzzi, whose quantum leap into Glass Reinforced Polymer hulls, turbo-charged Aifo Iveco and Seatek diesel engines, integral surface drive transmissions through his FB Corse concern proved unbeatable. The decade of the 90s witnessed the emergence of the Michael Peters-designed and Victory built hulls that dominated the honors lists with the American Sterling, the Italian Lamborghini petrol and the Seatek diesel engines sharing the power battle. In 1992 the Championship reverted to a multi-event competition and in the following years the diversity of nationalities claiming the World Drivers’ Championship swelled in numbers including America, Italy, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Thirty three titles have been won by Americans, 19 by Italians, 15 by competitors from the UAE, eight by Britons, six by Norwegians, two by competitors from Monaco and Puerto Rico and one each b
Torbjørnskjær Lighthouse
Torbjørnskjær Lighthouse is a automated coastal lighthouse situated on a skerry in the archipelago municipality of Hvaler, Norway. It marks the east side of the entrance to the Oslofjord, with Færder marking the west; the light is powered by solar power. Landing conditions are difficult, nowadays service calls are made via helicopter; the lighthouse and surrounding buildings, which include residences, outhouse, a well, engine house are proposed protected as a national park. List of lighthouses in Norway Lighthouses in Norway Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Norway: Oslo Area". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ryvarden, Leif. KystNorge. 1–3. Oslo: Gyldendal. ISBN 978-82-05-35265-0. Norsk Fyrhistorisk Forening
Drøbak Sound
The Drøbak Sound is a sound at the Oslofjord narrows between Drøbak and Hurum. Outer Oslofjord, a term for the Oslofjord south of the Drøbak Sound until it meets the Skagerrak. Inner Oslofjord, a term for the rest of the fjord, that starts in the Drøbak Sound northwards towards Oslo, where the fjord makes a turn and continues to the Bunne Fjord; the Drøbak Sound was guarded by Oscarsborg Fortress. During the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, the German cruiser Blücher was sunk by the fortress. Oscarsborg Fortress has been converted into a hotel. There is a ferry from Drøbak; the subsea Oslofjord Tunnel at the Norwegian National Road 23 is running underneath the Oslofjord connects the east side and the west side of the fjord. Battle of Drøbak Sound
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