Idun – Page 10 – ToBatheOrNotToBathe

Stuðlagil

Egilsstaðir, with almost 3,000 inhabitants, is a natural starting point for several spectacular hiking and swimming experiences in the north-east of Iceland.

Mandatory ‘Gríma’ (face mask) in Egilsstaðir 2021.

One of the biggest ‘wow factors’ you can get is Stuðlagil. You drive through a long, gravelly valley, Jökulsdalur. This is a wasteland with a few farms and some sheep.

Some of the few inhabitants of Jökulsdalur.

It takes an hour to walk up to the gorge, a nice hike with a pedagocically well placed waterfall, Stuðlafoss, to enjoy about mid-way. Well, that’s if you keep to the east side of the river.

Alternatively, you can drive up to a stair access (239 steps) on the west side of Jökulsá, but we would not recommend that if you are fit enough for the east side, because:

From the vantage point on the west side, you cannot see the most beautiful basalt columns.

You can’t go down to the water.

Panorama view towards the panorama platform on the west side.

After the waterfall, basalt columns begin to appear by Jökulsá. The river is (large parts of the year) bright green! Here we are talking about glacial rivers with lots of particles in the water. The basalt columns are first brown, gradually gray. Most of them stand vertically, but in some places a bunch of them are twisted around and you can see the cross section of them instead.

Stuðlagil is one of the newest tourist attractions in Iceland. The gorge came to light when the water level in the river Jökulsá á Brú was lowered following the very controversial construction of the Kárahnjúkavirkjun hydroelectric plant in 2009. The plant was supposed to ensure power supply to the aluminum plant in Reyðarfjörður.

What you don’t see from the west side of the river: Nature’s cathedral.

Stuðlagil itself is like a cathedral with tall, beautiful columns. A wonder of Mother Nature! If you are careful, you can climb down to the river bank and sit on the basalt columns and just enjoy. We didn’t dare to do this on our first visit, it was in March; snow and ice everywhere. The second visit, however!

Stuðlagil is an absolutely magical place. However, be aware that the water level may rise if they let more water through from the power plant further up the valley. Because of this – and strong currents – we do not recommend swimming in Stuðlagil!

Bathing in Stuðlagil is generally not recommended…

We (as you might have guessed) couldn’t resist in the long run. But we think we did a thorough risk assessment, had secured ourselves with a tow rope and only swam in a backwater without current. But this is not the place to try ice bathing for the first time!

After the ravine visit, a bath is just right. At Egilsstaðir there are two obvious options for open-air swimming: the river Lagarfljót and Urriðavatn lake. Lagarfljót basically looked a bit dirty and unappealing. The sad white-grey color comes from the particles in the water. Urriðavatn, on the other hand, is fresh and blue and cold – except it’s hot spring interior. But that’s another story – Vök Bad.

Of lengi í örbirgð stóð
einangruð, stjórnlaus þjóð,
kúguð og köld.
Einokun opni hramm.
Iðnaður, verslun fram!
Fram! Temdu fossins gamm,
framfara öld.
(E. Benediktsson, made for the opening of the power plant)

Too long left in destitution,
isolated, stubborn nation,
downthrodden, cold.
Monopoly opens the door,
Industry, save the poor!
Forward! Waterfall pour,
till time grows old!”
(E. Benediktsson, translated by Tobatheornottobathe, with some help from Google Translate)

Avalanche

Despite all the other things Iceland has to deal with in form of geysirs, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and bad weather, it is avalanches that take the most lives. The first record of an avalanche is from the year 1118! In the ‘Sturlunga Saga’, it is mentioned that five people died in an avalanche, and thereafter more than 680 lives have been lost.

From ‘Torgils and Havlide’s saga’ (a part of ‘Sturlunga Saga’):

‘Måg-Snorre was a wealthy man, who had a house in Svinadal, at the place which is now called Snorrastad; he drowned in Sælingsdalså, at the place now called Snorravad. His brother-in-law Sighvat Ulvsson went out with four other men to search for the body, but they were buried under an avalanche and all perished.‘ (References)

‘Here one can safely say that ‘misfortunes never come singly‘.

Avalanche protections (up to the left of the city) at Siglufjörður, Norðausturland.

There has been a major investment in avalanche protection the recent years, and many settlements are secured with ‘fences’ high up in the mountainside. Other places, moraine-like ramparts have been built to lead the avalanches away from the city. One of the biggest avalanche accidents in recent times occurred in Neskaupstaður the December 20^th 1974, when 12 people died. On this day there were actually 8 avalanches here, two of them fatal. In addition, there were 13 people that were swept away by the slides, who survived after all. This was a terrible blow to the small settlement.

Neskaupstaður has approximately 1,500 inhabitants. The village runs along the fjord, actually it covers a length of 6 km in a width of only approximately 100 meters. What else is there to say about Neskaupstaður? Impressively, they have their own heavy metal festival, ‘Eistnaflug’ (in July). And one nearly extinct species of lichen: ‘Seltulauf’.

Peaceful easter atmosphere in Neskaupstaður.

We were in Neskaupstaður at Easter 2021, but we didn’t see a trace of neither lichen nor heavy rockers. It was winter, there was snow, there was a full moon and it was beautiful still weather. No avalanches in sight. It was just peaceful and wonderful, and we had a cold, but meditative bath below the road ‘Hafnarbraut’. Meditative because, when you step into freezing water, nothing else matters. It’s just you and the water and Mother Nature (and maybe a fellow bather). All worries disappear in seconds. Marvelous!

An Easter bath in Neskaupstaður is just right. Right?

Jökulsárlón

One of the most stunning tourist attractions in Iceland is Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. The lake is situated – and made by – the glacier Breiðamerkurjökull, a branch from the enormous Vatnajökull. If you can imagine a threshold fjord that never reached the sea, then you have the concept. Jökulsárlón is Iceland’s deepest lake (300 m), and it covers an area of 25 km². The glaciers in Iceland are in rapid decline, including Vatnajökull. As the glaciers retreat, a lake may form where the glacier has dug deep – before the end moraine. When icebergs break off the glacier to a glacier lagoon, the icebergs become trapped in the lake. This is a beautiful sight.

Jökulsárlón is a young lake, formed after the glacier Breiðamerkurjökul began to retreat after 1933. The depth comes from the erosion by the glacier during the ‘Little Ice Age’, which had it’s maximum around 1740. The unique thing about Jökulsárlón is that it is connected to the sea via a river/channel (Jökulsá á Breiðamerkursandi), which is deep enough for the water to go both out and in. Seawater enters the lake when it flows, and out again together with melt water when approaching low tide. In this seawater seals are swimming, which give birth to their cubs here. The seals experience visitors every day, and you can see them quite close, they are both charming and curious. Do not go close to the cubs, they are used to lying alone while mother is searching for food.

At Jökulsárlón, a bath is NOT right. There are danger signs all over the place and they have some good points there.

One is the danger of being caught by the current. Since the water goes both out and in, the current can be treacherous, that’s probably right. The other issue is the icebergs. The relatively warm sea water makes the ice melt faster under water than above. Only 10% of icebergs stick up in the air, and you can’t tell when they have melted so much below water that they might capsize. This is very dangerous, don’t even consider swimming out to climb icebergs! It is perfectly fine, in fact absolutely wonderful, just to stand on the beach and enjoy the sight of icebergs, seals and water!

But then there were these urges and dreams. And the defiance. And ‘we are so careful‘. And the problem with always following the rules. And… well, you know what happened, right? We drove over the bridge to the other side of the lake. There we found no seals, (almost) no people, (almost) no current, (almost) no icebergs and (almost) no prohibition signs. There it’s (almost) right with a bath.

A bath in Jökulsárlón is (almost) right.

But then came these urges and dreams again. This bath was so far away from the icebergs that there was almost no point. And how forbidden is it really to swim in Jökulsárlón? After following countless discussions around the great Internet, we have come to the (possibly wrong) conclusion that there is no legal background to initiate processes against those who break the swimming prohibitions announced with signs à la those we find at Jökulsárlón. So they are not legally binding prohibitions, only warnings. Drone bans, however, are legally based and also strictly followed up with fines. Be as it may, we decided to try a bath again the following year. This time while raining cats and dogs.

The advantage of rainy weather is that there will be no visitors, you might think. But at Jökulsárlón there are always people! We went back and forth a bit. Should … shouldn’t. There was also quite a bit of wind and a rather harsh bathing weather. Suddenly a boat came, it was going to cruise around with tourists. We changed our minds – almost – but decided to give it a try anyway as the boat quickly turned around. It was great! The rain stopped just before we finished changing clothes. Most of the tourists around us disappeared and we had our swim in Jökulsárlón. Without bothering anyone. No seals were disturbed, no guards came running with prohibition signs. We didn’t go further out than we could stand, no big icebergs nearby and there is no stream in this part of the bay. A great bath, slightly cold, but not dangerous, as we see it!

Swimming in Jökulsárlón was a “just right” – for us. But of course, we would NEVER have recommended it to anyone!

Skjækerfossen

Verdalselva is quiet and calm and got its name from that fact. But you don’t have to go very much further up the valley before there are bigger heights and waterfalls. We wanted more fun, and drove up Helgådalen (the Holy River Valley) in search of a suitable waterfall or two. Then suddenly we saw this:

The river Ulvilla is a tributary to Helgåa river.

… and that took us back to the heavy duty parties at the Trøndelag countryside in the 80’s, when the song ‘Ulvillavisa‘ was often in the repertoire: ‘Får æ’tj ei pøls, så hoppe æ i ælva, i Ølvilla.‘ (“If I don’t get a sausage, I’ll jump into the river, into Ulvilla!”) Funny! Maybe we could even bathe in Ulvilla, as the song suggests?

Ulvilla power plant. Constructed back in the days (1917), when the power plants were as beautiful as any church.

It remained a thought. The lower part of Ulvilla was just not very tempting, so we dropped the bath. But not without protests.

And it’s certainly not a crisis if you skip a bathing place or two in Verdalen. There are plenty to choose from, not least a large number of waterfalls in the rivers Inna, Helgåa and Skjævra. Our next attempt was Granfossen in Helgåa, but it was a bit difficult to access the waterfall with the footwear we had, so we went on to Skjækerfossen.

What a place! The waterfall is 22.5 m high, wide and beautiful. And this is historical ground. There used to be furnaces for nickel ore from the Dyråa mines in Skjækerdalen: ‘Værdalens Nikkel og Kobberværk’. The ore was transported to Skjækerfossen by horse in winter, since Dyråa river doesn’t have enough slope to run the smelter cabin’s bellows. The sulfur was removed by burning charcoal, resulting in emissions causing forest death in a 50 m wide area every year. Dead trees were cut to firewood for the smelting process. The nickel was transported by horse carriages to the fjord (at Skånes), a transport that was more expensive than the Skånes-England transport, and therefore greatly contributed to the Verdal nickel industry lasting only 10 years.

Skjækerfossen anno 1917. To the right you can see remains after a mill, sawmill and a smelting furnace. Photo: Gunnar Holmsen/Verdalsbilder.no

There is also a memorial by the waterfall, honoring the border refugee guides, who saved many lives during WWII. It is estimated that 7-800 people fled to Sweden through Helgådalen during the 5 years of war. None of these routes were ever revealed. The stone was unveiled in 2006.

A tent camp was set up at Skjækerfossen in the spring of 1945, as they were looking for 25 members of the Rinnan gang, who tried to flee to Sweden after the peace treaty. Magne Solheim from Målselv arrested Henry Oliver Rinnan at Flyvollen farm on the 14/5-1945. Rinnan was convicted and executed by a firing squad at the Festningen Fortress in Trondheim 1/2-47. Rinnan assisted in the torture of at least 1,000 people, the murder of more than 80, and he was convicted of murdering 13 people.

There was a bit of climbing to Skjækerfossen.

However, we didn’t need a tent – to get a bath. On the other hand, there was a bit of climbing in rough terrain, and as usual we laughed at the idiocy of carrying swimwear in bags instead of backpacks.

Skjækerfossen was wearing winter clothes in the form of an ice curtain.

But swimming in Skjækerfossen? No, it was too scary for Idun. The waterfall is deep, and Idun was afraid she wouldn’t be able to drag herself back onto the ice. It was therefore only Knut who bathed.

… with subsequent intense discussions about how to solve this problem. What we needed was a ladder, but it is not particularly practical to bring a ladder into the car. The solution: Laider, of course. And we actually had one at home, in Trondheim, which the children got from grandpa and once used in a tree in the garden.

It was great! An absolutely splendid bath. No dangerous incidents of the type of ice falling down (we didn’t swim tight up to the waterfall).

However, the ice is sharp, so a little blood on the knees must be expected. Otherwise, like the Icelanders, we say: ‘Everything was just fine!‘

It is quite fabulous to have a bath in Skjækerfossen. Also mid-winter! But of course; the water flow is most likely more impressive in spring and summer.

Verdal

North in Trøndelag, shaped like a triangle, between the inner Trondheimsfjord and the Swedish border, is Verdal municipality located. Here, ‘the border between municipalities’ was set a very long time ago, and there have been only 3 changes in historical time (!). The first change occurred when the border river against Levanger (Rinnelva) changed its way, while the second occurred shortly after The Black Death, when the farms at Leksdalsvannet were abandoned. The third boundary change came in 1917, when a new school was needed in Feren, Meråker municipality. And, actually, Verdal did get away with no changes in the much debated municipal reform in 2020.

Verdal has 15,000 inhabitants, of which more than half live in the administrative center Verdalsøra. Humans have lived here for a long time! There are a number of ancient monuments in the municipality, especially many burial mounds, but otherwise Verdal is perhaps best known for the site Stiklestad Battlefield (called “Stekstad” by the locals).

15 km upwards from the fjord, the two rivers Helgåa and Inna run together to form Verdalselva. The name comes from the old word ‘Ver’, which means quiet, calm. This sounded perfect for a swimming adventure. We wanted to swim there!

The Old Bridge. Verdalselva is beautiful, quiet and calm.

But this January evening was very dark. We became aware that ‘how to climb into the river’ was not very clear. And Knut had that bad prolapse back. Actually, this bath turned into a ‘not’.

… at first attempt, that is. The next day, in daylight, we went a little further upstream. And just downstream ‘Nybrua’ (the New Bridge), we found Bjarnebukta (Bjarne Bay). This seemed to be a great place to swim!

The water was still and beautiful. And the ducks swam to meet us. Bjarne, however, we didn’t see. Is it Bjarne who owns the place? Or has there been a bear (“Bjørn” in Norwegian) here a long, long time ago? Please notify us if you know!

The equipment for ‘Øras dager’ is ready by Nybrua (the New Bridge).

Well… The bath itself was nice, but the swimwear didn’t quite have any deliciuos scent afterwards. Perhaps Verdalselva will not be our favorite bathing place after all? It seems that Verdal municipality never takes any quality check of bathing spots. So bathing is at your own risk.

It was almost right to swim in Bjarnebukta January 2023.

After a bath in Verdal, it is a good idea to go to the theatre. Verdal Teaterlag is a very active institution, while we are optimistic and chose the musical ‘Otpimist’ with music by Jahn Teigen.

Wedding Day in Östersund

Östersund is the only city in Jämtland County, and the fourth largest city in Norrland after Umeå, Gävle and Sundsvall. Originally, the area was populated by Norwegians, but it has been Swedish since 1645. The town was founded by King Gustav III in 1786. One reason was military strategy. As Sweden now was no longer an imperium, it could be useful to have a fortified city up north, in Jämtland. The most important reason, however, was the desire for stronger control over the trade. The creation of a city in Jämtland was supposed to increase the supply of goods to Sweden’s east coast, which had been short of supplies for a long time. In addition, it was said that the Jämts spent so much time on long trade journeys (to Norway) that they neglected their farms. Not good!

Östersund. Trade is still a very important business.

The Jämts ran an extensive and profitable trade, and they did not think it was a good idea that the state should channel all trade to the new city. The expression ‘bällt du luur’n‘ (did you manage to trick him) is supposed to come from the Jämt’s inveterate struggle to avoid paying customs duties on goods imported from Norway. The result was that Östersund remained a small town for a long time, while the village from the Viking Age at Frösön, retained its place as the county’s largest settlement.

There was no significant population growth until the arrival of the railway in 1879, but from then on, Östersund has had the role of not only beeing Jämtland’s Centrum, but also Sweden’s (geographical) centre. The name comes from the location by Frösön’s eastern strait.

In 1993 (after our wedding in the Student Society’s Big Hall in Trondheim), we went to Östersund for our honeymoon. We thought it was great! From a tip at the hotel, we went to the fondue restaurant ‘En Liten Röd’ to celebrate the following day. Of course, we had to repeat the operation 30 years later, in 2023. No doubt.

It is a little risky, though, stepping down old tracks. In the meantime, we have introduced our own fondue dinner at home – just as we remembered it in 1993. But is it really the same? We have tried several times to copy dishes from restaurants we have visited – and when we return, we have often been disappointed! After all, we adapt the dishes to the way we like the food best.

There shall be red wine fondue on the wedding day.

But Yes! It was good to be back again! Different from our home fondue, but very, very good. NB! If you even consider making red wine fondue yourself, you MUST mix oil and red wine BEFORE you start heating. We know someone who threw a glass of red wine into the oil while it was heating up, and that was certainly not a good idea. The newly washed kitchen – ready for Christmas Eve – suddenly covered with oil and red wine. NOT recommended.

Tobatheornottobathe wedding day bath. Frösön in the background.

On the wedding day, a warm SPA bath is just right after the red wine fondue. Hot bath (over 42 degrees celcius!) outdoors in minus 10 degrees Celsius, that’s splendid! And the unique Östersund Palm Tree seems to be doing quite well, despite being completely covered by ice.

New Years Bath at Frösö

Frösön (Frøy’s island) in Storsjön (The big sea) was the center of Jämtland for about 1,000 years, from the 8th century to 1879. It was here people met in ancient times for trading and to join the Norse cult. The Jämtland’s parliament, Jamtamót, was held at Byneset, on the east side of Frösö. It is unique in the Nordic countries to call the parliament ‘Mót’ instead of ‘Thing’. The word mót comes from Gothic, and is also used in Great Britain (eg Witenagemot). In Christian times, Jamtamót was held the week after the Gregorian Mass (March 12^th). It had both judicial, legislative and administrative functions. The old tradition of a winter market has been taken up again since 1986, under the name Gregoriemarknaden.

Badhusparken in Östersund. The statue ‘Father and son’ by Olof Ahlberg. Frösön in the background. A straight line from the statue through the middle pillar of the bridge ends in Surfbukta, which is mentioned later in this article.

From Frösön, Åsbjørn Gudfastsson built a bridge over to the mainland (current Östersund city) around the year 1050. This happened in connection with the Christianization of Jämtland. The events were marked with the carving of a rune stone, the so-called Frösöstenen.

The Frösö stone by Hornsbergkyrkjan (the Hornsberg church), east Frösö.

A large cross and a snake-like ribbon (Midgardsormen? Storsjödjuret?) are engraved on the stone. This was a turning point, at the transition between paganism and Christianity. The text in English is this:

Östman, Gudfast’s son, had this stone raised and this bridge built, and he had Jämtland Christianized. Åsbjörn made the bridge. Tryn and Sten carved these runes.

The Frösö stone is Sweden’s northernmost rune stone, and the only one that mentions the Christianization of an entire region – Jämtland. This is the first time Jämtland is mentioned in writing as a specific area. The Frösö stone has never been a tombstone. The stone has been moved 100 meters from its original location to make space for today’s road with the Frösö bridge over to Östersund.

Frösöstenen. Östersund in the background.

South-west of Frösö bridge you can find Surfbukta (the Surf Bay). Here you can take a winter bath! Today’s tip: Join the FB group ‘Vinterbad Östersund’, to arrange swimming together with others. NB: Do not bathe alone! We in Tobatheornottobathe are already 2 people, so all we needed was the tip where to find the hole in the ice. And we got what we needed.

The first day of the year 2023 was quite cold (-10 degrees Celcius), but we had woolen clothes and swimwear ready, so this would be very easy, we thought. Only to discover that Knut’s wool trousers were in the hotel room, and Idun’s wool socks in the car. And none of us did bring wet gloves or extra mittens for the bath. It got cold! But great! And a little scary to go up again, since we could feel that more than a few seconds grip with wet hands on the metal rails and the hands would have been stuck there until spring!

Not very easy to get clear pictures of the tobatheornottobathe bath in the dark.

Anyway – a New Years’ bath at Frösö was just right!

Happy New Year from Jämtland

When you see the flat, slightly hilly landscape by Storsjöen east of Trøndelag, it is easy to imagine that the word ‘flat’ is the origin of the name Jämtland (Swedish “Jamt” means something like “continuous, repeating”).

Smooth and flat landscape in Jämtland. The picture was taken from the observation tower on Frösö.

But no. The area was populated from the west (Trøndelag) 6-7,000 years ago, primarily for hunting. Towards the end of the 8th century, a wave of Norwegian settlers arrived: runaways from the Norwegian King Harald Hair Fair’s harsh rule. Snorri Sturlasson mentions in ‘Håkon the Good’s saga’ a man called Ketil Jemte, who founded a settlement in Jämtland. The nickname ‘Jemte’ comes from the Old Germanic ’emat’, which means diligent/hardworking/persevering.

Kjetil Jemte, son of earl Ånund from Sparabu (in Trøndelag), went east across the mountains, with a large herd and had his cattle with him. They cleared forests and built settlements there; it was then called Jemtland. (ISBN Volume I: 82-445-0068-9)

From the 8th century until ‘the Jämts’ lost their freedom to the Norwegian King Sverre (in the Battle of Storsjöns ice, year 1178), the Jämts had their own parliament, Jamtamot. They were in an intermediate position between the Norwegian king and the Swedish king. The assembly was held every year on Frösö (the Norse god Frøy’s island, in Storsjön (the Big Lake)). A number of archeological founds have been made on the island, especially a lot of bones at Frösö church. These suggest that the church site is actually an old pagan court, where they offered animals to the Norse gods.

Frösö church from the 13th century, with the bell tower from 1754.

Frösö was the center of Jämtland for 1000 years. It wasn’t until 1879, when the railway (Mellanriksbanan) reached Frösön’s eastern strait, that Östersund (literally: the Eastern Strait) took over the role.

With a recent corona infection (Cov-Idun) and a bad back (Prolapse-Knut), it was a downscaled New Year’s celebration 2022/23. We chose Jämtland’s old center – Frösö! With SPA. This was a good solution for both her (with a weak voice) and him (with back pain). There were cold and warm baths, saunas with or without steam and in general a nice place to be.

A hot outdoor bath on New Year’s Eve was really just right.

Some extensive dansing after midnight may have ruined some of the back relaxation effect, but it was very fun!

Happy New Year from Tobatheornottobathe!

Christmas at Persaunet

Hurray! Finally Christmas! The children were home again and Christmas holidays had almost started. THEN corona revision 2 struck, and Idun fell to the ground, voiceless. Or, no, it’s not called ‘the ground’ but ‘the sofa’.

Idun tried to lift the mood with an ugly christmas dress, but it didn’t help much. Photo: Une Hunstad Løwø

Christmas Bath 2022 became a split session, where the corona patient and the French delegation dropped any cold baths. U1 and Knut, on the other hand, went to Sjøbadet to swim at the great facilities there.

But no sauna, we missed that because of the tradition of Cinderella movie watching. And the 24th of December was a fabulous day to take a walk in Trondheim.

Once at home, Knut just had to get bathing again. CovIdun also wanted a Christmas bath!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Tobatheornottobathe!

Tjuvholmen

From Aker Brygge you get to Tjuvholmen (the Thief Islet) via a footbridge.

Tjuvholmen was originally a long, narrow headland. Thieves used to be executed here in old times (court documents have been preserved), hence the name. The headland was later converted into a quay, but the really big development took place between 2005 and 2014. Tjuvholmen today consists of 3 parts: Odden (the Headland), which is landlocked, Holmen (the Islet) and Skjæret (the Reef). The area consists of many apartment blocks, offices, a hotel, restaurants, shops, an art museum and several galleries. In total, we are talking about 950 apartments and 1,500 workplaces.

Some upgrading has taken place since the area consisted of warehouses and quays. When the last apartments were sold, it was almost a doubling of the price at Oslo’s otherwise most expensive area, Frogner: NOK 90,000 against NOK 56,000/m2.

And of course, the same thing has happened here as in Grilstad Marina outside Trondheim: After an excellent, public swimming area is built close to celeber apartment buildings – almost immediately the residents start complaining about noise and garbage, trying to forbid others from using the place. You haven’t bought an expensive apartment to hear other people make noise, have you?

On Tjuvholmen, it went so far that the residents hired security guards, who sent away about 2,000 people during the summer of 2019. In a letter to the municipality, complaints were made about ‘urinating’, ‘fighting with chains’, ‘sex on the lawn’, and the Tjuvholmers referred to the whole situation as an invasion. After this, signs were put up explaining where it is allowed to swim and where it is forbidden (just as at Grilstad, they refer to the bathers’ safety in order to introduce a bathing ban).

The beach at ‘Skjæret’. Swimming allowed!

And the bath itself?

A fabulous bath in the dark, water temperature 5-6 degrees Celsius. Fresh and salt water even though it is in the city center.

We dropped the chains and behaved quite well. No guards in sight.

After a swim at Tjuvholmen, some food is just right.

… and if you choose ‘The Thief’ restaurant, you probably understand that the price level reflects the apartment prices in the area. Maybe you even have to beg a little to cover the expenses?

Anyway, a bath at Tjuvholmen is always right!