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| Halden Harbour |
A week later, we arrive in Halden from Oslo, the capital. The trip didn't actually take so long, we just wanted to enjoy what is probably our last proper stop in Norway.
So far we have walked over 637 miles in Norway, visiting 7 cities between Bergen and Halden, and covering the entire southcoast of Norway on foot.
Halden was what made us curious about Norway in the first place, because of a very thought provoking documentary called "Breaking the Cycle"
Excerpt
Watch the full documentary on Netflix (used to be free on youtube though)
We will try to find more about the prison later, for now we are checking out the more visually intriguing places in the city, having had just arrived.
Interesting Facts:
- The Fesivals in Halden include Tons of Rock (Hardrock and Metal) in June and Vegetarian Food Festival in August.
- The pub "Siste Reis" near the train station has been voted among the top 10 best in Europe.
Halden has an interesting history in Norway, in the late 1960's the most powerful mainframe computer in Norway was here. - The city has the title, "Halden, IT and Environment city", due to the large amount of Information Technology companies, and... - From the 1960's the city was infamous for high levels of pollution, mostly from a paper mill called Saugbrugs, which emitted sulfur oxide (among other wastes) into a river (Tista) which drains into the local Idefjord. The pollution from the waste made the fjord biologically dead,
After hundreds of thousands NOK's (Norwegian Crown/krone) of investiments by the city and the company, by 1995 the emissions had been reduced enough to reestablish basic life in the Fjord.
IF: The mill produces the "Supercalender" (Magazine) paper, recognized worldwide as the reflective paper used in magazines.
- In 1996, the city was dubbed Norway's Environment city.
Another interesting find is that one of the 2 nuclear reactors in Norway is here in Halden, the "Halden Boiling Water Reactor", and it's adjacent to the Saugbrugs papermill, and also supplies it with steam.
Norway has currently no interest in nuclear power, and the reactor is actually a 'research reactor', only functioning 50% of the time. In addition, it's also an experimental facilly, holding many research projects; the most interesting one to us was the "Halden Virtual Reality Centre (HVRC)". Most of the power in the country comes from Hydro-plants.
Interesting Fact: Opera Software, creators of the Opera Browser, Nintendo DS Browser, and more, is a Norwegian company founded by an Icelandic (Jon Stephenson Von Tetzchen). The current CEO was born in Halden (Hakon Wium Lie), and is Known for having developed the CSS (Cascading Syle Sheets) programming language.
Bands from Halden Include: Motorpyscho, Madrugada (it means 'dawn' in Portuguese, Metalefs is from Brazil), Morten Harket and Kurt Nilsen.
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| Charles XII memorial in Fredriksten fortress |
The fortress is called Frediksten, after King Fredrik III of Denmark and Norway.
IF: Halden was also originally named after him(King Fredrik III), being known as Fredrikshald between 1665 and 1928.
Charles XII was the king of Sweden, and impressively led 6 assaults on the fortress. It was after 3 attacks that Fredrik saw the importance of a fortified fortress, so improvements were made and caught the sweds by surprise on the 4th attack. Halden was probably the most important border defence, protecting against Swede domination and giving the best view to the borders.
He was a skilled millitary leader, tactician and politician. The monument we saw earlier was where he was shot and died trying to conquer Norway via the fortress.
IF:
- Swedish Power Metal band Sabaton, has an album and song named Carolus Rex (latinization of his name)
- Charles never married and had no children, he was succeded by his sister Ulrika Eleonara.
- Charles and Fredrik of Denmark-Norway were cousins.
After 1905 the fortress lost all military significance, as of today it hosts the defence logistics and an administration college. There also are several museums and art exhibitions here, and outdoor concerts during the summer.
It is Halden's most popular attraction and Norway's largest most important and venerable border fortress.
read more: the-history-of-fredriksten-fortress
We could see the war unveil before our eyes after each museum we visited in the fortress. We went to: War museum; with military artefacts and information on Halden's experiences of war from 1660 onwards, Byen Brenner ("City in Flames" *The Norwegean set fire to the city to prevent it from being captured) and many other buildings.
Well, as we imagined, we couldn't learn much more in person about the High Security Prison. When we asked for it, they gave a demonstration of their Induction Process.
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