Kragerø Things to Do

Our national composer Rikard Nordraak and the national poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson made the song "Ja vi elsker dette landet" (Yes, we love this country), which was later made the national hymn of Norway. They were cousins, their grandparents lived in Kragerø. This memorial plate is placed in i small park where the Nordraak house was, and where Rikard Nordraaks father and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons mother were born.

The people of Kragerø have been fighting to preserve this tiny park park. 17 may, the constitutional day of Norway, the "Russ" (highschool graduates) demonstrated to protect the park, link below.

The building looks ugly, but the sign is cute; It says "Biograf". A rather oldfashion word, the word "Kino" is more commonly used. They normally show two movies each day except saturdays, and the program is quite up to date.

The cinema is used for concerts and other performances as well.

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A small and rather sleepy town most of the year, but crowded and buzzing in the summer.
Narrow streets with wooden houses in red, white and yellow. The harbour is packed with small boats and sailboats. Kragerø has lots of different cafes, restaurants, bars and a few clubs, in addition to shops. There are several art museums and a saltwater-pool. Find a place by the harbour and do some serious people-watching!

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Risør is yet a small idyllic town on the South coast of Norway. The city is characterized by its small white wooden houses and red roses clinging to the walls. The port is always buzzing with boats struggling to get a space in the very crowded harbour. You can get there by car, but it's faster to get there by boat. There's a ferry that takes about 30 minutes from Øysang. The ferry is the oldest of its kind (it's in wood) in Norway, has plenty of room for passengers, but can only fit two cars. Risør has different art exhibits, a stone museum, a small aquarium, several cafes, shops and restaurants.

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Getting there by ferry/own boat/taxiboat you can spend a whole day exploring the beautiful island of Jomfruland. It's a long (About 6-7 KM) but narrow island. The nature is in unique and it looks more like the forests of Denmark than Norway with beech and oak trees, silky white sandy beaches and grassy fields. There are bikes for rental (great for exploring the island). There is one main road (dirt road) that leads from one end of the island to the other. There are several attractions on the small island, such as a lighthouse you can visit, bird watch, beaches. There are a few cafes and a foodstore as well.

There is a small boat/ferry that leaves three times a day from Kragerø town and takes you out to Jomfruland. The trip takes about 30 minutes and the price is about 40 NOK each way. It's a quite new boat where you can sit on the decks on top of the boat and enjoy the view, or buy icecream, candy or waffles in the small cafe inside. It's an excellent way to see the fjord of Kragerø. The same ferry leaves from Jomfruland three times a day. It is possible to get there by taxiboat but it's very expensive, so stick to the ferry.

The lower part of the abandoned railroad track is physically removed. But at Støa camping you can rent trolleys to cycle a stretch of 13 km up to Merkebekk. Rumours has it that there will be a trolley rental service at Neslandsvatn too. The link is to a norwegian site with a couple of nice pictures.

Lutheran (state) church, the main church in Kragerø.

The church built of brick in neogothic style, in 1870. Some of the furnishing is from the old, wooden church from 1652, pictures on this site: http://www.kragerokirkene.no/kragero/mer/NyKirke.htm