Stavanger; Saturday, 31 May, 2025

As my train wasn’t due to depart until lunchtime I had a bit of time after a lie in and a late breakfast to go for a short wander around the area near the hotel. According to google maps the Valberg Tower was supposed to be open from 11am to visit inside so I thought I’d aim to end up there.

After a bit of wandering I made my way to the top of the Valberg only to find the tower totally closed up and no real sign that it opens at all – not that that didn’t stop at least three other people, clearly misled by Google, trying the handle in the few minutes I was there.

However, what I did find up at the Valberg was probably more interesting. I’d assumed the entrances to the car park were just that, but then I saw a little yellow and black sign above the doorways – Tilfluktsrom, which means that the space had originally been built, and is still capable of being used, as a shelter – which became very aparant as soon as you head down the passageway and see the very thick blast proof doors that totally close off the entrance, plus the wide stairways designed to get a lot of people in and down quickly.

I had a bit of a wander around the site – which is painted in a very tasteful electric lime colour – can’t think that would work too well on day 24 of confinement to the bunker – before reaching the bottom and exiting out right behind my hotel.

From there it was a short walk around the building to the entrance and back up to my room to pack my bag for the penultimate time, checkout of the hotel and head over to the station to catch the train from Stavanger down and round the coast to Kristiansand.

Despite leaving on time the train slowly started to fall behind schedule and pretty early on we had to wait to let the train going in the opposite direction pass out of sequence to let that keep to time.

Perhaps the highlight of the journey was the stunning journey past the Drangsdalen and the Hovsvatnet a large lake with very steep mountainous sides that the train, very slowly, wound it’s way around the edge at no more than 20 miles an hour, allowing for some stunning views, when it wasn’t in tunnels, but not helping with the timekeeping.

The end of the section around the Hovsvatnet also marked the boundary between Rogaland that I’d been in since Haugesund and the arrival into the Agder, home to my final destination, Kristiansand.