Across the Border (and back)
The new Svinesund bridge, shot from the old.
This one was opened 10th June 2005 and is (with the four lane motorway it supports) now Norway's main road connection to the continent.
Sweden on the left in this picture, Norway on the right. The distant background is the island Kirköy, in the Hvaler archipelago.
Sweden on the left is the northern edge of the county Bohuslän, which is an amazing Swedish coastal landscape of islets, sound and small islands, that extends to Gothenburg about 160 kilometers further south as the crow flies (according to Google Earth). That county was part of Norway until one war (of many disastrous wars) while in a union with Denmark, led to the peace agreement in Roskilde in March 1658 (February according to the Julian calender), where Norway lost Bohuslän to Sweden. This loss included the large island Hisingen directly north of Gothenburg, and in the Norwegian royal saga (Heimskringla) is a story about how the Swedish and the Norwegian kings (around 1010-1020 some time) during border negotiations played dice about Hisingen. The Swedish king threw his first, and got two six'es, and pointed out to his Norwegian opponent that it was no point in him trying, since he would lose anyway. The Norwegian king answered that if God wants me to win this I'll win, did throw his dice, got one six, the other one split in two and the parts did show three and four.
So Norway got Hisingen, for as long as it lasted (about 650 years).
Across the Border (and back)
The new Svinesund bridge, shot from the old.
This one was opened 10th June 2005 and is (with the four lane motorway it supports) now Norway's main road connection to the continent.
Sweden on the left in this picture, Norway on the right. The distant background is the island Kirköy, in the Hvaler archipelago.
Sweden on the left is the northern edge of the county Bohuslän, which is an amazing Swedish coastal landscape of islets, sound and small islands, that extends to Gothenburg about 160 kilometers further south as the crow flies (according to Google Earth). That county was part of Norway until one war (of many disastrous wars) while in a union with Denmark, led to the peace agreement in Roskilde in March 1658 (February according to the Julian calender), where Norway lost Bohuslän to Sweden. This loss included the large island Hisingen directly north of Gothenburg, and in the Norwegian royal saga (Heimskringla) is a story about how the Swedish and the Norwegian kings (around 1010-1020 some time) during border negotiations played dice about Hisingen. The Swedish king threw his first, and got two six'es, and pointed out to his Norwegian opponent that it was no point in him trying, since he would lose anyway. The Norwegian king answered that if God wants me to win this I'll win, did throw his dice, got one six, the other one split in two and the parts did show three and four.
So Norway got Hisingen, for as long as it lasted (about 650 years).