Halden is the city where our friends the Pettersson’s live. Between 1665 and 1928 Halden was know as Frederikshald.
Halden is a border town located at the mouth of Tista River and it is the southernmost border crossing between Norway and Sweden. The town of Halden is located about 120 km south of Oslo, the capital and 12 km east of the border with Sweden. During our stay we crossed the border to Sweden and went fishing at Strömstad.
Halden, became the city of Frederikshald in 1665, named after Frederick III of Denmark. In 1718, the Great Northern War ended when Karl XII was shot and killed at the Fredriksten fortress which we visited. Halden has never been captured by force by any invading army, although it was occupied by Nazi forces in WWII. The Swedes unsuccessfully attempted to invade the town six times between 1658 and 1814.
Our friend Sixten works for the Norske Skog Saugbrugs paper mill which we also visited. The polluted fjords and rivers of Halden due to the earlier operation of the Mill have been cleaned up and the city was dubbed Norway's Environment City in 1996. One of Norway's two nuclear reactors is located in Halden.
Strömstad is situated in the seat Strömstad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 6,288 inhabitants in 2010.
Originally, the province Bohuslän, where Strömstad is situated, was Norwegian territory, which was transferred to Sweden according to the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658.
As the Norwegian alcohol taxes are higher than the Swedish ones, Norwegian shoppers floc to Strömstad and in the past when only one shop existed, the Systembolaget shop had the highest sales in Sweden, causing traffic congestion near the shop in the inner city.
The city is known for its harbour, which can be very crowded in the summer. We drove from Halden and crossed to Sweden over the Svinesund, a channel separating the Swedish municipality of Strömstad in Västra Götaland from Halden.
We spent the day on the beach. For us was cold as anything but for the locals a great summer day. We finished the day in Strömstad where we had dinner.
