July 9 - Stavanger, Norway

 The days are really getting longer now.  Tomorrow's sunrise is at 4:17 am and sunset is 10:59 pm.  Whoo boy, guess it's time to break out the sleep mask.  

We arrived to our dock in Stavanger around 11:00 am.  It's a lovely town (pop. around 125,000) and despite one other ship being here also, it didn't seem crowded and traffic was a breeze.

This ship has a capacity of 6,300 passengers and crew, but we didn't seem to be affected by them.

We are no longer under the special cleaning protocol and it was so good to see the dining rooms set up as usual this morning.


Our tour wasn't until 2:45 so we had a quiet morning.  Trivia was scheduled for this morning, but Jan and Tom were unable to find a table so we didn't even try to play.  Perhaps they have to move the game to the theatre.  

Our tour was a nice bus ride around town for a little bit and then through a tunnel to the other side of the nearby water.  This tunnel opened in 2018, is 11 miles long and goes down nearly 1,000 feet.  It's actually two tunnels and every so often there was a well-marked door that leads to the other tunnel in case there is a problem with one of them.  To ensure no speeding each car is photographed going in and out.  If you get out faster than the speed limit allows, you get a ticket in the mail, which is a pretty good system.

We stopped at a scenic overlook for a look back down the fjord.



Next stop was at a small town where we had delicious Norwegian waffles and coffee.  These waffles are closer to a crepe than a regular waffle and are served with delicious jam and "sour cream" which is more like thick whipped cream.  The house where we ate had a gorgeous rose garden where we wandered for a little bit before returning to Stavanger.



The last stop was at a monument with "three swords in a stone" that memorializes a long ago battle that took place nearby.


This station is for bike riders who need air or tools for repairs.

Stavanger, like all of Norway as is our experience, is a beautiful, clean place with beautiful scenery.  

Once back at the ship, we just had time to get cleaned up before heading down to dinner with Jan and Tom at Compass Rose.  Afterwards, I headed into the theatre to catch the last of the show by Oly Nez, who played Trivia with us yesterday.  He plays a mean sax and his fiancée, Holly, has a gorgeous singing voice.  

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 10, 2025 at 3:02 AM

    Beautiful country side. Was the jam a lingonberry? Love the Norwegian innovation of bike repair stations. Air looks clean, do they have smog problems? Min

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 1 - At Sea

Image
 Today was a lazy day at sea.  I went to a lecture by Michael Scott this morning on our next two ports, Liverpool and Belfast.  The weather is not warm enough to spend any time on the pool deck, so we just lounged around the cabin or Coffee Connection.  During breakfast down in Compass Rose we saw some dolphins jumping along in the ship's bow wake.  That's the first time we've seen anything other than sea birds. No sea life to be seen After lunch I went to see the movie "The Ballad of Wallis Island," which was filmed in northern Scotland.  It was sweet, but not a barn burner.  We decided to use up most of our shipboard credits and bought another of the Le Monde globes like we have, although this time in blue.  And Michael got a leather carry-on bag that turned out to be on sale, which left more money for me to buy some overpriced hair products at the salon.  Might as well since they aren't refundable. Trivia was another banner day with 14/15 ...
Read more

August 5 - Ringaskiddy (Cork), Republic of Ireland

Image
 Ringaskiddy is just across the water (the River Lee) from Cobh (pronounced "Cove") where we've been before.  Cobh is famous for being the last place from which the Titanic sailed before heading off for that iceberg. Cork is about a 30-minute drive from its port of Ringaskiddy, where we docked.  Our tour this morning consisted of a bit of a scenic drive around Cork first.  There are lots of pharmaceutical companies in this area, including Pfizer and Lilly, as well as the big tech companies like Apple and Google. We always see these cars in the Irish crime TV shows we watch on BritBox and Acorn. And here's the Garda (Police) station. The River Lee runs through Cork There are some lovely homes in this area. Next we drove up to Middleton to visit the distillery that makes Jameson Irish Whiskey, among others. This is a terrible picture taken from a moving bus.  Back in 1847, during the Irish potato famine, the Choctaw tribe in the US heard about the difficulties the...
Read more

August 2 - Liverpool, England

Image
 Our tour wasn't until this afternoon, so we had a leisurely morning on board.  We've been here a couple of times before and have seen the things that are closest to the port already.   The port area is modern in many respects The building in the forefront with the two towers is the Royal Liver Building (pronounced Lie-ver) which was built by the Royal Liver Assurance Group in 1911.  To the right are two more Edwardian buildings: the Cunard Headquarters and the Port of Liverpool Building. Together they are known as the "Three Graces."  These are the Unity buildings.  The one on the left is a residential and the right is commercial.  I think the left one is just weird with the box plopped on top. Not sure what this is, but there were children playing inside on a swing. We drove a little through Liverpool on our way to our final destination. This looks like it was built to represent the bow of a ship.  Shipping was a big part of the economy of ...
Read more