Day 4 – September 18 – Stavanger
After a cloudy trip back down the fjord, we arrived in Stavanger around 8 am. We had breakfast and did some laundry, since our tour activity was in the afternoon. We set out on our own in the morning and went to the Stavanger Torget open air shopping district and got a hand knitted coat for Little Dog.
We then went to the 12th century Cathedral, which is very interesting, while not similar to cathedrals elsewhere in Europe. The Reformation removed gold, etc so, except for a remarkable pulpit, it was very plain, but still beautiful. It was designed by an Englishman from Winchester, and might be quite similar to that cathedral in the 12th century.
After that, we set out for the Archaeology Museum. We first stopped at a shop in a tunnel under a roundabout to get a present for Cyrus’s 14th birthday, and were led to the museum by fellow shopper who happened to be going there. The main part of the museum was unfortunately closed, but we did see some interesting exhibits. We then hurried back to the ship for lunch and then started a Viking walking tour of Stavanger.
Our guide was very informative and walked us through Gamie Stavanger (Old Stavanger). It is full of historic wooden buildings and is where the herring and sardines were canned in the 19th century before each of those species decided to go elsewhere.
After a lovely walk and much information, we were taken to the Oil Museum. Stavanger is the Oil capital of Norway. Norway is the only western oil country who has done sensible things with their money. There is now a sovereign fund worth over a trillion dollars which is there for when the oil runs out. Only a small percentage of it goes to the national budget. There was a park for kids to crawl around on all sorts of old oil equipment.
We then walked back to the ship for a relaxing evening. We went to “office hours” with the Resident Historian, Jeremy Patterson, and enjoyed the discussions for a while and then went a lovely dinner at the Chef’s Table again. Getting around the ship while in open ocean can be a bit interesting, especially on one of the top decks!
