We set off in two cars with Leif driving Bob and me and Siri taking Wendy and Thelma. Their house is a few kilometres south of the city and it took us about a quarter of an hour to reach the centre. The weather was overcast but fortunately dry. We called in to see the others at their hotel on the waterfront and Kenny and DeeAnne showed us their suite they had just moved into, at the top of the hotel. It was in an original wooden house and, within the roof beams, there was this large caged 'wheel' that was used to haul up goods manually from the quayside into the building. There were lots of jokes about how DeeAnne would put Kenny inside it, as a punishment for the route he had taken yesterday!
We all walked along the harbourfront towards the old town, Gamle Stavanger. As I looked down into the water, I saw this large jellyfish swimming slowly along.
The harbour with yet another enormous cruise liner.
The white wooden houses, with their wonderful small gardens, reminiscent of the garden exhibits of Chelsea Flower Show, are magnificent. The houses, gardens and narrow streets make for a perfect photo scene. Here are a few that we took.
Wendy and DeeAnne.
Bob and Kenny.
Some of the lovely pots of flowers.
The 'Chelsea Flower Show' in Stavanger!
These two silver stag candelabra caught my eye.
There was this statue of an elderly man and two small ponies. He was a local man who became a celebrity by collecting waste food and feeding it to animals and giving rides to children on his ponies.
Next, we went to Stavanger's 12th century cathedral.
Beautiful stained glass windows behind the altar.
The cathedral had this magnificent painting with very intricate wooden carvings surrounding it. I particularly liked this sleeping 'priest'.
Leif and Siri then took us to the Oil Museum, which gave a really interesting insight into the development of the Norwegian oil industry. Oil and gas was first discovered in the North Sea in the early sixties. Since then Norway has become a major oil producer and, unlike Britain which has spent its oil money, Norway has invested most of its oil revenue, resulting in Norway having one of the strongest economies in the world.
We had lunch at the museum and then Leif took us on a driving tour around the area outside Stavanger. Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and, because of the rain, I couldn't take any photos from the car. We went through some of the large oil supply depots, where thousands of enormous pipes were being stored ready to be taken out to the oil fields. We saw a couple of large supply ships that go between Stavanger and the oil rigs. On our way back to the house, we were shown Bronze Age carvings, made between 1800-500BC, in rocks near Sola. We also saw the site where a united Norway was founded, overseen by Erling Skjalgsson, a political leader in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.
In the evening, we met the others at Allegro, an Italian restaurant in the centre of the city. We had a wonderful meal to end the day.
Tomorrow we leave Stavanger, but not Leif and Siri, because we are all driving to their summer house to spend the afternoon fishing for mackerel. Their house is at the very southern tip of Norway, about three hours from Stavanger. It is not far from our overnight stop at Kristiansand, from where we will catch the ferry to Denmark. Our stay in Norway is nearly over, after two weeks of travelling in this wonderful country.
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