Viking all the way around The Most Expensive City in the World

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The announcement on the tannoy said that Stavanger is the most expensive city in the world. I don’t know on what evidence they base this, but after a day there, I’m not going to argue!

I’d seen a photo of Sverd i Fjell (three swords) in the cruise brochure, but didn’t wants to pay £££s to see a statue, no matter how impressive. So we walked. Passing through some very impressive residential areas of sparkling white houses, each one a different design with porches, balconies and large gardens. The roads were tree lined with an abundance of lush parks and public areas, all with well maintained and colourful flowerbeds. Any graffiti seen was mostly street art rather than the scruffy scrawl of non-existent words you often get. Family groups cycled by, all sensibly wearing helmets and it all seemed quite idyllic. No sign of a cat though.

It was getting very hot and the temperature soared up to 25 degrees, which is a lot when you are walking for well over an hour, carrying a backpack. This pack contained a few necessary lenses and fruit stolen from the breakfast buffet. As previously mentioned, when you’ve paid a lot of cash for a cruise with all inclusive food, you really don’t want to be paying big money for lunch in a very expensive country. Previously I filled up with a big breakfast, but today Clive showed us how he sneaks bread rolls and other things into a plastic carrier bag to take out for lunch. He also recommended wearing loose shorts with big pockets. Unfortunately we learned this too late and had no bags or decent pockets, so could only swipe fruit as it has its own wrapping.

We followed a main road for a while, there were a few bikers out riding well polished machines, not all wearing helmets. There wasn’t a huge amount of traffic and crossing the road is easy as motorists appear not to mind stopping. Wide pedestrian routes and cycle lanes were adjacent to the road, we even traversed a pedestrian raised roundabout about a main road roundabout! On the surface, Stavanger appears to be a perfect place to live.

Upon arriving at Hafrsfjord, we met the tall Scottish bloke from the ship at a bus stop on his way back, he thought we were nuts for walking. The enormous three bronze swords were erected in the 80s and is a monument to the unification of Norway way back in Viking times (872). They are 10 metres high and are wedged upright into the rock at the coast by the beach. They are impressive and a great opportunity for photographers to get all arty farty.

Not long afterwards, a coach load of cruise ship passengers turned up and I had to be patient as each one set themselves the task of getting in my photos. Luckily they weren’t there for long, and I was left with a Spaniard who needed a photo of the monument with his bike propped against it. Two other passengers from the ship remained as they’d taken the bus and we returned to the bus stop with them. I’d convinced Glyn that this was a good idea as the walk back would be the same and a good chunk of our day. The 10 minute ride cost over £5.50 each, which was just about the last of our Norwegian money.

Back in town, we walked to Øvre Holmegate, a vibrant area where buildings were painted a rainbow of colours where tourists sat in the sun supping on drinks that cost a week’s wages (I presume!). This area was fairly small and not as good as online reviews suggest. I’ve not seen any homeless in Norway that I know of, I guess the long, cold winters would swiftly kill them off. However, in one park earlier, I did spot some folk that reminded me of those seen drinking and swearing on the streets of Stoke. Here in Øvre Holmegate, two very red faced men, unsure in their feet sat in a bench near me with a bottle of wine. They did not like the look of me and Glyn saw them planning to pop the wine cork directly at me, so he shook his head at them. They chose not to mess with Glyn and I was spared a cork in the face. So not as idyllic as first thought.

We came across a stand doing the Pepsi Challenge, where participation won you a free can of Pepsi Max. We did this to get a free drink as even a small bottle of water cost nearly £3. However, I’d kept my bottle and refilled it a few times at the water fountain by the harbour.

Clive passed us by and told us all about his morning boat ride he’d sorted independently, seeing Pulpit Rock. Unfortunately it was too late for us to do the same without risking missing the ship home, but we walked around the harbour anyway to see what else we could do. Thereupon we found Viking House, a new VR experience telling the (brief) story of a Harald Hårfagre (Fairheaded Harald) and how he went around battling his enemies to unify Norway. No one explained who these enemies are and why they opposed him. The young staff we all dressed as Vikings and being Norwegian, mostly looked the part. The lad that led us in to the fake ship seemed a bit uncomfortable when he explained that we would be wearing magic helmets that we must not sit on or the magic would be broken. The helmets were VR goggles and headphones. Electricity must seem like magic to Vikings.

The show was very impressive and moving my head, I could see all around me. One bit particularly made me jump, as a loud crash happened during a non battling part of the story. Glyn and I sat together and couldn’t see each other, so Glyn presumed I’d fallen off my seat. Turns out that the young lad had dropped his sword and apologised afterwards.

Old Stavanger town was nearby and uphill, so I climbed up the cobbled path to a very quaint area of small white houses and lots of brightly coloured flowers. The small alleys were mostly pedestrian only and often uneven enough that I wouldn’t like to ride a bike there. Due to three cruise ships in the harbour (one was the size of a city) there were more tourists milling about than is necessary.

Now when I was on the loo at the Viking Experience at the Viking House, a saw a poster that said admission included free entry to the Archaeology Museum. So we took the 20 minute walk there passing weird statues and more nice houses.

A lot of the houses here remind me of ones I’ve seen all over the USA, eg Milwaukee, Tacoma and San Francisco. The porches, steps leading to the doors and general design. I always thought this was a purely American thing, but as lots of Norwegians have emigrated to the USA in the past centuries, that explains the similarity.

At the museum, the desk lady hadn’t heard of this offer from Viking Experience, but let us in for free anyway as there was only an hour left. We started in the time machine, where we saw Viking women making bread.

The majority of the exhibition was about Vikings, and included female history as much as male which was refreshing to see. I never knew that parts of north USA were known to the Vikings as Vinland (or Winland depending on which display you are looking at) after they’d ticked off their extensive bucket list. It was interesting but I’m glad we hadn’t paid the entrance fee, despite the impressive ancient polar bear skeleton.

A slow walk took us through a residential area (where I saw my only cat of the day, spread out on a porch) to the Spar shop where Glyn bought a frozen yoghurt thinking it was £1.90 but it turned out they weighed it and it actually cost £4. But we beat them, because we’d both had a taste before paying! We only did his to see if I would like it and despite not liking it, I feel smug for getting that mouthful for free!

The ship set off at 6pm with a bit of light rain that soon burnt away with hot sun. A party was thrown in the lido lounge with free rum punches. I managed to get a few seeing as how the drinks prices are so expensive on board. I drank Glyn’s and when other passengers joined us, I got more, so I did well. Glyn was disappointed at first when told there was no non-alcoholic punch available, but Clive quickly sorted that out and Glyn got two.

We had dinner with Andy and Mo, the time spent posing for another dining timelapse. Then we went to the gallery where all the entrants of photo competition were on display. We voted, and no, I did not vote for my own! I might have voted for Glyn’s though....

We spent the rest of the evening on our favourite sticky out bit, me with a glass of wine and Glyn with me, the lucky bugger. Pat joined us to regale us with tales of grumpy passengers he’d annoyed. A perfect end to a fun day!

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Photos

Sverd i Fjell
Hafrsfjord, Norway