Stavanger, blagging and lots more traipsing July 29th 2019

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Cruise day 15

Stavanger, blagging and lots more traipsing July 29th 2019

Today was our final stop off of the cruise as we visited one of the most expensive cities in the world, Stavanger. First mission was to walk to a huge monument which has three 10 metre swords symbolising the unification of Norway. The temperature was hot, very hot, but I had a silly hat on and it took us just over an hour of walking to get there. There were some HUGE houses on the way, most of wooden construction somewhat reminiscent of San Francisco.

The monument was impressive, the cost of the bus back not so. Just over a 10 minute ride for over £5.50 each.

Then I had a very small tub of frozen yohgurt which said it was just under £2....until I found out it was £2 per something in weight....so it was £4.50 or so...luckily we’d both tried some when I was pouring it so that probably saved us about 50p. When you’re balancing your last few krona, shocks like this can be unnerving!

We then wandered to a street of brightly coloured shops and houses which were great but the street was very short. At the end of it Claire was taking some pictures and walking towards me while I was watching some scummy looking local sat behind her. He was popping a cork on some booze and turned to point it at Claire. I glared at him and shook my head and he turned it the other way, sending it across the street instead.

Next stop was the Viking House and the VR experience where you put on goggles and headphones and sit in a viking ship. There is a short film where you get immersed in the story of a Norwegian king but it is quite short and not very informative. There was a big clatter during the film and I presumed Claire had dropped something or it was a fault in the film. It turned out that the guy had knocked over his sword and was very apologetic for scaring us. The experience was expensive and I probably wouldn’t do it again but the people were nice and we got to use the toilet.

We then wandered up into old Stavanger which consists of cobbled streets and whitewashed houses. I was wondering what would happen if you wanted your house a different colour.... It was very picturesque and photogenic if you could get the bleeding tourists out of the way. Damned things are everywhere! Mind you there were two other cruise ships there that made ours look like a babe in arms. They were enormous and definitely wouldn’t have fitted in some of the places ours has been. Losers.

In the toilet at the Viking House, Claire had seen that we could get into the archaeological museum for free with our ticket from there. She checked on the website to confirm. The museum was across the other side of town so more walking in the heat ensued.

The lady on reception hadn’t heard of this offer but said we could come in for free anyway, especially as there was only an hour left to closing. (It should have been £10 each). After nipping downstairs to the toilet and to go in a time machine (as you do) the lady upstairs asked us where we had seen the offer as she couldn’t find it on the website. And then neither could Claire. But the lady let us in anyway. We might try this in other countries....

The museum was a lot smaller than the Potteries Museum, which is free and I’m very glad we hadn’t paid. Some of it was interesting but I highly recommend you don’t pay to get in although I’m not sure the ‘I saw the offer in a toilet’ idea will work, even if it is true!

During the day we managed to get a free drink and do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Yes the Pepsi Max challenge was in town! I easily tasted the difference and chose Pepsi Max as the best in a blind taste test against Coca Cola and we got a can of lime Pepsi Max as a reward. Result.

We took a slow walk back to the ship and had a few spots of rain fall which meant the sail away party had to be moved indoors. After showering the rain stopped and we sat outside as alcoholic drinks were given out. I asked for a non-alcoholic one but was told no. Thankfully Clive sorted me one out as I was getting a bit annoyed that they couldn’t make one simply without putting the booze in, thank you Clive! There can’t have been much booze in anyway as Claire had seven and still managed to walk to dinner!

We made another time lapse video at dinner with Andy and Mo before going to watch the sunset up on deck with Pat. We have darkness back at night now so you can tell we’re heading back to whatever normality is.

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Comments

[Grace]

LOVED THE PLACE
What a country! Amazing places. Everything looks so neat. I would like to go back sometime.

[Wadey1966]

:-)