Stavanger, Norway 2018

Stavanger is an oil town.  Most of what goes on there is about serving Norway's oil fields in the North Sea. Norway used to be about fish - dried cod, mostly.  Now it's about oil.

It's an old town ringed by new development.

Stavanger Harbor

 A stroll around town

More vested school children.  

Modern Stavanger

Old part of town

Wall art.  Probably a raven.  They were a big deal to Vikings.

A not-too-hard-to-figure-out bike rack

Our walking tour.  The large guy who looks like a Viking, is a German.

Old church

There are three basic paint colors based on inorganic pigments.  Red - iron oxide, the cheapest.  Yellow - ochre, more expensive.  White - zinc, the most expensive.  House color conveyed status. 

Oil.  It was on the last test bore of the last area to be tested that the oil came in over 40 years ago.  Now, Stavanger serves the ships that serve the oil rigs and wells.

A really nicely done and informative oil museum.

Stavanger miscellaneous

Stunk and White never said, "Omit needless penstokes!"

I found it!

Most ancient and infamous of ships.  The MV Astoria started life in 1948 as the Stockholm, one of the smallest of the trans-Atlantic passenger ships.  In 1956, it struck and sunk the Andrea Dorea. Now it sails as a cruise ship, 70 years later.  It followed us up to Bergen.

Getting out of town.  That low pressure system that bounced us around getting to Stavanger was still lurking around as we left the harbor.

Nice whitecaps while still in the sheltered part of the sea.

Our ship got permission to use an inside passage to get to Eidfjord.  The captain said it is rarely granted to ships of this size.  We were close the shore quite often.

Headed under that bridge.

Under the bridge (pardon the interior light reflection. I was too lazy to get up from dinner and go outside)

The next morning .we woke up to Eidfjord.