Sara and Robyn say “hallo”

July 6: Stavanger

Today we left Chris and Tone’s summer house and moved to their apartment near the centre of Stavanger. Their apartment also has views of the water but not as breathtaking as the summer house (however, closer to all the shops and restaurants of Stavanger itself).

The apartments are dog friendly and we met a very cute chow chow dog.

Stavanger feels like a cross between Oslo and Bergen. It has a similar waterfront to Bergen but has integrated its modernity very well. It also has a level of infrastructure like roads, bridges, EV charging stations (not to mention dedicated bridges for bike riders) which seems disproportionate to its 120,000 CBD population.

Although it was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, the city was badly damaged by fires. So in the old part of Stavanger, most buildings date from 1820-1870.

If you look behind Tone and I, you can see a huge cruise boat. The boat detracts from the beauty and character of the harbour and many people want the cruise terminal moved further down the fjord.

This is the historic waterfront of Stavanger. Merchants built storage wharves directly onto the waterfront with their homes and terraced gardens directly behind. If you look closely, you can see a protusion from the top of each wharf. This contained a winch and the boats would be winched up from the water.

Much better looking trolls than at Chris and Tone’s summer house.

Here is the street of many colours. Amongst the cobblestones along the street are the names of every Norwegian Jew who was captured and removed to a concentration camp.

And, Dina, don’t you just love this sign for the hairdressing salon?

After lunch, Chris took us on a tour around Stavanger. We travelled through a 6km underwater tunnel which was built along the bottom of the sea and crosses the fjord to an island called Mosteroy. This is the site of Norway’s only remaining medieval monastery.

Utstein Abbey is mentioned in historical records going back to the 9th century when it was cited as King Harald Fairhair’s garrison after the Battle of Hafrsfjord (more on this later). Construction of the abbey started in about 1260.

It was refurbished in 1750 when the bailiff of the area, Christopher Garmann, moved there. The story goes that Christopher Garmann promised his wife Cecile – when she was on her deathbed – that he would never remarry. After 20 years, he broke this promise and was to marry Helene, but he collapsed at the altar and died 8 days later. Cecile apparently appeared before him at the wedding and is said to still wander listlessly around the monastery in her white gown. When Tone had her events business, she used this story to run murder-mystery events at the monastery.

Next we went to the three swords, a monument erected in 1983 to commemorate the Battle of Hafrsfjord which took place in 872 AD. This battle is considered an integral event in Norwegian history and played an essential role in unifying the country under Harald Fairhair, who became the first King of Norway. The middle sword is 9 metres tall and represents the victorious King Harald Fairhair.

Tonight we went out for a lovely dinner in town, to say ”ha det” (goodbye) to Robyn who is flying on to Italy.

As we walked to the car park to collect the car, Chris pointed out that the car park also served as a bomb shelter (in fact all the underground carparks are built with this facility). Yet another example of the city’s excellent infrastructure!