Lohses in Stavanger: Vision of the Seas

In less than 2 weeks, we will be getting on the Vision of the Seas for a wonderful cruise. We LOVE cruises. I could happily spend the rest of my life on a cruise ship. When I was at Bible Study on Thursday (first one after summer break) one of the "ice breaker" questions was "Where can we find you when you are not doing housework or with the kids?". That was very easy for me. I'm either traveling or in front of the computer planning my next trip.

Since our next trip is the cruise on the VOS (Vision of the Seas) I started researching and planning that a while ago. The best place for me to research a cruise is on Cruise Critic. We always join the roll call so we can "meet" some of the people on the trip before we leave. We talk about tours, which rooms to pick, find people to eat dinner with, plan sail away parties ... it's just a blast. Absolute first place I go before I even actually book a cruise.

During the roll call for our cruise, I have found that there are several people that are spending almost a month on this ship. They are doing several Scandinavian tours, then the TransAtlantic and then the Panama Canal. And it just so happened, our ship is in Stavanger today! I met a couple on Cruise Critic that was asking me about what to do in Stavanger, so I suggested they do the fjord cruise (starts at noon and lasts 2 1/2 - 3 hours) and then we would meet them and walk around town with them. So, after church today we headed down to the harbor.

Ron was head usher so we didn't get out until almost 13.00 so we took our lunch down and had a picnic sitting next to the water. We saw one of the tour boats heading out (it was 13.30) so if this is the one they went on, we're going to be waiting a while.

I just love looking at all the boats.

After lunch we decided to walk through town to find a shop that we can "sometimes" find just in case A&J want to go shopping.

I just love all the hanging flowers. And there is my hubby walking ahead of me. Guess he wasn't scared that a friend said I looked very frisky in church this morning. :)

We found the shop and then headed down to the harbor to see MY ship! We actually have already cruised on her twice.

So we just wander around. Because we are VERY early still.

You know, I've lived here almost 2 years and I never noticed the feet that are part of the walkways. All from Nobel Prize Winners. I did not see Obama's though.

And, I did not know that Stavanger has a Hop On Hop Off bus! Shame on me! In case you are wondering, it is 150 NOK and only runs when cruise ships are in port. 10 stops.

Here we are trying to find our cabin. We are on the back of the ship so it is there! I can't wait to be standing on our deck!

And here come the boat they should be on!

But they are not there! Instead we meet "Little Flower", Bernie and Irene. They said that it was a HUGE mess this morning. The boats were all oversold and they couldn't get on any of them. :( So, we never had a chance to meet "usetobemoss" but headed around with Irene and Bernie who will still be on board when we arrive and another couple from their ship Camilla & Kurre from Visby, Sweden. We headed over to Gamle Stavanger (old town) and wandered around for a bit chatting.

Here is Irene.