Fjord cruise with dinner on a TALL ship.

Every year the tall ships (A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques). There is a tall ship race every year and often they come through Stavanger.  It seems like we are never here though when that happens.  So I was very excited when we received an email that one of the tall ships were going to be doing 3 dinner cruises this summer.  And even more excited when I realized that we would actually be here for one of them!  So, in honor of my mom's birthday yesterday, we went on a dinner cruise.  Sorry you couldn't have joined us, Mom!

There were 10 of us from NATO that went and we were very lucky that by the time we had arrived, Gordon and Ann had saved us a table for 10 on the deck so we did not have to sit below.  It was a wonderful evening!!

Here we are waiting to get on the ship.

On the deck.

Our table of 10 (well, 9 since I'm taking the picture)  :)

And we are on our way!

It promised all you can eat of prawns and herring.  I really thought there would be other things to go with it (or at least the heads and legs would already be gone!) but the only things extra were bread and butter.  My mom would have gone hungry!  Oh wait ... they had lemons too!  Not sure if I should mention this but there were TONS of eggs inside these prawns!  Kind of gross (IMHO)

Look at all the different ways they can do herring!

My baby!

Ohhhh ... a little baby prawn.  I'm guessing no eggs with this one but not sure it's worth the effort to take off the head, legs, and shell.

There was even live music!

Steering the ship.  I want to do that!

Norwegian flag.

BEAUTIFUL day and beautiful views!

We talked them into letting me steer.  Watch out people!

Then of course I had to have all the other women at our table have a go at it! Way to go Ann!

Paula's turn!

I think they got scared after Adrienn had a try and wanted to reroute the ship.  :)

Nice, nice views.

I was trying to take a picture of Ron and this DRUNK guy jumped in the picture.

And then he came up and gave this pose.  Ron said he wanted a kiss .... I said he wanted me to take a picture of his gold tooth.

He's going to walk the gangplank.  Drunk guy was there too but we pushed him overboard.  JK

 Fish farm

Funny, true story.  There is a bell there, right behind the wheel.  The guy kept ringing it here and there either once or twice.  I gathered my courage and practiced what I would say in Norwegian to him (knowing he more than likely speaks English but I wanted to practice since I've been gone for a while).  I went up and gave my speech that I had practiced and he looks at me and says in English "I'm Danish not Norwegian and don't understand what you said".  Sheesh!  I asked him if I had a mouthful of potatoes and repeated it would it help and he smiled and said maybe.  Anyway ... ringing the bell means there is something in the water ahead.  One ring it's ahead, two it's on the right (or left) and three times it's either the left (or right) .... of course he used words like port and starboard instead of left or right.  LOL

Check out the moon!  And it's light out.  Only 21.00!  (Or 9 p.m.)

Something REALLY strange happened on the boat.  I wore a brand new coat that I had shipped here from Kohl's.  The coat was from Apt. 9 and it still had the plastic on it when we got ready to leave.  I dressed in lots of layers and didn't need my coat so it stayed on the back of my chair almost the whole night.  When we were close to pulling into the harbor, I put my coat on and put my hand in my pocket and there was a golf ball!  Why in the world would a coat from Kohl's have a golf ball in the pocket?!?!?!  So I asked around if anyone in our group played Golf and Andy did so I gave him the golf ball.  And then he shows me that it is a range ball advertising Kvadrat (the Stavanger Mall).  Maybe drunk guy put it in my pocket. I told him if it's a door prize and whoever has the ball wins a million dollars then we can split it, but if he goes to jail because they think it was stolen from the range, then he is on his own.

Back home and how depressing.  It's 22.00 and it's dark already.  We had a FUN night!

I'm Back! With pictures of a friend running the Stavanger Marathon.

I have not forgotten about my blog but I’ve been busy!  Our third grandchild arrived on July 30^th, so I was back in the US for about 6 weeks for the birth.  It was very exciting and for the first time I actually got to witness the arrival of one of our darling grandbabies.  And we FINALLY got a girl in this family!  I’ll post some pictures of the grandkids later for anyone that is interested.

This morning Rob Jurriansen, one of Ron's colleagues, was running in the Stavanger Marathon preparing himself to run in the New York Marathon on 4 Nov 2012.  He is a cancer survivor and is running to raise money for KiKa, a non-profit organization that is raising money for children with cancer.  Their website, if you are interested is Run for Kika New York and his blog is KiKa Rob Jurriansen.

The marathon’s halfway point was close to our house, so we told him we would be out with some Gatorade and bananas.  It was fun to be out there – not only to support him, but to cheer on and offer energy support to others that came along!

And here he comes!  Number 60.

Getting some refreshment.

Some more runners.  After Rob had what he wanted we handed the rest out to other people that may have needed some refreshments.

Ron passing out food, drinks and words of encouragement.

Since Rob is Dutch, I wore my Nederland T-shirt.

GO ROB!!!!!

We heard from Rob after the marathon.  He said that he ran almost 30 minutes faster than last year and finished in 3h40m; a post-surgery record. WAY TO GO!!!!

We actually had a lot of fun!  And, we probably will hand out food next year if it comes by again even if Rob is not running.  Fun morning.

Driving from Stavanger to Bergen

 Day 8, Saturday April 25^th – Bergen

We had a LOT of trouble finding something that was open and available in Bergen.  Our first choice was: Skuteviken Guesthouse   which had apartments with kitchens for 900 NOK’s per night.  Unfortunately we were not able to get a room there, but the owners really tried to help.  They gave us several other places to check but they were already booked as well. 

We ended up booking at Hotel Park for 1040 NOK’s per night.

Harald Hårfagresgt. 35
N-5007 Bergen
Telefon+47 55 54 44 00
Fax +47 55 54 44 44
E-post booking@hotelpark.no

179 km/04h07

Shortly after leaving Stavanger we hit our first tunnel.  This tunnel is the 5.8 km long Byfjord tunnel.  What is amazing about this tunnel is not how long it is but how deep it goes under the water.  Once we entered the tunnel, the road drops down at a very steep angle and it seemed like we were going down, down, down.  Our ears started popping and soon were at 223 meters (almost 732 feet) below sea level - I believe this is the second-deepest road tunnel in the world (but no worries .... we'll go through THE deepest road tunnel today as well!).  It was actually a relief to begin the steep drive back up the tunnel, and to emerge back to the bright sunlight on the island of Sokn.

On this trip I thought we might stop at the Utstein Kloster but we decided against it.  This was a huge mistake.  We have gone since then, and I will be taking our future visitors here as well.  It is on the western tip of Mosterøy island and it is one of Norway's finest medieval monuments.  This was one of the royal estates of King Harold Fairhair.  King Harold Fairhair was the first king to claim sovereignty over all of Norway. Utstein was also the residence for King Magnus Lawmender around the year 1200, and it was later donated to the monks at the St. Olav monastery in Stavanger. They established an Augustinian monastery and carried on with the construction. From the middle of the 18th century, Utstein evolved into a Danish style country manor.  Today Utstein Kloster has opened its doors to everyone and classical classical as well as jazz concerts are often held in the chapel. The concerts are performed by top musicians from all over the world.

Here is my link to all of our pictures there Utstein Kloster and the link to the Utstein Kloster website.

   

To get to Bergen we need to take 2 ferries.  Website is Ferry website .

First ferry is Mortavika – Arsvagen.  Ferry seems to run every ½ hour.  I don't remember exactly how much this ferry cost, but I think it was around 80NOK.

After taking this ferry we went through (what we understand to be) the deepest road tunnel in the world.  This tunnel is 8 km long and it drops to 260 meters (over 853 feet).  Needless to say, our ears were popping just as much on this tunnel and we were very happy to when we started climbing out of it.  

We decided to take a detour to the Langfassen waterfall in Fjæra.  This is called one of the more beautiful cascade waterfalls in the world.  With a width of 250 feet, the river spills over the side of a mountain slope for a length of 2000 feet before it joins the waters of the Åkra Fjord.  This is such an awe inspiring sight!  I really recommend that if you have a chance, you stop to see it.

And here is the link to all of our Facebook pictures for this waterfall  Langfassen Waterfall

If you take this detour, then time changes to:

6h32/339 km

And you'll add these 2 tolls:

Hodnafjell: 12.00 NOK x 2 = 24NOK

Rullestad: 40.00 NOK x 2 = 80 NOK

_______________________

Then we have tolls:

Lilland: 12.00 NOK

Føyno: 85.00 NOK

And then another ferry that goes from  Sandvikvag – Halhjem (this one seems to run every ½ hour M-F and every 45 min on the weekends). This ferry ride is almost an hour long.

Then one more toll: Gamle Nygardsbro: 15.00 NOK

We had thought that we might visit Lysekloster but we spent so much time at the Langfassen waterfall that we ran out of time.  It is supposed to be difficult to find and it’s a narrow, winding country road, just wide enough for one car (wonder if that means SUV?).

Lyse Kloster was founded in 1146 by bishop Sigurd in Bergen. He owned the farm Lyse at Os, and there he built the first Cistercian monastery in Norway. The monastery became big and powerful, and at the time of the Reformation it was one of the most important property in the country. After the Reformation, Lyse Kloster became the property of the Danish King.  During the following century a number of owners allowed a gradual destruction of the buildings to take place. Stone from the buildings at Lyse Kloster was used while building The Rosenkrantz Tower in Bergen and Kronborg Castle in Denmark. The ruins are today partly restored, and are the most frequently visited monument at Os.

Information that I found on internet:  “It is a small place, but the ruins that are left are quite interesting to walk around.  Not much left, but we can get a good feeling of the place.  One section of arches that was part of the wall surrounding the cloister still showed some of the details of the original carvings and workmanship.  There were a number of empty graves set in the floor of the church, with the lids missing.  They were small, suited to the shorter people of the day.  They even still had the stone pillow to support the head.  Unfortunately we came a bit late in the day, so the site as largely in shadows.”

Next stop Bergen!

An evening walk

I'm not sure if you remember, since I haven't been posting food pictures lately, but Ron and I are still on our diet, and we still need to exercise at least 30 minutes 6 times a day week (Ron caught that mistake.  He said if he has to exercise 6 times a day he quits! LOL)  In this post First post about Norway  I talked about Norway's  right of access to, and passage through, uncultivated land in the countryside.  It is based on respect for the countryside, and all visitors are expected to show consideration for farmers and landowners, other users and the environment. What does this mean?  It means that we can walk straight through a cow pasture to get to our favorite spot.  And in many places, there are ladders handy to climb OVER the fences so you don't hurt yourself.

Tonight we headed a brand new way for us.  We've always seen sheep but have never made it all the way to them.  This walk is from our house and took us about an hour round trip with many stops for pictures.  Enjoy!

We've come to our first ladder to climb over an electrified fence.  This one is better than some we have seen.

 Isn't he handsome?  :)

There they are!

Pretty views!

We take pictures of different things.

I wonder how fast they would run if they knew how yummy we thought lamb was?

Here is the ladder on the other side of the pasture

But we decided to go back the way we came.  We think this might take us to the 3 Swords ... but that will be a walk for another day.

No, no ... don't get up.

And now we are out of the pasture and on our way back to the house.

Nice evening for a walk.   And .... I've lost 2 1/2 lbs and Ron has lost 3 1/2 lbs since Sunday.  Can't beat that!