It was a beautiful and sunny day when we woke up at about 8:00 AM. We got ready and headed to the buffet for breakfast. Stephanie was actually going to eat with me there today, and I was relieved of my room service duties that normally happen each morning.
Breakfast was not terribly crowded by the time we arrived at 8:45 AM. Many people had already gotten ready for their tours, and there was a large group going on the included tour at 8:55 AM. We had scheduled a paid tour for this afternoon with Michael and Suzie when our itinerary had been changed several days ago. Stephanie and I had not even thought about signing up for the included tour back then, and really only figured that out yesterday afternoon. We thought about going on the same tour as Michael and Suzie at 8:55 AM, but we did not even have any tickets, so it was not a matter of changing times, we had no other time tickets to use to board at the scheduled time.
That was fine, Stephanie had not wanted to get up that early anyway, and we knew we wanted to walk into the old part of the port town.
We were not able to walk on the sidewalks at all, they were constructed of large flat stones and were smooth on top, so the frost layer made them very slick.
Of course, Stephanie found a cat that had come out of somewhere, and it was very friendly and wanted to walk with us after we spent some time petting it. It followed us up the road, and then back down again, and then ran off. Some of the buildings in this area were small houses, others looked like small shops. It was around 9:45 AM, and nothing was open yet.
From there, we headed down a lot of steps to get to the large harbor. It was much flatter to walk there, but still frosty, so we had to be careful. We walked to the other side of the harbor and up one of the side streets. It was completely lined with bars and restaurants and was also hilly.
We took another side street and then headed up a steep area to a tower at the top of the hill. We learned later that this was the watch tower for fires and had been constructed long ago. It was of course on the highest hill in the old city center area.
From there, we headed down through a shopping area. Some of the stores were just starting to open up at 10:00 AM, others did not open until 11:00 AM. There were lots of delivery trucks and one trash truck making their store deliveries and picking up trash from yesterday. We were finally starting to see some people walking on the streets, for a while, there were very few people out and about other than us.
We found one store that was open and it sold the Dale of Norway wool items. Stephane was still trying to find a matching hat for her sweater and scarf. They actually had one, and it was much cheaper than the one at the Viking ship’s store. We knew the shop on the ship might do some discounting near the end of the cruise, and it was usually 15%, but this hat was even less than the discounted price which might not ever happen, so we went to purchase it.
That was when I remembered I had forgotten my wallet and credit cards. Luckily, I remembered we had credit cards loaded into Samsung Pay on my cell phone, but we had not ever used that, much less used it in Europe. We wanted to look around more, but if this payment method did not work, we were going to have to walk back to the ship and return with the credit card.
Luckily, it worked and we bought the hat. Then we spent about 30 more minutes looking around in the store. They had some really good sales and we looked at another sweater for me, but in the end, it was not the grey color I wanted, they did not have that color in my size, only a light brown one, so I opted out.
We walked up to the Cathedral, which was right near the store. It was not open to visit inside, it appeared to be under renovation. This area was also in the shade and so it was very slippery from the frost, so we had to be careful walking down the sloped sidewalk toward the harbor.
We headed back to the ship, we wanted to try and get a light lunch before we had to meet for the tour at 12:25 PM. We only had about 30 minutes after we got back aboard the ship to eat and gather up our gear for the tour.
We headed to the buffet and they were serving sliced turkey, so I made a small sandwich with a roll and the turkey. Stephane had a piece of pizza. It was just enough, we did not want to be full going on a tour so soon after eating.
We headed back to the cabin and got our gear and put it all into the backpack. It was pretty warm outside in the sun, so we reduced some layers but took them in the backpack just in case it got cooler if it got cooler in the late afternoon. Sunset here is a little before 5:00 PM, and our tour lasted until 4:00 PM.
We got to the bus and Suzie and Michael were already onboard, sitting toward the back, so there were lots of seats next to them. There were only about 30 people on the tour. It is a tour of a monastery, and then a visit to an Ice Age village that has been recreated on the grounds of an actual excavated site.
It was about a 45-minute drive to the Utstein Kloster Monastery. It had originally been a small castle or structure for a Lord, but then had been given to some monks. It had a long history of ownership over its existence. Now it was privately owned but still used as an exhibit. It is also used for conferences, there were a few rooms that were rented out on the top floor, and it was also used for weddings, and other special events per our guide.
This is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Utstein Abbey is Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery. It is located on the southern shore of the island of Klosterøy in Stavanger municipality, Rogaland county. It was built in the late 1200s. Utstein Church is located on the grounds of the abbey.
It was in a very remote area and the drive there in the sunshine was really nice. We were at the Monastery for about an hour, and learned about its history and visited the rather large church that was part of the main cluster of buildings. All of the buildings were attached and were oriented in sort of a square shape, with the large church on one side. There was an open courtyard in the middle.
It was a nice place to visit and the area around it was beautiful. We were glad to have the sunshine and blue skies, and also to see something green, until we got here in Stavanger, here all of the places we visited further to the north were snowy.
We had about a 45-minute drive to the next stop, the
This is the description of the farm from the website for this attraction:
Visit the Iron Age Farm at Ullandhaug and experience life in the Late Iron Age. Sit around the open fire and hear stories about everyday life 1500 years ago. As the only one of its kind in Norway, the Iron Age Farm has been rebuilt on the original remains and ruins of a farm that dates back to the Migration Period, approximately 350 – 550 AD.
It was also interesting. It was three buildings, two were quite long but narrow, and the third one, the smallest, was square. The long buildings were covered with sod roofs and had stone walls on the outside of the wood inner walls. The special guide we had here explained that this was the actual site of these buildings in the Iron Age and that they had been reconstructed based on their original layout. The largest building was separated inside into three areas, two for living and cooking, and the farthest end was for keeping the livestock in during the harsh winters.
The building width was set by needing to maintain a certain slope in order for the grass roof to receive enough sun to grow in the warmer months. The buildings always were similar in width but varied in length, there was no restriction on length other than the time and materials needed to build the structure.
We were there for about 45 minutes total and then headed back to our bus for the 30-minute ride back to the ship. We drove through some of the harbor areas on the way back.
Our guide told us about a laser light show that was being shown at night to celebrate the city’s 900th anniversary. It started at 5:00 PM, but she said the 5:30 PM show would be better because it would be darker.
Suzie and Michael were on a mission to find a jersey from the local hockey team for one of their grandkids, so they headed into town from the bus drop-off point near the ship. We headed onboard and got a glass of wine and relaxed at the Living Room bar after a nice day of touring.
We decided we would head back out around 5:00 PM, and visit some of the stores that had not been open earlier in the morning. We also wanted to see the laser show at the Cathedral while we were out.
We headed off the ship for the walk into town, stopping at three stores along the way. We ran into Michael and Suzie heading back to the ship and convinced them to walk back toward town with us to see the light show.
We first went into the same store we had visited this morning and I decided on a different sweater that was on sale, I had not seen it earlier for some reason. Stephanie also wanted a small wool blanket and found one in their clearance area downstairs. We went to pay with the same bank credit card we used this morning in Samsung Pay, but it was declined and then declined again. We thought that might happen since we had bought something from this same store this morning.
We just used another card, and while we were paying, I received a text from CitiBank about the charge, and that I needed to open the app and indicate if the charges were legitimate. I had already paid with the other card, so it was no use approving it other than to make sure the card was not shut down for fraud. It was not that large of a purchase, and it is aggravating to have this happen, which seems to happen more and more often, even when we provide detailed travel plans before we leave.
It was just about time for the light show, so we headed toward the Cathedral and arrived just as the show was starting. There was a small sphere on a pole with lasers, and there were fog generators around it for the lasers to reflect off of. It was pretty but only lasted for about ten minutes. It was accompanied by music played through some speakers.
After that, we all headed back to the ship, we were all tired from walking so much today.
We met up for dinner in the buffet at 7:00 PM. Stephanie and I stopped off for a glass of Rose wine at the Explorers Bar before dinner. We had an enjoyable time at dinner and were there for at least an hour before heading our separate ways.
We headed back to the Explorer’s Bar for a nightcap but soon headed to the room.
By that time, the ship was starting to leave the pier so we watched the ship leave the harbor area for about 15 minutes from our balcony before retiring for the night.
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