Sept 7, 2009 Stavanger ,Norway
A new country for me. Stavanger is a small city with a compact old town. Weather is windy and rainy. We skipped the fjords tour and walked through the old section of colorful wooden merchant houses with the baskets of flowers and cobblestoned streets to the oil museum. It is a warm and dry refuge for a few hours learning about the hazards and costs and mechanisms of building those mammoth oil rigs which are ubiquitous in the North sea around here. While a bit boring- no pun intended, well maybe a little- to many women- we lined up on the benches waiting as the men read every word on every exhibit, it did give me a greater appreciation for what it takes to obtain a barrel of oil and why it costs so much. After a drippy visit to the Cathedral which had a beautiful wooden carved pulpit and someone playing the organ, we adjourned to the ship.
Sept 7, 2009 Bergen , Norway
The second largest city in Norway, Bergen retains much of its charm. Its Bryggen is a section designated a world heritage site. the old merchant houses painted red, blue, yellow, white, green and heavily timbered, now house small shops. Prices are criminally high. An ice cream cone is $5US, sweaters $150, Tshirts $20 and probably made in China. We sampled whale meat in the fish market- actually quite tasty. People were buying seal and reindeer skins and lots of troll dolls. Weather again miserably cold and spitting rain. tried to find a reasonably cost internet however $1 for 3 minutes was too high. Takes that long to log on. We crossed the pedestrian center to the Bergen Kunstmuseum which is comprised of 3 buildings and houses a fabulous collection of Norwegian artists. the foremost artist is Edvard Munsch (The Scream) but the others were wonderful colorful impressionists to modern. Obviously influenced by the French but a Norsk take on the genre. The best buy in Norway at $10 a ticket. After running to the shuttle in a soaking rain, we were safely ensconced, drying in our warm cabin when the fire alarm went off followed by a terse "This is not a drill""All crew to muster" Tense moments later it was explained that a minor fire in the engine room was under control. 30 minutes later the Captain came on to tell us that we would not be sailing tonight as the port was closed due to a severe storm in the North Sea.
We stayed put and left the next AM. Unfortunately now missing our stop in the Shetlands. As I write this on (9/9/09) we are sailing on 18 foot waves with 40 mph winds. Luckily the sun is out and I am am happy with a good book outside on deck in a rather windproof nook. We are passing the largest natural gas platform in the world. 1500 ft high above the water. It takes 9 minutes in the elevator to reach the sea floor thousands of feet below.
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