Poor Stavanger… she’s the last of our ports to visit and has to follow on the heels of beautiful little Olden. Not sure if she’s up for the challenge but we’ll dive right in!
This port started out with a little added stress. Last night they informed us that we’d dock at 10 AM instead of the original plan of 7 AM. So we had all booked an excursion that started at 10 and we would have had to walk 5 minutes from the port to get to the starting point. But we figured we had plenty of time… until the ship delayed its arrival for 3 hours! So we tried contacting the tour operator to let them know and ask if they could wait for us but could not get thru. Our British friends got thru early this morning and they moved us all to the Noon excursion.
The town of Stavanger has a population of about 125,000 and is really cute tucked right along the waterfront. Our ship docked right in town and there were all these neat and tidy white houses going up from the port. There was an old town section with cobble stone streets that was nice to walk around. I really wanted to go inside the Stavanger Cathedral (you long time readers know how much I love beautiful churches!) but it is closed for renovations until 2023 (so I’ll need to come back!). The church was originally built in 1125 so I guess it probably needed renovating!
We boarded our excursion boat at Noon and set sail for Lysefjord, Pulpit Rock and LOTS of waterfalls! The sheer size of the rock walls along the fjord is incredible. They just tower over you and create the greatest waterfalls. There was a spot along the way that hikers like to go to called Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen in Norwegian). It is a pretty intense hike 2 hours each way (so we opted to see it from the boat!). The sad part today for those who hiked up was it was so foggy up top you could probably hardly see much of a view. I included a pic looking up from the boat and it’s the one where you can see a little square ledge sticking out at the top.
There were many beautiful waterfalls along the way but the boat came up very close to one huge one and we got our picture in front of it as well as a video. It actually started to snow/sleet while we were near the waterfall which was wild! The video really captures the powerful sound of the rushing water but they won’t let me post a video.
We then went back to the boat and the girls all went together and got a massage while the guys chilled. Tonight was formal night (or “Evening Chic” as Celebrity now calls it!). So we got dressed up a bit and all had dinner together. We then walked off dinner (lobster tail!) and listened to live music. We also went to a hilarious show called Liar’s Club where three of the crew tried to define a risqué word (like Lobcock!) and the audience had to choose who was telling the truth. Hilarious! By the way, Lobcock means stupid, idiotic person… not what your dirty minds were thinking! We really enjoyed Stavanger but Olden holds our heart.
It’s sad to even type these words but tomorrow is our last day on the ship but the nice part is it will be a sea day to roam the ship and relax.
The Wandering Italian 