6/7/12 day 43: Stavanger, Norway

It's fjord time people! Haven't been here since my first European tour back in 2009. Stoked to come at it from a different angle. I am noticing a lot of the guest excursions involve hikes which should be rad. Of course the definition of "hike" is malleable. I'll tell you what, it won't be a hike up Camelback! It will be like walking to the trail head... I can't imagine many of the guests being able to do a real hike, but anyway, excited to get outside and are some Norwegian wilderness.

Today we were in the small port town of Stavanger. It has the highest collection of authentic 18th century wooden houses (see pic). So stinking quaint! Cobblestone streets, white wooden houses, blue doors, neatly trimmed potted plants... The downtown was filled with shops, restaurants. It was a quick walk. Norwegians discovered oil off the coast and this town got a surge of cash. Big tourist attractions are the Norwegian Oil Museum and the Norwegian Cannery Museum which makes sense considering this town made all it's money from fish and oil.

Award for the weirdest sighting of the day goes to the two homeless looking dudes grilling up some sausages on a tiny grill on the steps of the Cathedral. No big deal, just making a snack. Also, if Norway was responsible for setting clothing trends, we'd all be wearing red trousers. I'm seriously buying some before we leave.

Lastly, there were about three Costa ships in the harbor today (you know, of Costa Concordia fame). I wonder how cheap a ticket is for a Costa cruise right now. One of their ships was HUGE. You can see the big C from the main exhaust towering over the historical buildings in the harbor (see pic).

We set sail around 6, and after dinner we took a short cruise up the Fjord and the views were amazing. Photos could not capture the immense size of the cliffs. And on the other side of the ship were these rolling hills right down for the water. Small cottages and pastures dotted the scene. I've never seen pine trees growing right at the water's edge before. We were literally waving to people on their porches, we were so close to the shore. Ive never seen anything like it.