The port of Stavanger is the heart of the city. It seems too small for a cruise ship, but appearances are deceptive and even 2-3 of the largest cruise ships can glide easily into the port at the same time and tie up within sight of the bustling market.
Stavanger has a charm and friendliness born of many centuries of contact with lands across the sea and passengers are made to feel really welcome. The climate is much milder than its geographical position would indicate because of the Gulf Stream.
Cobbled pedestrian shopping streets abound with quality Norwegian goods – handknitted sweaters, wood, pewter, glass, ceramics and jewellery and gifts unique to Stavanger, such as replicas of Vikingage jewellery discovered in the area.
Passengers can start with the market almost at the ships’s gangway, absorb the atmosphere and then visit the Anglo- Norman style Cathedral, dating from 1125, a time when the town only had some 200 inhabitants.
Gamle Stavanger, or the old town, just a few minutes walk from the quayside, is one of northern Europe’s best preserved wooden built neighbourhoods. Today, its small white painted houses are mostly residential but with small craftsmen’s workshops interspersed here and there.
Stavanger’s history is illustrated in the town’s museums. The Canning Museum shows not only how the famous local sardines were smoked and canned during the ‘brisling-boom’ but also allows visitors to try their hands at the process. The Maritime Museum, itself an old wharf, shows the town’s history including the mass emigration to America. The Archaeological Museum illustrates 15,000 years of cultural heritage. Stavanger Oil Museum illustrates the start and development of the oil adventure in the North Sea and what this has meant to Stavanger – the oil capital of Norway.
Within less than half an hour’s drive from the city centre, the landscape of the west coast of Norway features green rolling hills backed in the distance by stark majestic mountains, waterfalls, rivers racing to the sea and miles of sandy beaches.
A boat trip is one way to see the majestic Lysefjord famous for the ‘Preikestolen’ or Pulpit Rock , which towers 600m above the fjord and Kjerag which is 1,100m. Other options include oceanrafting, scuba diving among salmon, deep sea fishing, bicycle tours, lighthouse safari, tour to the giant bolder formation Gloppedalen, tours to the medieval monastery Utstein Kloster, church concerts at Sola beach, visit to rebuild Viking and previking villages and of course also a visit to the Viking Sword monument and Iron Age farm with the lovely view of the town and region.
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