Stavanger

I start as usual with a commercial photo of today’s port and one of Claire and Mum at dinner from the evening before.  Our main task, whenever we are in the dinning room is to resist as much as possible so we don't always feel so full all the time.  Its very difficult when they offer such good food.  We have found a place with wi-fi but its very slow but I did persevere.

I went backwards on the sleep front last night and awoke at 2am again.  It seemed that we must have missed something last night as everyone seemed to be slamming their doors between 2am and 3am this morning.  I did manage to eventually go back to sleep again and we awoke at 6.30am but you always feel tired when you sleep for the second time.  Yesterdays rain and dull skies were gone and replaced with blue skies and sun today.  However, looks were quite deceiving as there was a very icy cold wind.  I guess that we are slowly getting quite far north already.

Today we decided to try the proper dinning room for breakfast for the first time, but although good we will go back to the Lido from now on.  We were given a nice table just one table away from the window so we could watch them mooring but when the Indian couple sat in the window seat they immediately asked for the curtains to be closed.  Give the window seat to us and put the moaners inside.  It was nice to be served breakfast without getting up and down all the time but we still prefer to help ourselves.  They did offer kippers and pancakes which were new but not the eggs benedict or fried bread.

We waited until after 9am before disembarking so that the shops would be open but it seems that they don't open until 10am in Stavanger.  Its a lovely little town with lots of ports by the fjords and a lake in the middle.  Watch out for that crocodile mum!  There were loads of water birds by the lake making a real noise.

My camera battery finally gave up the ghost so I had to get my old one back from Claire and Claire got her old one back from mum as she doesn't use it anyway.  When I downloaded the photo’s that I took on Claire’s camera I got all her old ones as well so I thought I would put a couple of me on the blog for a change.  I need a serious diet when we get home.

They seem to have little monuments and statues all over the place so it was nice walking around while we looked for an internet cafe.  Trouble is the little streets were sometimes quite steep with lots of cobbles and bumps.  I had to make mum put her seat belt on just in case.  We spotted a BurgerKing and I had a look to see if they had wifi on my phone but they didn’t.  We spotted a few cafe’s together and I got my phone out again and it had already logged into Wayne's Cafe again by itself but we couldn't see it.  Thats why I took a picture of it this time; we have spent so much time (and money) in it, we need a memento.  The 3 coffee’s were over £15 this time and Claire had to come back for more money from me.

One last walk around and then it was back to the ship for some lunch.  At least I had the chance for a workout pushing the wheelchair up and down the cobbled streets.  Mum was glad to get back as the cobbles made her dentures chatter.

I seem to have written todays blog before lunch so I will have more time to read my book after lunch when the girls go to the spa.  I have finished my book and cant seem to get into my next one, maybe having a bit more time will do the trick otherwise I might switch.  We got the first series of the Soprano’s last night and only managed to watch the first program out of 6 so I don't need to replace that this afternoon either.  I also got one out for mum, “Its a wonderful life” with Jimmy Stewart.  Mum doesn't think that she has seen it.  I’m not sure how she could have missed it myself.  It also has “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby on the same DVD which got Claire talking about a Christmas cruise.

Got to go now, we need to get ready for lunch.  Claire got told off yesterday afternoon as she left the travel kettle out and your not supposed to use them on board.  We only have a cup first thing in the morning so you don't have to get dressed and go up and down the lift before you can have your first cuppa.  I guess that you could use the room service but we don't like to.  We also finished the box of wine that we brought last night and are down to our last bottle of spirits.  The game now is getting a mixer for it without paying.  We pay enough for drinks with a pre dinner drink and a bottle with our dinner then a post dinner drink.  Good job we are not on a long cruise.  Only Ulvik to go now tomorrow, then we start to head back home again.  Judging from the pictures I have seen, Ulvik is more like the fjords that I expected, the ones that we have seen so far look more like rjiver’s.

At lunch we had a nice window seat and it seems that everywhere is islands around here.  The entire landscape was created at the end of the last ice age about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.  People have been living in this area for 11,000 years.  While we were eating lunch the Columbus 2 sailed past us which looked like it was on its way out until it stopped mid way.  The American’s that we gave our train ticket to yesterday stopped at our table and gave us two tickets for the hop on hop off bus and he said that it had wifi on while they were driving around.  He wasn’t sure if they all had wifi, but their bus was white and they had a blond lady named Sally that gave them the spiel.  We were just debating who would be left behind when a guy from another table gave us his two tickets as well.  What goes around comes around.

We finished our lunch and Claire decided that she would go to the gym while I took mum on the bus.  I thought that I may as well take my bag with my computer in and I could do todays blog so as to come out automatically tomorrow morning.  That might save a few bob at Wayne’s Cafe.

We shot off but it was quite a walk to the stop and we weren't even sure where the stop was but I looked on the ticket and it said “Boreal Transport”.  We spotted a white bus in a stop with a sign outside at 150Kr each or £30 English pounds.  Wow, thats £60 for the two of us.  We were just about to get on and a guy asked us for our ticket which I showed him.  Mum climbed up the 5 steep steps and took a front seat while I sat behind her and got my computer out looking for the wi-fi when a blond lady asked us if we had been on the tour in the morning.  I said that we had.  She asked me who had been our guide.  As she was most likely Sally I had to say that I couldn’t remember her name.  She asked me what she looked like and I said I couldn't remember as I couldn't see from where I was sitting.  She asked me about the commentary that we had heard in the morning and I said that if I had realized that I was going to be questioned about it I would have taken notes.  She got off and spoke to a guy outside.  He came in and asked for our tickets once more - it was beginning to look like we would be thrown off.  I think, again, the wheel chair saved us.  He asked us which tour we had been on and I said that I never had my computer in the morning with my wife so I had come back with my mum and my computer to go online.  He said that his bus was the only one without wifi.  I thought about asking him for a refund but thought better of it.

He said that although the tickets were for the whole day they couldn't be transferred to other people.  I suppose that he thought better of throwing an old lady with a wheelchair off on her own and said that he would let us off this time.  The whole thing was very embarrassing, even though we were the only people on the bus.  Then another couple boarded the bus and was put through the same interrogation.  We eventually set off to find that this was the last tour of the day so I guess that they wanted to go home early.  The tour took about 40 minutes and we didn’t really see anything that we hadn’t already in the morning; what a rip off.  I only took one picture which was from the back of the lake and it looks very much like the one I took from the front of the lake.

I did get a nice picture of the guy painting the cruise ship Berlin with the smallest roller I have ever seen.  I think that he wants a job for life.  The other thing that we did see, was the Columbus 2 moored around the other side of the harbor so she wasn’t waiting to go out but to moor.  Our tour guide wasn’t Sally, but Heidi and she said that today was very unusual because they had 5 cruise ships moored, more than they have had before.  Im not sure when I will get chance to post this blog as Ulvik is only a small place and they might not have a Wayne’s Cafe, so it might not be until we get home.  If I do manage, there wont be any more posts until at least Saturday anyway.  See you all when we get back!

We bumped into Harold and his wife yesterday, the 87 year old that Claire kept dancing with on the first night.  He could hardly walk, he was edging his way along a handrail; poor old chap.  We saw him again this morning as we were coming away from breakfast and he is now in a ship’s wheelchair; poor old chap.  See what I have to put up with?