Stavanger and Eidfjord, Norway

When we started on our cruising adventure we had 15 days/14 nights in front of us and could revel in the idea that we had plenty of time to enjoy both the ports and all the ship had to offer but, time has slipped away and we have only 3 nights and 3 ports remaining. I really will be sad to leave our ship and we're already looking forward to our next journey on her, wherever and whenever that might be. But in the meantime, on the bright side, we do still have 3 new ports to explore, so...

Overnight we have well and truly left the Baltic Sea behind and made our way to the port of Stavanger on the North Sea. Stavanger has the highest concentration of wooden buildings in all of Europe, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, all 250 of which avoided the threat of development over the years. Although not mentioned, they obviously also avoided the abundant number of fires that seem to have destroyed most of the traditional, historic residences in every city we have visited since arriving in Europe. Wooden dwellings are much warmer than stone and this continues to be the favoured building material to this day.

Anyway, these buildings were literally right at our feet when we stepped ashore to meet our guide for this morning's 'Taste of Stavanger' tour.

I was a little hesitant to sign up for a food tour given that Norway is the home of both the herring and the sardine, neither of which I'm too fond of. Oh well, I'll somehow manage to slip my portions to Andrew so as not to appear rude - being a lover of stinky fish, I'm sure he'll be happy to help out. As it turns out we only had three food stops on the tour, which also comprised a guided walk through the city and a visit to a canning factory. Now a canning factory would not have been on my list of ways to spend my precious hours in Stavanger but, as it turns out, it was absolutely fascinating. Prior to the discovery of oil, this region's primary industry was fishing and ways needed to be found to preserve the fish for longer periods of time, hence the canning industry was an important development and, in turn, led to the design and printing industries also blossoming, as producers worked to 'market' their product with beautiful labels. The factory employed hundreds of people in the late 1880s and continued to be a major employer throughout the 20th century. Strange I know, but it was absolutely fascinating!!

So, onto the food and, yes, there were sardines, which were consumed in a traditional Norwegian house as it would have been in the 1950s...and, yes, I bravely ate all of my sardines and even quite enjoyed them. I think they are a lot more subtle in flavour than those we have at home - actually, that can be said for all the fish I have tried here, including salmon.

Leaving the canning factory we head for our next stop on our food tour, something much more appealing - waffles. Norwegians appear to virtually live on waffles, they eat waffles for breakfast, lunch and dinner with both savoury and sweet toppings. I can take or leave them if I'm honest but, when in Rome (or in this case, Norway)...

The next, and final stop, is hot chocolate and some of the best chocolate I've eaten in my life...

What I learnt from this tour, as interesting and filling as it was, is that Norway's culinary depth is a little lacking and time will show us that fish, anything on top of bread, waffles and chocolate are pretty much all that you can expect to find in most cafes and restaurants - along with pizza and burgers. It's strange and a bit disappointing but more on that in future blogs.

Right now, however, we have a couple more hours to explore Stavanger before boarding the ship once again to sail, overnight, to our next port and first fjord experience. By this time my cold had well and truly settled and was, generally, making me feel pretty miserable so, sadly, I had to leave Andrew to take one for the team and head up on deck at 5am to take photos as we headed into the Hardangerfjord and the port of Eidfjord, a tiny village which was dwarfed by our ship but provided access to a beautiful area straight out of a picture book.

It's amazing how you can rally, with the help of Panadol and antihistamines (they aren't allowed to sell cold medicine without a prescription in Norway but will happily sell you all the ingredients needed separately) so, all dosed up, we are off the ship and taking a walk in the fresh air, which I did feel much better for.

They even make sure their trees are all rugged up here...

And not to be forgotten was our scenic flight over the fjord in a seaplane flown by, what appeared to be, a 12-year-old pilot although he claimed to be 26. Regardless, that was a lot younger than the plane itself which I think may have even pre-dated me, but we did make it home safely.

Finally, back on our gorgeous ship, it's time, yet again to relax and enjoy the view before heading to the bar (again)

Tomorrow we reach our final port, Bergen, where we will spend our last night onboard prior to disembarking and heading off into the wilds of Norway all on our own!