Tuesday 25th April 2023
Today we walked from the campsite into Stavanger and back again, including walking around town we walked 7.5 miles in total, all three of us are weary tonight.
Stavanger is the 4th largest city in Norway with a cathedral that opened in 1125, unfortunately for us it is undergoing renovation so was inaccessible. The original area of the town near the docks has a large number of 18th and 19th century wooden buildings painted in bright colours.Most of these are now shops, cafes, restaurants and bars.
Stavanger is known as the oil capital of Norway and has many connections with the oil and gas industries, it has a large and active harbour.
Norway has strict rules on alcohol, there is a limit that you can bring into the country with you and you can’t purchase any in supermarkets. Instead you have to visit the Vinmonopolet, colloquially shortened to Polet. It is a government owned alcoholic drinks retailer and the only place you can buy alcohol with an alcoholic content higher than 4.75% Stavanger is one of the rare places that has a Vinmonopolet so it seemed rude not to visit and help the economy by purchasing a bottle of whisky.
We very quickly found out that dogs aren’t allowed in any cafes, bars etc so we ended up sitting outside a very nice cafe ( cushions and blankets provided) where we enjoyed a hot drink and pastry each.
As you can see it was a sunny day with bright blue sky but unfortunately there was a rather cold wind blowing in off the North Sea that made it a little uncomfortable at times and certainly meant you kept moving.
taraabit 