September 12, 2015

Fjording Around

It is still 9ish when we roll out this Saturday morning.  Our hosts have prepared a great breakfast with homemade pancakes as the main attraction.  Nina has concocted her own recipe with various flours and grains—fantastic! 

The deck refinishing job is iffy this morning.  The color is off a little and it is still a little sticky from the end of evening staining from the night before.  Nina will tackle the corrective process today to find a solution.

Patrick takes us downtown for a stroll around the historic area of Stavanger.  There are beautiful old wooden houses, many of which have been converted to shops, lining cobblestone streets reaching up from the harbor.  Once again we get to let our imaginations drift back a century or two when this was primarily a fishing village.  We still see fish farms dotting the bays and fjords where the Norwegian salmon grows worthy of a spot in the Lunds sale flyer.  This was all PO (pre-oil) when things were very different.

The postage-stamp farms we saw dotting the landscape on our drive last evening are assisted by the Norwegian government.  They are too small to be economically viable but essential to the Norske psyche.  Those subsidies plus exclusive oil and fishing rights are all taboo in the EU so Norway continues to plug along quite well on its own.

We want a bite of lunch but not much.  Patrick takes us to the other side of the hill where the fishing boats dock and we pick up a kilo of shrimp right off the boat.  The fishermen steam the shrimp on the boat, throw it on ice and set up a little stand to sell it to folks like us.  We bring it back to the ferry dock, sit on a rock wall in the sun and nibble away.

We’re taking a cruise this afternoon looping around Stavanger harbor and up the Hogsfjorden and into the Lyesfjorden.  It is a 3-hour tour (a three hour tour—sing along) with a lazy and scenic 2 hours out and busting it back to port in the third hour.  Close in to the city the fjord is pretty suburban with a lot of houses and cabins clamoring for water views and frontage, but that thins out quickly once we move out of commuting range.

There are little farms along this stretch and a couple villages that have probably been there for ages.  Once we pass into the Lysefjorden the rock walls begin to start to crowd in on us and we find ourselves looking up a couple thousand feet at solid rock on one side of the boat and less steep grass and forest areas on the other.  In primo Fjord tour country there is a little waterfront restaurant sitting hard under a rock outcropping in an idyllic romantic setting.  Patrick tells us that Nina came here with a group from work for a little bonding session over lunch.  Nice.

The skipper makes all the fjord moves snuggling the nose of the boat right up to the base of a 1000 foot waterfall so we are looking straight up into it.  We also nose into a little cave (fantahala – vagabond’s cave) where some ne’er-do-wells once hid from the cops.   The star of the tour is Pulpit Rock, an 80’ by 80’ outcropping of rock that juts out over the fjord about 2000 feet up.  It is a popular climbing spot (we passed on that) and will someday fall into the fjord.  There are usually a couple dozen hikers milling around up there so they hope today isn’t the day.  Come to think of it, we hope not too.

It was very windy on the way out and as we turn for home the wind is behind us making for a perfect late afternoon boat ride in spectacular country.  On our way to the car we grab a couple grocery items for dinner and it’s back to our Stavanger home.

Nina has found that the stain the Polish crew used yesterday was the right number but was intended for vertical rather than horizontal surfaces.  Not sure why that would show up as a different color and apparently the paint store clerk pointed fingers at everyone but himself.  Nina talked to the head painter and they all decided to cut their losses, skip the next coat and live with what is there until it needs to be done again.  It looks pretty good and will make it a year or two.

Dinner is baby potatoes, asparagus and fresh salmon fillets all done on the grill along with a greens and mango salad.  We think we may have found the best restaurant in Stavanger without ever leaving the house.  We have “Smash” (chocolate coated bugles only available in Norway), chocolate and Scotcheroos for dessert.

 

Little Thilde has been a sweetheart all day but trying to get to sleep with new teeth popping through is really hard.  Patrick and Nina do a tag-team again to comfort Thilde while the other joins in a Skip-Bo rematch.  The home team wins the first one but John comes back to win the nightcap.  Another perfect day to begin our long trip.

What did we learn today? Baby potatoes that are blanched and then charred on the grill are fantastic!