Hello fjords!

 Sunday, June 28

Just cruising along!

It’s Sunday afternoon and as promised here is a write up of our historic walking tour in Egersund— led by the charming and excellent guide Jamie.

In no specific order, here’s we learned and/or saw:

Egersund is a small  city of 19,000 – built amid the fjords on a secluded waterfront. 

Strandgarter is one of the best preserved of all the streets in the country.

Every city across Norway had great fires because traditionally all of the homes were made of wood. Here on strandgarter, they featured empire styled buildings — from the middle of the 19th century. Here are some of the Freda houses — under historical protection.

Herring is important here and until 2007 the city was the largest fishing harbor in Norway—with mackerel, sardines, and cod, all for export. Then there was an issue with over-fishing and the city lost its title. But still, Norway, with its strong salmon industry (both wild and farm raised, including sushi grade!) is Europe’s biggest exporter. Jamie shared that the waters are warmer and because they’re more gentle, they are perfect for aqua-farming.

Cod liver oil is big in production here! Jamie jokingly proclaimed that’s why Norwegians are so fit. Barley is a big crop and supports the sheep and dairy industries.

Jamie said we should be careful of the seagulls. “They are vicious” — particularly the European herring gulls who are very large. Longtime readers of our posts may remember the near miss Wayne and I had in India with a baboon, so I was sure to heed her advice! In the end, there were no comparable close gull encounters here.

After the first hour strolling around, we found ourselves at the Ludwig Feyling (Lutheran) church. The church is now 380 years old. It was redesigned by Feyling after the fires. Its cross-styled shape represents history.  The ship hanging in the sanctuary is quite common in Norwegian churches, and it was provided historically by a religious leader or a monarch. This particular ship predates Norway getting its independence.  

We wandered in, and Jamie encouraged us to take a seat in the pews. At which point we expected the local guide to give us more context in the history of the church. Instead, a wonderful surprise awaited us. The guy was really the church's organist and proceeded to play perhaps 10 glorious pieces; we had our own recital!  Here’s a sampling.

 

We’ve heard a lot in all of our touring about the immigration of Norwegians to the US. Jamie added some local color. He shared that last year was the 200th anniversary of a major immigration to the US. The first ship was called the Restoration and left from Stavenger— it took 2 1/2 months across the Atlantic to New York. The context was that with the independence from Denmark, people had the freedom to move around; that was one of the major sources of impetus for the immigration. Over 200,000 Norwegians left Norway over the subsequent 50 years, yet in the last 50 years Norway has had more people coming in than going out! This ties to what we learned yesterday about 40% of the total population being multicultural.

The tour continued with a visit to a pottery museum. We made one retail therapy stop (it being Sunday most stores being closed) and we headed back to the ship to get ready for lunch (OMG it had been four hours since we ate!).

According to the translation, this unique piece of art is
really a weathervane when the sticks go up, it means high pressure.
To which I add: no comment.

We ate on the deck, which was really lovely and I added to my fish count with a few bites of fish and chips for the table. There was also this to be feasted on:

All the food is good here.

The rest of Sunday was a total chill day with a talk about the history of Norway— along with some geopolitical insights including the prospect of the Arctic ice cap completely melting as early as 2030 yikes. Yikes! We also had the opportunity for a salsa lesson, Celtic dance, meditation time, pavlova tea time, and bingo - all before dinner.

Pre-dinner mocktail with Jane

I started tonight's extravaganza with chilled zucchini cilantro soup with almonds; quite delicious.

In my continuing quest to eat fish every night, I had the salmon (from the "available every day" side of the menu!)

...topped off by a lime flower honey ice cream accompanied by cookies. Mona chose the apple crostata, which was truly a work of art.

As I write this Sunday evening, we are rocking and rolling up toward what promises to be some extraordinary fjords.

Norway has over 200 lighthouses!

In fact, we’re on the ship all morning Monday to catch some incredible views. Then we hop aboard smaller tenders in the afternoon for some up close and personal glacier sighting.  So watch this space as we continue to explore the fjords tomorrow, as well as eat more fish. This cruising is everything they say it is. Good thing I have elastic pants! But there will be extra weightlifting and cardio when I get home!

Love,

wendy