2022-06-12 It's 11:45 pm as I write this, and it is finally starting to get dark. The sun officially 'set' at 11:15 but you can still see very well outside! I am almost adjusted to Norway time. I slept solid last night from the time I went to bed at about 11 until I woke up at 5:30 am, so that is good.
Today was our first real day in Norway and it was fun! We went to breakfast about 7 then killed time until it was time for our excursion "Cruise Along Lysefjord' in Stavanger Norway. LyseFjord means 'light fjords' and comes from the very light granite rocks along the fjord.
As we boarded the boat that would take us to the fjords, there were so many people that we wondered if we would get a good seat, but we did. The boat was large and very nice, filled with tables for 6, leather seats, and very spacious. Kay and I both got a window, and we prepared to leave. As we did, the tour guide told us that Stavanger was a sister city to Houston, and was the site of major oil exploration and development sites in Norway and the North Sea, and that they had one of only two oil museums (Houston is the other site) in the world. I have a picture of the museum as we passed it in the boat.
The rest of the pictures speak for themselves. The fjords were beautiful...not quite as green as Alaska, but today was dense fog and rain. You will see that in the pictures, as it was raining too much to go up top, and most of the pictures come from inside, with a reflection of the interior boat lights on the pictures, often.
We passed waterfalls, massive granite walls, and herring and salmon farms along the way, along with many beautiful houses in the wilderness! There were lighthouses everywhere, and our tour guide kept speaking of trolls hiding in the darkness of the caverns, which was interesting - I know that Norwegian folklore often has tales of trolls! We even saw troll faces in the rocks, when we looked closely enough! We passed pulpit rock, but it was too foggy to see up there or get a good picture.
On the return trip, we stopped for Norwegian waffles. I place them closely with crepes, in a very thin waffle shape. THEY WERE AMAZING! They had strawberries and sour cream to go on them, but I just ate mine plain - they were still good, but I imagine some Nutella or whipped cream would have been amazing!
We got back to the ship AFTER the on board time, but this was a Carnival excursion, so they waited for us, and now we are back on board, ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow is cruising the fjords on the ship - similar to Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska, so I am REALLY looking forward to that! We do that tomorrow and again on Thursday so I will be in my happy place both days!
I am going to upload about 80 of the more than 400 pictures I took today - I couldn't narrow it more than that! Look for more gorgeous pics tomorrow. Some of these are from my Google Pixel 6 Pro and some are from my SonyA6000 with 55-210 zoom lens. NOTE that because of poor internet, I had to reduce the size of these to 25% of original to upload., so they won't be the best quality. If you want any of these in the original size, just let me know when I get home and I can share with you.
Also know that almost every one of these does not show the full picture as you scroll. Many of these open up wider to see full panorama or much more of a picture. To get the full effect you have to click on it.
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