Jax Stumpes: Viking Homelands: Stavanger (8/28/2018)

Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Today we have a little bit tighter window, so there was not really any time before or after our included shore excursion for free time in Stavanger. So we had a leisurely breakfast at The Restaurant. It was very leisurely indeed, so slow, that we will not go back no matter how much time we have.

We docked next to the Stavanger Konserthus/Concert Hall
(2012, by RATIO Arkitekter)

Statue of Admiral Thore Horve, who had a nearly lifelong career
in the Norwegian Navy, through both World Wars (KSS)

Gamle Stavanger/Old Stavanger with whitewashed wooden homes

Mural (2018, by gonzo247) was a gift from the city of Houston, TX
to Stavanger to celebrate their connection through the oil industry

Statue of Sigval Bergesen dy/Jr, who was a
Norwegian shipping magnate and a pioneer
in the development of large tankers (KSS)

I believe we were told that this was an
emigration memorial, and behind it was the
Norwegian Emigration Center (at Strandkaien 31)

The Stavanger Maritime Museum in two former merchant buildings

One of the 23 Broken Column statues
(2003, by Antony Gormley)

The Broken Column statues are all the same size and are scattered around the city. They are purposely placed at specific altitudes so that they march down to the sea. If they were aligned, they would stand one atop the other, thus forming a column. However, the column has been "broken" and the man-sized sections are planted throughout Stavanger. I can only assume that the altitude here was such that they had to bury the statue several inches to get the proper height.

Stavanger harbor with the Viking Sky cruise ship
(the Viking Star is behind the Sky)

Path of Peace, sponsored by the Point of Peace, an independent
human rights organization with a mandate to support Nobel Peace Prize
Laureates in urgent need of media, dialogue and communication assistance
in their home countries and internationally; certain Laureates agreed
to have their feet cast, including All Gore

Sjøfartsmonumentet/Maritime Monument
(1968, by Arnold Haukeland)

Former merchant buildings and Valbergtårn/tower

M/S Rogaland (1929, built in Stavanger) was rescued and restored,
and now there are plans to make it a steamship again; notably
the ship starred in the film Dunkirk (2017) as a hospital ship

Tollboden/Customs House

Victoria Hotel (1900, in Victorian style), the oldest hotel in Stavanger

Norsk Oljemuseum/Norwegian Petroleum Museum
(1997-1999, by Lunde & Løvseth Arkitekter), echoes the foundation
of the oil industry with bedrock/stone building, chalk deposits
in sea/main slate floor, and rigs/cylindrical platforms

Oil from the first discovery at Ekofisk

In 1962, Philips Petroleum applied to Norwegian authorities to explore the North Sea for oil, wanting exclusive rights. Um, no, said Norway, no exclusive rights to the oil as it should be shared. The government ruled that the Norwegian State should own all natural resources and have the right to dispense licenses for exploration and production, and limit where, when and how many. The first oil was discovered in 1969, and since then many more sites were found.
An oil boom for Norway. Since the country was new to the oil business, they brought in experts from, for example, Houston, TX. Norway had to learn from scratch every step of oil production. But this was not Texas, and many innovations were necessary to deal with raging deep water drilling, and transport and production in a cold climate. Stavanger was chosen as the on-shore center for the oil industry, partly due to the Gulf Stream that creates a more temperate climate here.

In the early days, divers were lowered in diving capsules

Now they have submersible "helicopters"

In the early days, workers transferred from a ship
to the oil platform on these "personnel baskets"
hoisted over by crane (KSS)

Models of oil rig platforms, which sit on the sea bed

A Condeep type platform, a gravity-based
concrete structure for oil platforms,
is said to be taller than the Eiffel Tower

An early 28-person survival capsule,
which actually made everyone terribly seasick

Tamiko inside the survival capsule, which had one
toilet in the center ring (no privacy!)

The twisted piece of a supporting brace that resulted in the
Kielland accommodation oil platform ("flotel") suddenly collapsing into
the sea in 1980; the worst disaster in Norwegian waters since WWII

Oil has made Norway "rich." A sovereign-wealth fund/state-owned fund was established with the profits from oil, and through investments uses only the earnings for infrastructure projects. Now that the infrastructure is advanced, there have been questions as what to do with all this money. Yet the Norwegians have voted against divvying up the fund and lowering their taxes. Forward-thinking, they have elected to keep paying their taxes, and keep the fund in reserve for the future. Now the fund is idealistically limiting investments to environmentally-friendly and humanitarian concerns, and may stop investing in gas and oil! Stavanger had a boom economy in herring, until the herring disappeared. Now they realize the oil can also disappear. Norway has also re-named their energy company Equinor, taking out the reference to oil in the former name of Statoil.

Norwegian troll on Øvre Holmegate,
with short wheeled skis?

Øvre Holmegate, the most colorful street in Stavanger

Hmm, a Lego lawn mower... at the Copacabana Beauty Center

Stavanger manhole cover

Examples of the bunad, a national Norwegian
dress based on folk costumes, which are
traditionally given and worn on one's
confirmation day and then on special occasions

Soltre (1984, by Arne Vinje Gunnerud)

Another Broken Column sculpture at the
Stavanger Domkirke/Cathedral

Stavanger Domkirke/Cathedral (1125-1150),
the oldest and best preserved cathedral in Norway

Statue (1927, by Magnus Vigrestad) of
Alexander L Kielland, a Norwegian writer who
was once mayor of Stavanger

Bust (1995, by Hugo Frank Wathne) of
Henriks Steffens, philosopher and physicist who
was born in Stavanger, studied in Copenhagen
and made Germany his home

A "gossip mirror" allows one to monitor what is happening
in the neighborhood of Gamle Stavanger/Old Stavanger!

We wandered through the largest and highest-concentration of wooden buildings in Europe, with homes from the 17-18C. In the 1950s the area was slated for demolition, but Einar Hedén, the Stavanger city architect, with community support, saved the houses from being razed.

Øvre Strandgate doorway

Øvre Strandgate 60, a former shop, is apparently
painted in its original color, although other buildings
are painted in the white tint used for
important buildings (i.e., homes and not the barn)

Øvre Strandgate

Another Øvre Strandgate doorway

A peek into a house garden at #63

Andasmauet alley down to the harbor

Norsk Hemetikkmuseum/Norwegian Fish Canning Museum in a
former canning factory from the 1890s

Around 1810, Nicolas Appert was credited with inventing canning in response to Napoleon promising a reward to anyone who found a method to preserve food. Stavanger became a center of canning sardines (brisling) from 1873 until the 1960s when freezing became the method of choice. By 1970 canning could not compete with oil job wages. Herring apparently was all the rage until they disappeared in the 1870s.