The Ambitious Odometer

Thursday, June 5, 2025

{EUROPE} Day Six - Stavanger, NORWAY

This morning, we arrived in Stavanger at around 8:00am. From the ship, we could see the beautiful white wooden houses that make up the Gamle Stavanger neighborhood...

We grabbed breakfast (with a view) and were off the ship by about 9:30am. Though we got a slower start than we'd originally anticipated, we ended up with plenty of time to do what we wanted to do...

Stavanger is considered the "Oil Capital of Norway" and serves as the gateway to Lysefjord (translated to Light Fjord due to the lightly colored granite rocks).

Grandma had been to Norway, along with my dad, many moons ago, but not this particular part. It was a new country for my family of five!

We started our day touring the Gamle Stavanger area where there was no shortage of beautiful photo opportunities...

absolutely...

NO shortage...

at all...

We even found a little hilltop park and played a bit!

The rain mostly held off as we made our way over to the shopping area...

We really enjoyed this walkable town...

After a little shopping, we made our way over to the Norwegian Petroleum Museum...

{that's our L!}

We learned a bit about drilling for oil in Norway and the devastating rig accident that happened in 1980...

It was highly interactive, which was really nice...

By the time we left the museum, it had started raining pretty steadily, but we took a few pictures out in the GeoPark outside the museum...

It is supposed to be a playground built with components from the oil industry, thought it looks to have suffered at the hands of local graffiti artists...

At this point, the girls and I headed back to the ship...

and had some fun with an old phone booth...

while Hubby and B grabbed a taxi out to the home stadium of Viking Football...

where they actually made their way inside...

continuing their quest to visit as many international football (soccer) stadiums as they can!

Grandma was happy when everyone was back on board and together again!

We set sail for the next stop at about 4:00pm and watched from one of the outside decks...

Before dinner, we enjoyed tonight's show ~ Becky Porter as Adele ~ an Adele Tribute Concert...

She was incredible and super talented!

Then, later on, the kids went up to catch the sunset at around 10:30pm!

Big day tomorrow!

More {EUROPE} 2025 Fun...

Day One - London Day 1

Day Two - London Day 2

Day Three - London Day 3

Days Four & Five - Embarkation + AT SEA

Day Seven - Skjolden, NORWAY

Day Eight - Olden, NORWAY

Days Nine & Ten - Alesund, NORWAY + AT SEA

Day Eleven - Akureyri, ICELAND

Day Twelve - Isafjordur, ICELAND

Day Thirteen - Grundarfjordur, ICELAND

Day Fourteen - Reykjavik, ICELAND

Days Fifteen-Seventeen - AT SEA

Day Eighteen - London Day 4

Day Nineteen - London Day 5

Day Twenty - HOME!

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

{EUROPE} Days Four & Five - Embarkation + AT SEA

We got up fairly early yesterday morning, but not quite early enough as we had a slight time miscommunication with our driver...oops!

Nevertheless, we were able to grab a quick breakfast...

before heading out of town, swinging by Buckingham Palace on the way!

The drive was long...

but we made it to Southampton in plenty of time...

and because of our Platinum Status (all thanks to Grandma and all these amazing trips she's taken us on), we were able to board pretty quickly, as well.

Looking forward to the next few days and getting situated...

This morning, we had a much-needed day at sea. Hubby and I went to the port talk on Stavanger, our first stop in Norway, and worked on planning our day for tomorrow.

B & L tried their hands at ring toss...

and L actually scored a few points!

After lunch, we all took it easy ~ walking, swimming, and most importantly, napping ~ gotta LOVE an inside cabin with no windows, just PERFECT for napping...

We all SIX rallied for dinner, and then the girls, Hubby, and I went to watch our beloved (well, for the girls and me, at least!) WICKED movie up on deck...