NO13 - Day 3 - Claire's view - Stavanger
Up early for our first trip to the flower island, Flor & Fjaere. Looking through the cabin window we watched our arrival at Stavanger. The weather was overcast but dry. Just after we docked the Cunard ship, Queen Elizabeth docked along side. She was massive.
After breakfast we got ready to leave the ship via deck 4 and boarded the small boat which sped out towards the island. The scenery was amazing with the mountains in the distance.
As we arrived on the island it started to rain of course however there were plenty of umbrellas to hand. In 1965 Asmund and his wife Else Marie Bryn bought the farmstead on the island and built themselves a cottage. The gardens were created in 1987 when Asmund, due to poor health, was forced to move to the island permanently for the fresh air and peace and quiet. Planting pine trees as a wind breaker and designing a small garden became his rehabilitation. The idea of Flor & Fjaere was created and by 1995 Asmund's son and his wife opened the gardens to the public. The place was alive with colour - mainly bedding plants - thousands of them. Everything was taken in when they had severe frosts. Swathes of colour, with violas, begonias, dahlias, gazanias. The amount of work was incredible. They had created lakes, rocky areas with waterfalls, desert areas, beach areas. They were constantly expanding. Below are some of the pictures from our trip.
We had to leave at lunchtime to go back to Stavanger and lunch on board the ship. By this time the sun had been coming and going and we did eat outside on the Verandah deck.
After lunch we disembarked and made our way into the old town of Stavanger. Cobbled streets on the hill side with lovely wooden houses... very much like those in New England. Most had colourful hanging baskets hanging outside - very pretty. Below are some of the photos taken on our tour of Stavanger old town and new!
When we returned to our cabin we noticed a very strong smell of fumes which had been with us on and off, but had suddenly got worse. We complained to reception and a short while later the head of housekeeping came and said they would move us and had a couple of cabins for us to see. These were Superior outside cabins with the deck outside 3 decks above ours. I didn't like the first one but we accepted the 2nd room although the wardrobe and bathroom were slightly smaller the rest of the cabin was larger with a sofa and armchair.
They did move us very quickly and efficiently with all our hanging clothes put on a rail and whisked off.... We had to repack everything else into the suitcases which was annoying and after that I had trouble finding everything in the drawers! It was done in a rush as we were getting ready for dinner. The fumes had actually made us feel unwell and was not really in the mood to share a table at dinner and so we had a table to ourselves which was nice for a change.
After dinner we went outside for the "sail away" from Stavanger. We left about 20.30 hrs in brilliant sunshine. It was quite windy on deck but I managed to get in the video again which was being made of the whole trip!!! I had a speaking part or so I thought but that had been wiped out from the finished product!! Going back inside we went to look at our photos from the first formal night - most were surprisingly good and so we ordered a couple and a copy of the DVD as well.
We then went into Coopers Bar and ordered a couple of Pina Coladas and met up with a couple of ladies we had sat with at dinner earlier in the week.
After breakfast we got ready to leave the ship via deck 4 and boarded the small boat which sped out towards the island. The scenery was amazing with the mountains in the distance.
As we arrived on the island it started to rain of course however there were plenty of umbrellas to hand. In 1965 Asmund and his wife Else Marie Bryn bought the farmstead on the island and built themselves a cottage. The gardens were created in 1987 when Asmund, due to poor health, was forced to move to the island permanently for the fresh air and peace and quiet. Planting pine trees as a wind breaker and designing a small garden became his rehabilitation. The idea of Flor & Fjaere was created and by 1995 Asmund's son and his wife opened the gardens to the public. The place was alive with colour - mainly bedding plants - thousands of them. Everything was taken in when they had severe frosts. Swathes of colour, with violas, begonias, dahlias, gazanias. The amount of work was incredible. They had created lakes, rocky areas with waterfalls, desert areas, beach areas. They were constantly expanding. Below are some of the pictures from our trip.
We had to leave at lunchtime to go back to Stavanger and lunch on board the ship. By this time the sun had been coming and going and we did eat outside on the Verandah deck.
After lunch we disembarked and made our way into the old town of Stavanger. Cobbled streets on the hill side with lovely wooden houses... very much like those in New England. Most had colourful hanging baskets hanging outside - very pretty. Below are some of the photos taken on our tour of Stavanger old town and new!
Our ship through the houses!
The Queen Elizabeth through the houses... looks so close!
When we returned to our cabin we noticed a very strong smell of fumes which had been with us on and off, but had suddenly got worse. We complained to reception and a short while later the head of housekeeping came and said they would move us and had a couple of cabins for us to see. These were Superior outside cabins with the deck outside 3 decks above ours. I didn't like the first one but we accepted the 2nd room although the wardrobe and bathroom were slightly smaller the rest of the cabin was larger with a sofa and armchair.
They did move us very quickly and efficiently with all our hanging clothes put on a rail and whisked off.... We had to repack everything else into the suitcases which was annoying and after that I had trouble finding everything in the drawers! It was done in a rush as we were getting ready for dinner. The fumes had actually made us feel unwell and was not really in the mood to share a table at dinner and so we had a table to ourselves which was nice for a change.
After dinner we went outside for the "sail away" from Stavanger. We left about 20.30 hrs in brilliant sunshine. It was quite windy on deck but I managed to get in the video again which was being made of the whole trip!!! I had a speaking part or so I thought but that had been wiped out from the finished product!! Going back inside we went to look at our photos from the first formal night - most were surprisingly good and so we ordered a couple and a copy of the DVD as well.
We then went into Coopers Bar and ordered a couple of Pina Coladas and met up with a couple of ladies we had sat with at dinner earlier in the week.
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