A Summer Day in Stavanger

Norway's Oil Town: Stavanger

I visited Stavanger in 2012 while on a Norther European Cruise, which I highly recommend as a method of travel throughout Europe to anyone.  We only spent one day in Stavanger, but I thoroughly enjoyed my stay.  After our ship pulled into port and I peered out our stateroom window, the first building I saw was this building composed of lattice metal work partially overhanging the water in the port.  This building I learned after disembarking is the Norwegian Petroleum Museum.

Standing next to a diving bell in a survival suit in the Norwegian Petroleum Museum.

I was apprehensive at first about spending half of our precious day in Stavanger in a museum.  However, I am sure I learned more about Norway by working my way through this small interactive museum than I ever could have learned wandering the streets all day.  Oil is one of the principal industries of Stavanger, something often highlighted in the museum.

Full suited up in the survival suit posing in front of another piece of diving equipment.

Upon entering the museum, visitors watch a 3D movie about the formation of oil in the deep ocean.  The movie alone was worth the trip as cartoon-like phytoplankton, a major focus of my PhD research although not as cartoons, were featured in 3D.  The movie is followed by an exhibit explaining some of the basic methods how scientists find oil, such as sediment core analysis.  The diving exhibit was next.  Diving was a major player in oil exploration and drilling, especially in the recent past.  Not only did we get to test out survival suits and admired diving equipment, but we also watched another IMAX movie about a diving bell excursion to the ocean deep.  The last section of the museum was about life on a drill rig, including a simulated helicopter ride.  This was the section I saw earlier extending over the water.  Having completed our tour of the curious building I had spotted earlier in the day, we moved on to view Stavanger's other main attraction the Gamle Stavanger.

The Gamle Stavanger consists of mostly privately owned homes.  

The Gamle Stavanger is surrounded my more modern buildings on all sides, but the side facing the sea.  Our cruise ship can be see in the upper right background.

 The Gamle Stavanger is a collection of historic and privately owned small wooden homes, almost all of which are painted white.  These homes date back to the 1700s and 1800s, with much of Stavanger consisting of similar buildings once in time.  However, much of the city was rebuilt after World War II.  Only this section of homes adjacent to the harbor were preserved.

A street within the historic Gamle Stavanger

The buildings were refurbished and are now held to strict appearance standards.  Visitors can meander through the narrow streets reminiscent of the 1700s that wind between the buildings.  Walking from one end to the other takes no more than five minutes (the area preserved is quite small), and would only entice someone of an artistic mind like a photographer or painter to linger much longer.  

Between the Gamle Stavanger and Norwegian Petroleum Museum I felt I a rather historical experience in Stavanger of both there recent and geological past.