My comments yesterday about the weather were probably a little premature as today we were greeted by a cloudy drizzly morning as we sailed into our first port of call – Haugesund.
Haugesund is a small town with a lot of history as it was here in 872 AD that King Harald Fairhair united Norway into a single country. There is a monument and a Viking village outside the city to commemorate this but due to the lateness of our arrival we had no time to visit it. Instead we took the shuttle bus into the town centre where we firstly visited the church of Our Saviour. Dedicated in 1910 the church has a fantastic ceiling in the Norwegian style.
The city is famous for its fishing history especially herrings which were processed in a large factory in the vicinity. A statue in the centre celebrates the fact that the city was “built on herring’s bones”.
We found a number of other statues on our walk including deer, mountain cats and this goat, but sorry Naomi no llamas!!
At this stage the rain got a little heavier and Sylvia caught the shuttle back to the ship while I battled the adverse conditions in order to find Marilyn Monroe. Allegedly her father was born near the city and so they erected a statue to her.
Having completed my mission, I made my way over the bridge…..
…….and walked back to the ship. Here Sylvia had made herself comfortable with a cup of tea in the piazza.
Tomorrow we call in at Skjolden which is deep in the heart of fjordland, which means internet access may be limited.