Sunday 8 August 2010

Getting Canned in Stavanger


Well, we eventually arrived at our destination, Stavanger.

Here we unloaded lots of specialist oil exploration equipment and very nice it was too.

Not a lot of people know this, but the man who invented the sardine can key came from Stavanger.

Once a principal fishing port, Stavanger conquered the world with its canned brisling - 50 million cans went out in one year alone, in its heyday.

We managed to eat brisling that had just been smoked. They put skewer like pieces of wood through the eye of the fish and hang them in wood smokers. Beautiful..

Stavanger was (and to some extent still is) the heart of the Norwegian shipping scene. This is a replication of a ship owners office from the early 20th century.


This is the "nosy mirror", allowing you to see what is going on in the street, without being observed yourself.


Old and new - a viking longship overtakes an oil rig undergoing repairs at the offshore base.



Our first sight of Norway - the Norwegian pilot trying to board us in a stiff breeze - sorry these aren't in a sensible order..
And so, this brings us to the end of the voyage.
I flew back to the UK from the modern Sola airport at Stavanger.
Where are we going next ? - no idea..

2 comments:

  1. What an interesting place. That sardine can looks disturbingly like a coffin though...or perhaps that is my morbid imagination.

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  2. This "Sardine can" story sure fits the story that has now been passed down 6 Generations in my family. My Great Great Grand Father, Theodore Kloster Said, that this was his invention. He was a "Blikkenslager" a tin plate worker by trade. and he lived in Stavanger, Norway in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Ohh and we love those King Oscar Sardines too!

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