Stavenger, Norway is a boomtown: a place propelled by an influx of herring, then sardines and now oil. And oh yes, the occasional cruise ship and land-based tourists add to the economy. I didn’t catch the exact dates but herring fishing lasted for 60-odd years in the 19^thcentury; then the herring swam away. Sardines came next. At one time Stavenger was the sardine-canning factory of Norway. The last canning factory closed in 2002. But the real boom was oil: the first North Seas oil discovery was in 1969 and today Stavenger is the oil capital of Norway.

Oil drilling and production is, for us, a topic of interest since nephew Chris is deeply involved as a chief maintenance engineer for highly sophisticated deep-water drilling platforms. The Petroleum Museum, our first stop on our two-hour guided tour gave us a great insight into the technology of oil drilling and production.

As usual, our guide’s personal story proved to be interesting. He’s American but was raised in Japan. He learned to speak Japanese as a kid but has needed to increase his vocabulary since he now leads Japanese tour groups. He worked in Rocky Mountain National Park as a ranger but moved to Stavenger in the 1970s on a one year teaching contract, met the girl, fell in love, married, had kids and hasn’t left since. Somewhere along the line he became a drill platform supervisor so he spoke with great authority: “This is a model of the platform where I used to work.”

Norway may produce a lot of oil but the country is almost completely energy independent using hydropower. Norway promotes electric automobiles. Electric vehicles carry no sales tax and travel toll free on highways and bridges. Two-thirds of cars sold today are electric.

I asked our guide, “How long will the oil last?” He said that, with improved extraction methods oil production should continue for 40 or 50 years. “Then what?” The Norwegian government has put aside funds from oil production to pay for future pension and social programs. All Norwegian political parties have pledged to spend no more than 4% of annual income on current expenditures.

He turned out to be a great guide with excellent knowledge of and personal experience living in Stavenger. He asked us for positive recommendations since he faces stiff competition: young kids from Eastern Europe who memorize the guide book and sell their services at a steep discount.

Stavenger is a pretty town despite its position as an industrial center and tourist destination. Rather than clearing land for high rise developments Stavenger has elected to maintain the 18^thand 19^thcentury wooden homes, freshly painted and, in the old town section, with nice flower gardens. It’s had the usual string of disastrous fires every hundred years or so; fire remains a great concern even today. The only stone buildings we saw were the cathedral and a 19^thcentury bakeshop.

The cathedral has an interesting history. I can’t quote names and dates but the gist of it is that a Norwegian king in the Middle Ages married but grew tired of his wife. He fell in love with a Stavenger gal and asked the local priest for an annulment. The priest demanded promotion to bishop in return, which was the king’s prerogative to grant. But there was one catch: a bishop needs a cathedral. So the king built him one, married the Stavenger girl and promptly died, leaving no heir. Meanwhile the first wife married a man who became the king of Denmark and her grandson became the new king of Norway. She had the last laugh and Stavenger got a cathedral.

Our tour lasted until Noon or so. Judy and I broke off and paid a visit to the cathedral and were back on board by 1:00 PM for lunch; the ship left at 2:00 for Alborg, Denmark. So we’re having a lazy afternoon. We’ve attended two lectures this afternoon on Denmark (I think) and Viking history. I napped through the first, Judy the second. Tonight we’ll dine in one of the ship’s two specialty restaurants. Kinda nice to knock back and goof off for a few hours, even if Judy did sneak in a load of laundry!