To live is to war with trolls. ~ Henrik Ibsen

Trolls come to mind when I think of Norway...
no idea why...
remnants of a Mythology class I guess...
However, Henrik Ibsen, the famous novelist and playwright from Norway, wrote Peer Gynt which captures the Scandinavian troll...


Vikings, the Nobel Peace Prize and beautiful Fjords also come to mind...


so, earlier this week when Ren Man traveled to Stavanger, Flat Stanley and I tagged along...

on a very small plane where they handed out earplugs...

Norway borders Sweden with the Scandinavian mountains acting as a  natural border even though, off and on for many years, they were united... 


in the north, Norway also borders Finland and a tiny portion of Russia...


It was at this point that I became very aware of my...
well...
ignorance of world geography...
so, to prevent any embarrassing revelations of this fact...
other than admitting it to you...
I started practicing...
See Puzzlers, if you are like me, geography impaired...
to expand your world... 


Stavanger, the fourth largest town in Norway, is on the southwest coast...

where the Fjords are said to be incredible...
So, the first item on the list was "The world's most beautiful adventure"...
at least that is what the brochure claimed...


Rodne Fjord Cruise (You may need to change the language on this site) did not disappoint...

Flat Stanley was very excited and did his best to stay out of the wind...
wind and water and Flat Stanley...
do not mix well...


We were off...

to the Lysefjord which is a deep ravine between mountainous valley sides formed by glaciers during the ice ages...

the views were incredible...

Many Stavanger families have their summerhouses... 
passed down for generations... 

along the coastline...

and my favorite with a grass roof...

As I am admiring the homes...
just off of the shoreline there is a group of grey objects floating in the water...
swaying back and forth like the tops of bowling pins that were fighting to stay upright...

A mussel farm...
where tiny mussels will take 18 months or more to grow from the longlines...
each line could have anywhere from 14 to 30 kg (30 - 66 lbs.) of mussels depending on the type of band used...


Around the bend appeared the main attraction... 
the impressive and formidable rock formations...

especially the infamous Pulpit Rock...

a massive cliff, 600 metres (1968 feet) above the fjord...
which is much more impressive if you are standing on the cliff...

there is a two hour hike available in the summer...
I am thinking about adding that to my list...
just thinking about it at this point.


Another attraction...

the goats that hang out at the foot of Pulpit Rock...
who seem to know when the boat is arriving with snacks...
and...

The Hengjane Waterfall...

You will not believe who took this picture...
an Aggie...
recently transferred to Stavanger...
Maybe the world really isn't that big...

Flat Stanley really did want to do some rock climbing, but when I mentioned that he would have to swim to shore...
he changed his mind...

As soon as we returned to the harbor, we explored a bit more...
and Flat Stanley was very interested in this sculpture of a boy and his goat...

alas...
time had flown and it was now important to get Flat Stanley on a plane...


he has a very important deadline on May 5th!
I hope he enjoyed our jaunts around London, Aberdeen and now Stavanger...


Looking a little tired, I hugged him good-bye... 
and wished him a flat, peaceful journey back to Texas.