They are friends, and they are from Bretagne in France.

One more thing,- they are on the ship that is number 3 so far in the "Tall Ships Races".

Well done, Martin, Mayeul, Alice, Tiphaine, Paul Henri and Lauranne!:)

I hope you have had a fantastic time in Stavanger, enjoyed the good weather Saturday afternoon, and the grand fireworks in the evening, the parade, the party times and made many more friends.

Bon Voyage!

The vessels taking part in the "Tall Ships Races" are in Stavanger, but will be leaving on Sunday.

Today I had a quick look around the majestic ship "Statsraad Lehmkuhl".

More info: http://www.lehmkuhl.no/

A view down to several other ships that are participating in the races.


The family Tangeland from Oslo. (The cute baby was just 3 months old.)

So much beauty, - and so much to see along the harbor these days.

Some of the ships taking part in the "The Tall Ships Races" have arrived in Stavanger and are here for a few days before setting off on the next leg of the race.

Olga and Max arrived in Stavanger, just when the parade happened.

They are from Siberia, Russia, and where looking for information on how to get to the Pulpit Rock area.

I hope the Rail way station staff could provide them with the information they needed.

Most shops etc. had closed early because of the ceremony in the city centre.

Anyway, it has not been so bright and sunny until this afternoon/evening, but it might be nice the rest of the week.... and that is nice for them and everyone else here in Stavanger.

We have a big event in front of us; The Tall Ships Race starts tomorrow, and Olga and Max will enter as crew on one of the Russian ships.

I wanted to share more than just one picture tonight.

Tonight more than 75,000 people turned up for a "fakkeltog", a parade with burning torches starting at the cathedral and progressing around the lake Breivatnet.

This was for people to pay their respects to those who died in the terrible events that occurred in Oslo and on the island Utøya last Friday.

Many people brought flowers which were placed on the lake.

GLADMAT 2011

This is the photo I had planned to put out the day when the terror suddenly hit Norway.........

It is time to show you something different, daily life that has nothing to do with the recent events in Oslo.

Food tasting can be serious, but also fun! (Yes, I did try!)

The food festival (finally) managed to see that it was too much when our country was hit by such a major tragedy, -and they closed the event!

(We will not let fear stop our daily life. We live in a small democratic country, an open society, and I guess what surprised me so much was the fact that it was a Norwegian man, who had never had anything to do with the police before he killed nearly 100 and injured so many more!)

We woke up this morning and heard that more than 80 young people had been found dead on the island. More people missing both there and at the government building in central Oslo.

Our thought goes to all those who have lost their loved ones, either family or friends!

Many things have been closed, concerts, sports activities and other events.

Programs on TV are news, and a few children programs.

We are a small country, and we will will manage, but it will take some time I guess.

Thank you everyone, for your kind comments!

Our biggest local newspaper: http://www.aftenbladet.no

A very sad and dramatic day for us in Norway today.

Life will most certainly change.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/22/blast-rips-through-norways-capital-injuries-reported/?hpt=T1

GLADMAT 2011

These 3 young women, Heidi, Anne Gunn and Hege, from Bryne, (south of Stavanger) have made it to a tradition to come to Stavanger when "Gladmat" is on in July.

They had enjoyed some nice food and wine! And they thought they got value for their money!

"Skål", as we say in Norwegian for cheers!

How do you say "Cheers" in your language?

GLADMAT 2011

Who is in charge of the weather?

Well, I guess the people at "GLADMAT", the 13th. annual food festival in Stavanger, must have been more than happy! No rain today, and lots of people turned up to see and taste food!

The last few days the rain has been pouring down day and night, and than suddenly it stopped just before the opening of the festival!

I had a quick look around, I tried some Ethiopian food, and finished of with coffee and chocolate from Egersund. New to me.

There is reasonably priced food, and if you are willing to pay 1100 Nok. , you can have food and wine, an extreme dinner.... that also looked interesting even for us who do not spend that much money.

From the lighthouse,Tungenes.

More photos and info.later.

This is from Randaberg, just outside Stavanger.

I am always so impressed with the way they create this flowerbed!

We have had plenty of rain the last 24 hours.

Another car. This time a Chevrolet I saw at the petrol station this afternoon.

I suddenly realized that American cars can be full of beautiful details and be fun!:)

And the owner was a happy smiling guy who was ok with me taking the photo.

PUSHWAGNER is a famous Norwegian contemporary artist.

This afternoon I went to see his first exhibition here in our county.

You can read more about the artist here: http://www.pushwagner.no/

Summer has arrived!:)

Details from a very nice Swedish ship I saw at the harbor, a couple of evenings ago.

I googled the name, and you can see a photo of the ship here http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=817476

Today has been a very pleasant SUMMER DAY!:)

Sun tan lotion and sunglases!

Welcome to my new blog-follower, Mr. Paparazzo.

Last night I met this couple from Fister, (a nice place, also in the same county as our city, named Rogaland). As I told you, it has been very windy and quite cold recently, and last night was no exception.

They had their sailing yacht with them, and were planning on continuing up to Haugesund, but the weather forecast was not too good, so they joked and said that perhaps they should head back home and sit in front of the fireplace.....

Luckily, tonight we have finally got a bit of sunshine! Fantastic!

Finally, welcome to my new blog follower, Andrew Miller.

I liked the shape of this cruise ship, ATHENA, which I saw tonight.

(But I did not like all the smoke!)

There has been a small amount of sun from time to time after the morning rain, but the strong wind makes it feel really cold.

Stavanger, at 11pm.

Bach home now.

We have plenty of rain, and more to come.

But a bit of sunshine around lunch time, and I guess we will get some more soon.

It can`t go on like this much more. June was RAIN, and not since the year 1900 have we had more rain!

My neighbor shouted my name, and I rushed over to see what she was pointing at.

This toad is not a common thing for me to see....

Pretty ?

Well, a strange creature who played "dead" for quite some time.

It was nice and warm both inside and outside the greenhouse. A perfect day to find some new plants. This time I was looking for perennials. Anyway, here you see Antra from Latvia, a student who has been working both during the summer vacation and around Christmas.

I hope you will enjoy the rest of the summer work, and manage to get enough money to buy what you are aiming for back home in Latvia! Including the DOG!:)

Welcome to Andrea Gracis, as my new blog-follower.

Last night....

"Red sky at night, shepherds delight.

Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning."

We have had a beautiful summer day today!

In Stavanger the children finished school on June 21st. and are on holiday until August 22nd

Two months are more than what most parents are able to take as holiday, - so for many families it can be quite a challenge to find someone to look after the children when the parents are at work.

SUNSHINE and even nice temperatures today!

I went to the park at Bjergsted today, and saw a dance performer (from Dybwig dans )

in the park.

So out came the camera....

And I went to a FREE concert at the Consert house.

Use the opportunity if you are in Stavanger in July. Every day at 1 pm.

PS. What used to be free, is no longer free. They started selling tickets in the summer 2013.

Still waiting for the SUMMER. . . . . .

More people, -this time four crew members from one of the cruise ships. They used the chance to chat with friends and family back in The Philippines from a new port.

The man to the right, showed me a picture of his wife on his laptop. He misses her an awful lot!

They work ten week shifts and then back home for a break.

Several places in Stavanger you can find a wireless network, like this place at the Culture House.

Someone seems to have had a need to add a special touch to one of Antony Gormley`s "Broken Column" statues.

- Hope you have a nice weekend!

A couple of days back I met these four friends and neighbors from the same road in Longwell Green, Bristol, England.

Unfortunately their first stop, Stavanger, was a place with rain all day long!!

They had gone to see the Cathedral, but it did not open until 11 a.m. I suggested they could take a look around Old Stavanger and visit the Canning Museum, before they headed back to the harbor for their sight seeing boat trip along the fjord to "Pulpit Rock".

Hope you will have a good time, and enjoy the next stop at Flom!

This afternoon it is actually SUNNY here.

Welcome to my newest blog-follower, Regina Kaberlein.