My Adventures 3: P&O Iona

On Monday 30th June 2025 I woke up early walked up on deck to see the sunrise as we sailed towards Stavanger,Norway on P&O Iona.

I walked to the bow of the ship where the Crows Nest bar is, hoping to see Stavanger in the distance, seems its still too early.

The Crow's Nest Bar on Iona.

I sit back down at the Aft of the ship and grab a coffee from the Horizons Buffet and watch the sunrise.

I return to the cabin for a bit more sleep before we had breakfast at Horizons and eventually we were sailing into Stavanger. Once docked we prepared for our first trip off the ship.

We had a good view or Stavanger from Iona, whilst at anchor.

Stavanger is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighbouring Sandnes) and the administrative centre of Rogaland county. The municipality is the fourth most populous in Norway. Located on the Stavanger Peninsula in southwest Norway, Stavanger counts its official founding year as 1125, the year the Stavanger Cathedral was completed. Stavanger's core is to a large degree 18th- and 19th-century wooden houses that are protected and considered part of the city's cultural heritage. This has caused the town centre and inner city to retain a small-town character with an unusually high ratio of detached houses, and has contributed significantly to spreading the city's population growth to outlying parts of Greater Stavanger.

The city's population rapidly grew in the late 20th century due to its oil industry. Stavanger is known today as the Oil Capital of Norway. Norwegian energy company Equinor, the largest company in the Nordic region, has its headquarters in Stavanger. Multiple educational institutions for higher education are located in Stavanger. The largest of these is the University of Stavanger.

Domestic and international military installations are located in Stavanger, including the NATO Joint Warfare Centre. Other international establishments, and especially local branches of foreign oil and gas companies, contribute further to a significant foreign population in the city. The city has a strong international profile and 22.1% of the population has an immigrant background. In 2020, it was rated as the most liveable city for European expatriates in Norway as well as 5th in Europe by ECA International. Stavanger has, since the early 2000s, consistently had an unemployment rate significantly lower than the European average. In August 2022, the unemployment rate was 1.6%. The city also appears on various lists of most expensive cities in the world, and it has even been ranked as the world's most expensive city by certain indices.

The climate of the city is very mild by Nordic standards due to a strong maritime influence. As a result, winter usually remains above freezing whereas heat waves are rare and seldom long. Rainfall is common, although less so than in areas further north on the coastline.

We eventually found out we needed to be on deck 3 to disembark and the deck 3 is only accessible from the lifts on midship.

Right next to the ship we walk pass the Tourist Information centre and a Stavanger Mural on its side wall.

An impressive artwork by Gonzo247, Stavanger and Houston being sister cities with an oil industry link, this artwork was unveiled by the US Ambassador to the US and the Mayor of Stavanger in 2018.

We stop to get a photo of Iona in Stavanger Cruise port.

The Port of Stavanger is one of Norway’s largest cruise ports, welcoming many hundreds of thousands of visitors during the season.

The Stavanger region offers its visitors a unique blend of spectacular nature and international cultural experiences. Stavanger town centre is small and compact with an excellent range of specialist shops, well-known chain stores, friendly cafes and essential services such as chemists, cash machines and tourist information. Everything at your fingertips the moment you disembark in Stavanger.

One of many Trolls that Norway is known for.

Norwegian trolls are mythical creatures deeply embedded in Scandinavian folklore, often depicted as large, strong, and sometimes mischievous beings living in the wilderness. They are frequently associated with mountains, forests, and other secluded natural locations, with stories suggesting they can turn to stone when exposed to sunlight.

Just around the port is where a lot of people from Iona are boarding boats for trips or R.I.B rides.

We reach the Sjøfartsmonumentet monument at the end of the port.

The monumental sculpture from 1968 is located in Stavanger harbour.

The sculpture is a tribute to seafarers, and can be seen as three hull shaped elements extending from a single point, accompanied by elements from standing rigging and sails.

It is colloquially referred to as "the shrimp".

We walk around and along Skagenkaien and pass the pretty buildings here.

Skagenkaien is a street in Stavanger that runs along the eastern side of Vågen from Torget in the south to Øvre Holmegate in the north. The name Skagen comes from Old Norse skagi which means cape, and Skagenkaien gets its name from the city's oldest street, Skagen, which is located just behind.

In the evening and at night, Skagenkaien is perhaps the city's liveliest street with its many nightclubs, pubs, bars, restaurants and nightlife. There are also several hotels, shops and offices in the old 19th century sea houses .

Skagenkaien looking north towards Tollboden in yellow and Victoria Hotel in red.

The festival city has become a concept, and most events in connection with MaiJazz , the Humor Festival , World Tour Sand Volleyball , the Troubadour Festival and not least the Gladmat Festival take place in or near Skagenkaien, in the middle of Stavanger's most prominent tourist area.

The innermost part of the pier along Skagenkaien is a guest harbour for small boats in Stavanger, while further out, tourist boats go to the Lysefjord for sightseeing and guided boat trips from Skagenkaien to Flor and Fjære . The Blue Promenade runs along Vågen, also along Skagenkaien.

Skagenkaien is known for its beautiful waterfront houses. Today, there are around 60 waterfront houses left of the original 250 houses. Skagenkaien 16 is a waterfront house from 1770 , centrally and charmingly located along Skagenkaien with a view of Vågen and the house is known for the restaurant Sjøhuset Skagen .

In the summer, the entire Skagenkaien is closed to traffic and transformed into a busy pedestrian street, with outdoor seating and stalls in connection with the many festivals in the city.

We walk up Øvre Holmegate and pass the pretty shops and buildings and pass the SHIT Skate Shop.

Øvre Holmegate or Fargegata is a street in the centre of Stavanger . The wooden houses here are colored in turquoise, pink and various varieties of green. The buildings in Øvre Holmegate in the centre of Stavanger, located between Kirkegata and Østervåg , are part of the project Kul Kultur.

The street may have originated as far back as the Middle Ages , and is drawn on Ulrik Fredrik Aagaard's map from 1727.

For many years, Holmen was a kind of Achilles heel of urban development. The area north of Breigata was dead and grey; mostly reserved for pubs and shops that could not afford the rent elsewhere in the city centre. Now Holmen is vital and alive, while there is still room for the small shops that cannot afford six-figure monthly rent. The colour idea became a project within the Partnership for the City Centre in Stavanger. And it was the colour-loving immigrant Tom Kjørsvik who came up with the idea.

Houses at the intersection of Østervåg and Øvre Holmegate. The houses in Øvre Holmegate are particularly colourful.

For four and a half years he worked to colour Øvre Holmegate, in a way no street has been painted in this country. When Kjørsvik contacted the visual artist Craig Flannagan in 2005 to create a concrete plan, a successful colour scheme was approved by the Stavanger municipality and the respective owners.

The area's renaissance began in the autumn of the same year when Kjørsvik wanted to do something unique with Øvre Holmegate. The street is bathed in life, and is highlighted by Ingrid Hart as one of the main reasons for the increasing turnover in Stavanger city centre. As of 22 September 2005, the street was officially closed to car traffic.

On the corner of Kirkegata and Øvre Holmegate were the premises of the Farmers' Union from 1911 to 1996. On the first floor was the Matstova, on the second the main hall, and on the third the little hall and office. It was a gathering place for young people who came to the city, especially from Ryfylke. On Sunday evenings there was an open dance, and many found life partners here. Stavanger Kredittbank started here in 1865, but went bankrupt in 1889. The premises were taken over by the Postal Service in 1891, which remained there until 1911, with the telegraph office on the second floor. Since May 2000, the house has been run by "Gaffel & Karaffel".

The next houses burned down in the late 1970s, and stood as a gaping fire site until 2008. Today, there is a mixture of homes and shops in these houses. In the first house, Christian Bjelland had his offices for several years, after they moved from the Berner building in Skagen.

The corner building facing Valberggata was a hotel for many years, and before that it was a photography studio for Hanchen Jacobsen.

In the opposite quarter was the Stavanger lithographic institute.

At the end of the road we turn right onto Østervåg.

Østervåg Street is today a lively shopping street.

In the 18th century, Østervåg Street was counted from where Skolebekken flowed into the sea just off Søregata, to the intersection with Øvre Holmegate. Østervåg Street started at the intersection with Klubbgata and ended at Nedre Holmegate .

The street gets its name from the cliff outside.

Turning onto Sølvbergatta we pass the sculpture of Cornelius Cruys.

Cornelius Cruys (born Niels Olufsen; 14 June 1655 – 14 June 1727) was a Norwegian-born naval officer who served in the Dutch States Navy and Imperial Russian Navy. He was the first commander of the Russian Baltic Fleet.

We stop at McDonalds on Søregata for some drinks before we walk on.

We visit a few souvenir shops and one with a Christmas Shop.

Back near the port we reach Stavanger Catherdral. There is a entrance fee and we decide not to enter.

Stavanger Cathedral is Norway's oldest cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Stavanger who leads the Diocese of Stavanger in the Church of Norway. It is located in the centre of the city of Stavanger which lies in the southwestern part of the large Stavanger Municipality in central Rogaland county, Norway. The church is situated in the centre of the city, in the borough of Storhaug between Breiavatnet in the south, the square with Vågen in the north west, the cathedral square in the north, and Kongsgård in the southwest.

It is one of the two churches for the Domkirken og St. Petri parish which is part of the Stavanger domprosti (arch-deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger. The grey, stone church was built in a long church style around the year 1125 using designs by an unknown architect. The church seats about 800 people.

We walk pass the Cathderal and down Kirkegata and pass Gut Og Ponni (Boy on The Horse) Statue.

Boy and pony to Stavanger Municipality from Hetland Sparebank at the bank's 75th anniversary on January 2, 1976.

We walk on through this pretty city.

The first traces of settlement in the Stavanger region come from the days when the ice retreated after the last ice age c. 10,000 years ago. A number of historians have argued convincingly that North-Jæren was an economic and military centre as far back as the 9th and 10th centuries with the consolidation of the nation at the Battle of Hafrsfjord around 872. Stavanger grew into a centre of church administration and an important south-west coast market town around 1100–1300.

We reach Valberget Utsiktspunkt (Valberg Tower) on Valberget.

View across the port to Iona.

We pay the entrance fee for us to climb the steps of the tower to get views across Stavanger.

Valberget is a small hill in the centre of Stavanger . On Valberget there are a few houses, a large tower ( Valbergtårnet ), paved roads and a small park (Valbergsparken).

The name originally means "Falkberget", after the Old Norse word "valr" for falcon. The pronunciation was originally "Valbergje". Linguistically, it was previously said that people who lived at Valberget lived in Valberget. Those who lived on the lower side of Valberget towards the sea lived "under Valberget".

The eastern part of Valberget was part of the king's estate in Stavanger in the Middle Ages.

Valberget is first mentioned in writing in the fiscal year 1602-1603. At that time, Claus Reinildsen lived at Valberget. He paid ground rent to the king, who then owned the land.

In 1656, a house for the executioner was built at the city's expense on Valberget.

Before today's tower, there were also older watchtowers. In 1658-1659, a watchtower with a clock was erected on Valberget. In 1716, the watchtower functioned both as a watchtower against enemy ships during the Great Northern War and against fire. In 1736, it was decided that it was the citizens' responsibility to repair the tower. In 1770 the tower was made of timber and "breder". The tower was not high, but extended far, especially to the east and south. There were also a number of houses on Valberget. A watchman kept watch in the tower every night.

In 1830, a proposal was made for the city to build a new watchtower. In 1837, the tower with clock was valued at 320 riksdaler.

The tower that stands today was built in the years 1850-1852 as a lookout tower for the city's watchmen, and is 26.66 metres high. The year 1850 is written above the door, and 1852 on the weather vane . It is built of granite from one of the islands in Boknafjorden .

During the war, the Germans had a guard post in the Valberg Tower. The entire Skagen Quay was undermined and could be blown up from the Valberg Tower.

We leave the tower and head back to the port and down the hill.

We walk back the way we came and just before the cruise port and Iona we take a side road and walk up to Gamle (the old town).

Gamle Stavanger is a historic area of the city of Stavanger which is located in Stavanger Municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The area consists largely of restored wooden buildings which were built in the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century.

In the aftermath of World War II, a new city plan was created for Stavanger. It included razing most of the old wooden buildings in the city centre and replacing them with new modern structures in concrete. One single voice spoke up against this plan, and today it is recognized that Gamle Stavanger owes its existence to Einar Hedén (1916-2001), then City Architect of Stavanger. In 1956 the municipal council of Stavanger Municipality voted to conserve part of the old city centre.

The area selected for conservation was the one considered the least desirable, consisting of small rundown wooden buildings located on the western side of Vågen, the inner harbour area of Stavanger. This area has a selection of preserved wood houses dating from both the 19th and 20th century. Some of the houses are owned by the municipality, but most are privately owned. Over the years the area has changed from seedy to trendy, and today is considered a choice location for the urban-minded with a sense of history. Gamle Stavanger has grown such that it now covers more than 250 buildings most of which are small, white wooden cottages. The area also includes the Norwegian Canning Museum which displays a typical factory from the 1920s.

Stavanger Municipality has received several awards for the preservation of Gamle Stavanger. During the Council of Europe's 1975 European Architectural Year, Gamle Stavanger, together with the historic fishing village of Nusfjord in Nordland and the former mining town of Røros in Sør-Trøndelag, were identified as examples of how conservation of old buildings may well coincide with use, and how rehabilitation can be done without loss of character.

Stavanger fulfilled an urban role prior to its status as city (1125), from around the time the Stavanger bishopric was established in the 1120s. Bishop Reinald, who may have come from Winchester, England, is said to have started construction of Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger domkirke) around 1100. It was finished around 1125, and the city of Stavanger counts 1125 as its year of foundation.

With the Protestant Reformation in 1536, Stavanger's role as a religious centre declined, and the establishment of Kristiansand in the early 17th century led to the relocation of the bishopric. However, rich herring fisheries in the 19th century gave the city new life.

The city's history is a continuous alternation between economic booms and recessions. For long periods of time its most important industries have been shipping, shipbuilding, the fish canning industry and associated subcontractors.

In 1969, a new boom started as oil was first discovered in the North Sea.After much discussion, Stavanger was chosen to be the on-shore center for the oil industry on the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, and a period of hectic growth followed.

On 1 January 2020, the neighbouring municipalities of Finnøy and Rennesøy merged with Stavanger to form a new, larger municipality

One of the most important events in Stavanger's city history was the gift letter that King Magnus Erlingsson gave to Stavanger Bishop Eirik Ivarsson in the second half of the 1100s. Exactly when the king made this gift letter, and under what circumstances it happened, is unknown. It may have been in 1163–1164, in connection with the King Magnus's coronation, but could also have been around 1181–1184, in connection with the support Stavanger Bishop Erik gave King Magnus at the end of the king's fight against the late King Sverre.

It is undoubtedly correct to characterize Stavanger as a church city throughout the Middle Ages, up to the Reformation. The Reformation, however, dealt a hard blow to the Church in specific and Stavanger in general. The cathedral, the bishop and canons of the monastery had been large landowners. Recession of the city began with the loss of people in rural areas, as a result of which the revenues of the cathedral and the bishop fell dramatically due to reduced rental income. In 1537 the bishop's and the monastery's estate and property was confiscated by the king. Kongsberg was plundered by Christoffer Trondsen in 1539, at which time St. Swithun's casket disappeared and Bishop Hoskuld Hoskuldsson may have been executed.

The Old Norse form of the name was Stafangr. The origin of the name has been discussed for decades, and the most used interpretation is that it originally was the name of the inlet now called Vågen, which was the original site of the city, on the east shore of the bay.

The first element of the name is stafr meaning 'staff' or 'branch'. This could refer to the form of the inlet, but also to the form of the mountain Valberget (Staven meaning 'the staff,' is a common name of high and steep mountains in Norway). The last element is angr meaning 'inlet, bay'. Facing the North Sea, Stavanger has always been economically dependent on its access to the sea.