After we got back from Bergen we spent the rest of my mom's time exploring the Stavanger/Rogaland region. We took one day to wander around sentrum and went to a couple of museums.
The Stavanger domkirke (dome church) is one of those buildings that I got so used to seeing and walking by that I never took the time to take a picture of it until my mom came. Here it is.
We also walked around the port area and through Old Stavanger. (I love this area, but didn't take new pictures. Click here if you want to see some pictures from our visit when we first moved to Stavanger)
Another day we took a fjord cruise through Lysefjord. This was something I had wanted to do since moving to Norway. Down this fjord are where the famous hikes Preikestolen and Kjerag are. I could have taken pictures constantly because of how gorgeous the scenery is!
Now for the fun story of traveling with small children :). I should have thought through the timing of the tour better. We rode down the fjord for about an hour without much happening other than gazing at the gorgeous fjord and going outside occasionally to take pictures. But just as I decided to get lunch out and take all the kids' warm clothes off we were suddenly pulling up to an amazing waterfall. Not only that, but they announced we could each take a cup and drink straight from the waterfall. My mom and I scrambled to get the kids dressed again and we ran outside at the tail end of them passing out water. I seriously chugged my ice cold waterfall water so we could get pictures before they drove away, ha ha!
We were able to get someone to take our pictures really fast and then the boat moved on.
Plus this amazing photo bomb. It totally looks like she is smiling for our picture.
Then...we got back inside and I thought the action was over so Lily starts eating again and I decide to nurse Oliver. Oh wait, then they announced they were stopping off to see a seal they spotted! Well, I missed that one. My mom rushed out to take Lily to see it. People were so kind on the boat, offering to show me the pictures they took and empathizing with the timing of nursing babies. Even with the hilarious scrambling to see the main attractions it was still a great cruise and we were SO happy we did it.
We rented a car for the weekend because most of what you want to see in Norway is not reachable with public transportation. It was breathtaking. What we saw made us so grateful we rented a car, and incredibly sad that we hadn't been able to experience the outdoors as much the whole year we were there. But we tried to make up for it. The first day we took a long ride. My neighbor kindly mapped out a great route from the mountains to the ocean.
I wanted to take pictures the whole time I was driving. Here are some of the quick ones I took from the window while driving.
We made it to hike to the Månafossen waterfall.
Rock steps at the beginning of the trail.
The hike was a little trickier than expected. We had to hold on to chains and pull ourselves up the rock for a lot of the hike.
But we made it to the huge waterfall!
Then we stopped at the Byrkjedal candle factory and had lunch and bought some souvenirs.
Just a few miles from the candle factory is one of the biggest rockslides, Glopedalsura.
Across the street was probably my favorite stop of the whole day trip. You can tell from all the pictures I have. The wind was powerful and biting cold, but I just wanted to stand there all day.
On our way to the beach in Brusand we got stopped by some cows.
There were some scattered houses, but mostly just rocky mountains. We also saw sheep EVERYWHERE when we drove around. (Explains why they wear so much wool in Norway.)
In Brusand there is an area called Hitler's Teeth. During World War 2 the Germans built these to prevent allied troops from entering Norway. They were never needed.
Walk to the beach.
After Oliver's blessing on Sunday we went to Utstein Abbey. It is a medieval monastery built around 1100AD. The church is still used today. The outer wall was amazing to look closely at. It was a rough rock painted white, and then around the edges they left the rock exposed making it look like a rock border.
The lake outside the abbey.
We stopped at a nearby lighthouse.
It wasn't the picturesque lighthouse like I expected to see, but it had a beautiful view of the ocean. We also stopped at a big site of German World War 2 bunkers nearby.
On my mom's last day in town we hiked Dalsnuten which we were told had a great view of Stavanger and Sandnes.
We weren't expecting the mud. It was thick and we got dirty :).
There is an amazing panoramic view of the city from up there.
And turning around the other way you see a great view of mountains.
How Oliver spent most of our explorations :)
We were so grateful my mom came to visit us! We loved that she could meet Oliver and we loved being able to explore a little more of Norway. Thanks for visiting mom!
