Our first port was the only one I had not been to previously: Stavanger. We were there on 17 May, which is Norway's national Constitution Day holiday which was a fabulous bit of luck (and I would now actively look for cruises which have me in port in Norway on May 17).
While we were eating breakfast up in the ship's buffet, we could already see more and more locals walking into town past the ship, all dressed for the occasion--so we finished eating quickly and hurried off assuming things would be starting earlier in the day than we initially anticipated.
Once off the ship we learned that the main parade would be at 4:00 pm (too late for us, as all aboard was at 4:00) and the children's parade at 10:00 (starting in about half an hour). Stavanger has a population of about 120,000 and from the looks of things just about everybody in town came out for the children's parade---all lining the streets and all dressed in either traditional costumes or nicer dresses and suits. Seriously, I think the only people not dressed for the occasion were us dowdy tourists (if I am ever in Norway on May 17 again I know to wear a nice dress!). Most people also had Norwegian flags to wave (we, along with others from the ship, stopped in several open tourist shops trying to buy our own--alas all were sold out).
Thousands of kids, from kindergarten up to highschool walked the parade route with their school groups or in bands. Again, every last one of them dressed for the occasion, many chanting or singing, some dancing the entire route, and amazingly pretty much everyone looking like they were having a genuinely good time and laughing and smiling----I can't imagine telling a few thousand American or German kids and teens to don suits and ties or dresses, and dress shoes and walk a parade and seeing them all happily participating. I took a heck of a lot of photos because I was so enchanted, so bear with me and scroll on past quickly if you are less enthralled than I was (which, ok, I admit I am probably the only person THIS enthralled by it all--I adore local festivals and cute kids):
A mother and young daughter walk to the route to watch the parade
This family was watching the parade across the road from us
Scouts!
notice all the people watching in the background--when did you ever see such a well dressed bunch of parade viewers?
Students from the Stavanger British School wore sashes over their school uniforms
This groups appears to have danced the entire route (about 2 kilometers)
As the first groups finished the route, we noticed kids heading up the hillside to watch the others continue the parade down below.
Graduates in Norway all seem to wear these sort of work pants/overalls with the year and their names, etc on the legs--we saw the same thing in Aselund two years ago.
The group of highschool kids bringing up the rear were just as loud and exuberant as those at the start
After the parade, locals headed in droves to restaurants along the wharf, or home in the area or just walked around town and stopped to enjoy live music in front of the cathedral from time to time. It was clear that the celebration was only just beginning and that everyone planned to be out and enjoying one another's company for man hours yet. We took some time to enjoy exploring the small city:
This family were taking turns taking photos of the group and we offered to take one of all of them--they kindly allowed us take one for ourselves as well and chatted for a bit---the grandmother was telling us proudly about which of the historic white clapboard homes was hers.
Many locals were having their parties on boats and yachts docked in the harbor
View from the ship--we popped back on for a quick lunch before exploring more
These clapboard houses are part of the historic old town up on the hill
It's rather jarring to see the big, modern ship popping up behind the homes---I wonder how residents feel about the ships docking throughout the summer?
Shortly before 1:00 everyone started to line the streets again--leaving parties and taking places on the curb--we thought perhaps we had been misinformed about the main parade being at 4:00 . . .
Nope! The main parade was at 4:00---at 1:00 the graduates all walked in their class groupings while what seemed to be the entire town came out to cheer them on---I love that kind of support for one another
Here's one of the classes--after their walk through town they went to the courtyard of their school to sing and continue celebrating together
It's a good thing the ship docks right in town---the few restaurants open were booked solid with celebrants and we would have had no chance at getting a table
The Nobel Prize committee meets in Stavanger: along the wharf are the footprints of past winners including the Dali Lama and Al Gore
All in all this was one of my favourite port days ever--a storybook town with super friendly people who were just all having fun and celebrating together. Perfection.
--Hadley
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