We arrive in port at 9am and dock right next to some office buildings pretty close to the center of town. We have not signed up for any excursions here, but intend to walk through the town center. We do have two sightseeing goals: the Stavanger Maritme Museum and, believe it nor not, the Iddis Canning Museum. Having lunch in the city is also on our agenda, but, because it’s Sunday, we aren’t sure about those possibilities.
We disembark and head to the city center. Cathy spies a map to help guide us, so we stop to check it out. We look up this lovely cobblestone street, and Cathy is reminded about another popular attraction, the well-preserved old town. It’s a beautiful, warm morning, and we decide to begin our tour of Stavanger here.
This section of the city is the best preservation lesson a town planner could ever have. Here is a short article about it from Wikipedia that explains why we say that: “Gamle Stavanger is a historic area of the city ofStavanger in Rogaland, 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 city council 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 harbor 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.”
We walk Ovre Strandgate, which is the main street of the area. Almost every house is bright white, and beautiful window boxes and gardens abound. Every house is meticulously maintained, the cobblestone streets peaceful and quiet, and, as we see many locals walking through the area, a popular place to visit on a Sunday morning. Steve could have taken a hundred pictures, but exhibits rare discipline and settles for just a few.
The views of the harbor from Ovre Strandgate are equally impressive:
And the gardens as well:
Here is just one example of how the homeowners go out of their way to make their homes special:
Even the manhole covers are artistic and historic ! :
We come upon the Iddis Museum (aka. Norwegian Canning Museum) at 10:40, but it doesn’t open until 11. Here are a couple of more photos, just to finish the tour:
Our next objective is the Stavanger Maritime Museum, and, after a couple of false starts, come upon it on Strandkaein, the busy street bordering the harbor. We enter and find two friendly reception persons. They explain what some of the exhibits are, including a new one called Seafarers At War. We are handed some documents in English to help explain what we will be seeing, and have a brief but interesting discussion with one of them about her grandfather’s service in WWII.
We spend the next hour looking over the very well-crafted exhibits, and now it’s lunchtime. We turn in our English paperwork and Cathy has a question to ask. As we walked along the street, we have seen a long row of tents, and there are signs that lead us to believe it’s something being put on by the oil industry telling everyone how green they are. Cathy asks about it. The young, attractive blonde reception person launches into commentary about them, about Elon Musk being a terrible person, and how hard Norway is working at protecting the environment. She’s all very nice about it, and now our assumption is confirmed. We leave, thanking them for the conversation and telling them what a fine museum they have.
As we walk along the Strandkaein, Cathy spots a large souvenir store. It turns out to be chock full of Norway-themed merchandise, and we find many items to bring home to family and friends. Now it’s really time for lunch, and we decide to try the café across from the Iddis Museum. We wander up steps and ramps to Strandgate again and find it. Unfortunately, they only serve coffee and related snacks, but the museum does have a restaurant.
We find our way toward the entrance, which is actually toward the back, and see a dozen small outside tables by the entrance. Cathy sits at Table 24 and Steve goes in to order. Both of us have read the menu on the wall outside the building and think fish stew would be perfect. He steps up and orders two bowls from the very young people manning the café. Answer: we don’t have fish soup , saying today, we have French onion soup. Back out to confer with Cathy. We both decide that our second choice is BLT sandwiches. Steve goes back in, only to now find out that the only thing on the menu on Sunday is soup, and French onion is it. Back out to confer once again with Cathy. Okay then, that’s what we’ll have plus water. Steve goes back in, and the very adorable and polite waitperson takes the order, Steve pays, and she tells him she’ll bring it out.
We tell you all this because, if the two young girls at the café weren’t so adorable and polite, this could be an annoying experience, but it isn’t. We get the food in less than five minutes, it’s a beautiful quiet location, and the soup is delicious. Plus, it’s served with bread, two pieces of which are shaped like fish. How cute is that!
Now we are ready to visit this unusual museum. We pick up audio equipment and a map and begin. Well, this museum offers much more than just the history of the canning industry. The sardine fishing industry was actually the catalyst for the development of the lithography (and eventually offset) printing industry in Stavanger. There were many purveyors of canned sardines, and the labels placed on the sardine cans became a critical marketing tool in the competition for consumers.
But this museum begins with a history of all methods of communication back into early human history. The first two large rooms have a series of exhibits showing the development of written language, printing and the various advances through time.
They begin with a short but thought-provoking discussion of the impact of the internet and comparing it to the earliest cave drawings. Early written language consisted only of pictures telling a story. It slowly evolved into the practically-exclusive use of alphabets. With the internet, are we heading back into pictures as the principal method of communication? Interesting thought, no?
Well, Cathy and Steve came to learn about the sardine canning industry and the exhibits of the beautifully designed labels used. So, we move ahead into that area. We spend the rest of our visit doing just that. It is just plain fascinating. The development of the printed labels, how the industry evolved from a labor-intensive one into a highly mechanized one, and some very fun exhibits of the various highly repetitive, manual tasks needed to make a can of sardines.
We absorb it all as best we can, and then are on our way. Who knew such a thing could be so fascinating? Very fun, but it’s time to return to the ship. We head down to Strandkaein again and walk toward our ship. When we reach the ship, we come upon a very fun, unexpected happening. A couple of young girls are taking videos of a man that has just caught a fish. We stop to see the action, and he brings a nice large one out of the water. We stand and watch with the two girls, cheering and congratulating the man for his catch, and he happily hams it up for the girls, saying “Drink beer, catch fish!” A fun moment.
As we walk back to the ship, we see its reflection in the glass windows of the adjacent office building. A very artsy photo op! Back on board, we fall into our afternoon routine. The ship leaves port at 6pm for the 239 nautical mile trip to our next port pf call, Skagen, Denmark.
Today has been an education, even without a planned excursion. But, in researching Stavanger for this post, Steve finds that there is much more to this large community than we could discover in a 4-hour stay. For that reason, we are going to add some more information about what is actually an important and super-healthy Stavanger and more about the history of its first huge economic boom – the sardine industry and other derivative industries that spawned from it.
From Wikipedia: “Stavanger (/stəˈvæŋər/, UK also /stæˈ-/, US usually /stɑːˈvɑːŋər, stəˈ-/, Norwegian: [stɑˈvɑ̀ŋːər]( is a city and municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city] and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the administrative center 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 center 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 rapid population growth in the late 20th century was primarily a result of Norway’s booming offshore oil industry. Today the oil industry is a key industry in the Stavanger region and the city is widely referred to 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. Immigrants make up 22.1% of Stavanger’s population. Stavanger has, since the early 2000s, consistently had an unemployment rate significantly lower than the Norwegian and European average. In 2011, the unemployment rate was less than 2%. The city is also among those that frequent various lists of most expensive cities in the world, and Stavanger 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.
In the early 20th century, Stavanger’s industry was mainly related to fisheries and shipping. In the first half of the century, it was known for canning, and in the 1950s there were over 50 canneries in town. The town was even called Norway’s “canned capital”, and included Christian Bjelland, who founded Chr Bjelland & Co. A/S. The last of these factories were closed down in 2002.” [Please forgive all the underlined words. They are links to other articles, and will not work in this post.]
And some information on the evolution of the sardine industry in Stavanger from a blog site: “At the beginning of the twentieth century, the canning industry received its definitive international breakthrough. The export volume of canned goods increased from 1.5 million kg in 1900 to 37 million kg in 1915, making it Stavanger’s most important industry. This increase can be roughly ascribed to two separate causes; a series of technical improvements in the production process and efficient international marketing of the industry products.
In the technical field, equipment and machines were developed that enabled mass production of canned goods. Important concepts in this connection are:
- Folding machines for the attachment of lids
- Threading tables enabling quicker threading of the fish onto skewers
- Decapitating machines which replaced cutting with scissors
- Pressing machines for making cans and lids
These innovations transformed canning from a manual industry into a mechanized one, resulting in the need for a type of production premises other than the old, wooden-floored, sea-fronted houses. Consequently this period is characterized by the building of brick factories.
These changes in the industry are clearly illustrated by the exhibits in the Canning Museum, where it is possible to study each improvement and the consequence it had for the working environment.”
Unfortunately, the boom years did not last. Essentially, the economy began to falter, and then the worldwide depression hit. Here is a timeline of the rise and fall of this industry in Norway in general and Stavanger in particular:
| 1914-18 | Work due to the war. Large exports and an increased number of factories. |
| 1915 | 128 factories in Norway, 48 of them in Stavanger. |
| 1920s | Economic crisis leads to many bankruptcies. Only 50% of the 180 production companies that existed in 1919 avoided a change of ownership, bankruptcy, etc. |
| 1921 | Reinert’s folding machine appears in a fully automatic version. |
| 1924 | The Canning Industry Advertising Foundation is established, its task being a joint marketing campaign abroad. |
| 1925 | 198 factories in Norway, 59 of them in Stavanger. |
| 1931 | The Canning Industry Laboratory is opened in Stavanger. This was the only specialized canning laboratory in Europe. |
| 1933 | Export of Canned Goods Act passed in the Norwegian Parliament. It introduces regulations pertaining to the distribution of raw materials and establishment of factories. |
| 1934 | 184 factories in Norway, 58 of them in Stavanger. |
| 1948 | Lubeca-Werke GmbH enters the Norwegian market with their fully automatic folding machine LW 303, capacity of approximately 3600 cans per hour. |
| 1952 | The automatic threading machine goes into use. The machine had been developed by the industry in cooperation with TRIO. Norway’s Technical School for the Canning Industry opens in Stavanger. |
| 1955 | 134 factories in Norway, 50 of them in Stavanger |
| 1955-65 | Structural changes in the canning industry.Many of the regulations from the 1930s are dispensed with. Freezer plants and ships are taken into use, making year-round production possible. The establishment of the European Common Market changes the marketing situation in Europe. The industry’s dilemma now is whether to modernize or close down. Many factories are closed down, but to total production capacity is maintained through modernization of the remaining factories. |
| 1960 | 83 factories in Norway, 38 of them in Stavanger. |
| 1968 | 48 factories in Norway, 13 of them in Stavanger. |
| 1973 | International oil crisis, resulting in a significant economic recession. |
| 1975 | Stavanger municipality appoints a committee to investigate the possibilities of a canning museum in Stavanger. |
| 1978 | 21 factories in Norway, 9 of them in Stavanger. |
| 1981 | The remaining Norwegian “sardine” producers amalgamate into one concern, Norway Foods Ltd., with its main office in Stavanger. |
| 1982 | Official opening of the Norwegian Canning Museum. Norway Foods Ltd. decides to close down the last factory in Stavanger, the Chr. Bjelland & Co. A.s production plant at Verven. Production closed down during the spring of 1983.Today, King Oscar is one of Norway Foods Ltd.’s most well-known trademark. |
| 1985 | Boycott of South Africa leads to an export decline of 10% for Norway Foods Ltd. |
| 1990 | 4 production plants in Norway. |
| 1994 | Norway Foods Ltd. is awarded the American prize for successful marketing strategy. The concern has a considerable profit. The factories in Skånevik, Eikelandsosen and on Askøy had a combined production of 30 million cans, 90% were exported. The entire work force of Norway Foods Ltd. is 280. |
We hope you understand why we had to finish the story. It’s just such an unusual one, and we wanted to discuss it accurately after visiting the Iddis Museum.
On to Skagen, Denmark!
