Norwegian Jade - Fjords Cruise 25 August - 3 September -Day 3- Haugesund

[Jack Staff]

The day started as cloudy and wet, but the on-board weatherreport stated that we should expect scattered showers. We arrived in Haugesund at 8:00 am It is necessary to take the free shuttle from the port into the town centre which we did and the drop off and collection point was outside the church.

We had decided to visit the ‘Norwegians Birthplace’ at Alvernes where Harald Fairhair the first king of Norway lived and there are local buses (No 209 & 210) from the bus station that is about one or two blocks from the church. The driver can give change, so the exact fare is unnecessary and its about 35NOK each way -we found the driver very helpful. After getting off the bus its about a 15/20 min walk to theViking Centre and farm -just head towards St Olves church which can be clearly seen.

 

The path near the centre leads to a short set of spiral steps and I did wonder were the centre was – on descending the steps I realised itwas built into the hill and the windows looked out over the water -it started to rain.

Tickets into the centre wereabout 150 NOK and covered both the history centre and access to the farm. The reception had the usual souvenirs and some information, and we were wondering what we had paid for however the staff gathered us together and gave each of us a small cylindrical hand set and a earpiece and took us down more steps to a small cinema where we watched a short film (made even shorter by a power cut) on Norse legends. Following this we were directed into a large space where the heads sets helped describe the exhibits.

 

We enjoyed the experience.

 

After the history centre it’s a 15-minute walk to the farm , although we enjoyed the rather wet walk (it was raining) the farm did not impress. The village was populated by school children who were dressed in Viking clothes and it seems on some sort of experience trip.

 

On the way back to the centre we intended to visit St Olves church but as with many ancient monuments it was closed while refurbishment was carried out. So, a wet walk back to the bus stop (scattered showers seem to be all day and over all!).

 

 

We took the shuttle to return to the ship where we decided not to go to the theatre that night – the performance was a singer ( Karl Loxley) who we had seen in the embarkation day review and although we though he was good it was not for us. We enjoyed dinner in Alizar (the rotisserie chicken was huge) .