Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Norway for Christmas 3

Its Christmas Eve and we have plenty of preparations to do for tomorrow. D had to be in the office first thing, then we wandered into Stavanger for a coffee. Sadly, most places were closed but we did manage to squeeze into a busy Cafe Francaise. Back at the flat, we decided to watch Polar Express, a great Christmas Eve movie! Then we ate pasta with a tomato, chillie and caper sauce. Before going to bed, we walked to Gamle Stavanger and strolled through the old town looking at the decorations and seeing families eating traditional Norwegian Christmas Eve Dinner together. Down on the harbour, there were some lovely reflections in the water and as we walked back the bells started ringing and lots of people were making their way to the cathedral for the late night service.

Christmas Day and we had a bit of a lie in. We planned to eat the turkey later on, so decided to walk up to Vaulen Tourette to work up an appetite. The view from there is panoramic. It was a swimming pool at one time and must have been amazing to swim with the views of the mountains and the city spread out around you! Now its a bit derelict, which is a pity, but they fly a huge Norwegian flag on high days and holidays and today was no exception.  We wandered back down, walking by the lake, which is partially frozen. The birds were having fun on the ice, skating along and making spectaular, skiddy landings. Lots of folk were out , so the display attracted quite a crowd.  We dragged ourselves away back to the flat and our Christmas meal.

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