Haugesund Port: Skudeneshavn, St. Olav's Church and Nordvegan History Center

Heather on our balcony before we left Amsterdam

Here's a view of our balcony as we came into the Haugesend,
our first port of call early in the morning.

Moving back so you can see our "living room area". The
king sized bed is briefly in the foreground. We had a "Spa
Veranda" room on the 10th floor. 

In line for the public bus in Haugesund. - they had a day
Senior Pass and frequent times.

The historic and charming town of Skudeneshavn and our only glimpse of blue sky that day. But thankfully it never rained.

A variety of boats were docked throughout the
town but strangely we saw very few residents.

These lovely wooden boats were a delight to see.

A Viking long house at the Viking History Museum at
Nordvegen. We took another bus here and then had a lovely
20 minute walk through some pretty countryside.

King Hjor and his wife Ljufvina with their
two sons. She was a Mongolian princess he
brought back to rule with him at this site.All
of this history is related in Sagas and both
this story and that of Harald Fairhair lack
contemporary evidence.

St. Olaf's Church built in 1250 and resotred
in 1929. The Germans in WWII wanted to
tear it down as it was a landmark for Allied
planes but the townspeople camouflaged it by
covering it with wooden posts and nets in only
two days to save it.

The view from the fjord. The Royal palace and seat of government for Noway was here at Alvaldsnes. This point over
looked the narrowest part of the fjord and controlled traffic into a great part of Norway.

A burial ground surrounds the church and dates back to pre
Christian times. An earlier wooden church was probably
built here as early as 1,000 AD when Christianity first came
to this area.

The first King of Norway, Harald Fairhair was the narrator
for the excellent film on the early history of Norway.