Day 28: Stavanger

NORDKAPP 2024

7/30/20244 min read

Exploring Stavanger

I did my laundry in the morning, so it was almost noon when I drove through the 14.4 km long underwater tunnel to Stavanger. There's not much traffic in the tunnel because the toll is high. But motorcycles are exempt from the toll, so luckily, I was able to use the underwater tunnels on this trip for free.

Cars have to pay about €15 each way to pass through the tunnel. When a vehicle enters the tunnel, the cameras scan the license plate and then charge the credit card. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration operates a website (https://www.autopass.no/) where you can register your vehicle’s license plate and link it to a credit card with which you pay the toll. Those who do not use this web portal, including foreigners, are supposedly sent the invoice by post.

Because the toll is so expensive, locals don’t use the tunnel very often. There are no monthly passes with reduced rates. My hosts, for example, both work in Stavanger and take the bus there and back.

The second picture below shows the illuminated hall on the half of the tunnel, where the backlight changes color every few days (I saw yellow and blue).

Visiting a friend in Stavanger

My first stop in Stavanger was to visit another friend from 35 years ago who I hadn’t met on Sunday, so I stopped at his house. I wanted to surprise him and didn’t tell him I was coming. He was really surprised and recognized me after all these years. We sat and talked for hours and later his wife joined us.

Norwegian Petroleum Museum

I wanted to visit a few museums, but there was only enough time for one, so I decided on the Norsk Oljemuseum – the Norwegian Petroleum Museum in Stavanger. It tells the story of the oil industry from its beginnings to the present day. The Norwegian government controlled the entire industry and channeled the profits into a state-controlled investment fund, which today accounts for about 2% of the world's stock. Strict rules apply to the use of these investments. Only around 4% of the annual profits may be spent, the rest must remain in investments. This funds currently contain about €270,000 in investments per every Norwegian! Despite this wealth, Norwegians are very frugal in their spending and want to preserve this wealth for future generations.

The technology used on oil platforms is simply amazing! The safety and worker protection standards are also very high. These platforms are located at sea, about 45 minutes by helicopter from land.

Interesting encounter in the old city center

After leaving the museum, I drove along the waterfront into the city center and the old town and saw a large number of motorcycles – I would say at least 12 – parked in front of a Victoria Hotel near the old town. They were almost all BMWs, at least half of them were the latest GS 1300s, each costing over €25,000. I went closer to see where they were from, and – lo and behold – they all had Slovenian license plates. There was no one to talk to, but I guessed they were a tour group from Adriatic Moto Tours, a company from Ljubljana that organizes motorcycle tours all over Europe. I know one of their tour guides who told me a few years ago that they were looking into the possibility of running the tours in Norway too. And here they are. With temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius on the European mainland and in southern Europe, a tour in Norway, where the average temperature in July is 18 to 20 degrees, is something very special. The only downside is that it rains quite often. But better rain every few days than sweating every day, right?