While I love living on the farm in Norway, the serenity and nature all around is soothing; there’s a part of me that gets the itch for city life. So a day trip into the city is a welcome excursion. 

Jorpeland, the small town where I live on the southwest coast of Norway, is just across the Boknafjord from Stavanger. It’s merely a forty minute bus ride. Once, it would have required a ferry transfer but now there is the longest and deepest underwater tunnel in the world making the connection. The 14.4 km(8.9 mi) Ryfylke Tunnel was completed in 2019 and has made a huge impact for commuters and travelers. There is an efficiency of traffic streaming continuously, rather than the pile up as the ferry would arrive and let loose a seemingly endless line of cars. There has also been a change in scenery as the excess soil from digging the tunnel was deposited on this side of the fjord and it was used to create a nice park and path along the water next to the bus terminal. Driving through the tunnel is seamless and takes about 10 minutes, with a few light design features to give some pops of color as you drive through, and signal how far into the tunnel journey you have gone. My partner made an awesome video of the passage. 

It’s easy to relax on the ride through the tunnel because the Norwegian buses are so nice. I’ve been on a lot of public transportation in my travels and these local buses are top notch. Some of them are like coach buses, and even the smaller ones have cushioned comfortable seats. Every seat has a seat belt for safety, which is required by law. The buses are sometimes stopped for checks and you’ll get a citation if you’re not wearing the seat belt. On one bus I saw a child seat but it didn’t belong to anyone. When I asked my partner about it he said it’s the law for children under a certain age, so the bus provides it. The social services provided here continue to be shocking to me, as an American. On the bus, I watch the scenery out the window as it emerges from the tunnel and then heads over the bridge to Stavanger. 

Stavanger is a port city and there’s a nice wide walkway that goes along the water with shops and restaurants up each side street. The path turns towards the center of the city along a small inlet that goes right up to the main square. There’s a row of buildings with the old style facades similar to Dutch cities, casting beautiful reflections in the water. From the center you can continue along the water’s edge leading you to the old historic district, which has beautiful houses with stonework, gardens, and little benches on the narrow streets. You could also head through the square to a small lake next to the cathedral, or start wandering the cobblestone streets as you get further from the port. The streets wind up and down the slight hills, some wide and others practically an alley, and there are a few that are bursting with color from the buildings each having their own hue. Stavanger is a very walkable city, many streets have no cars, and there is some nice scenery as you get further up the hill; narrow views down a street with the boats and mountains in the background. 

There are a lot of options for activities in Stavanger. After wandering the streets, doing some shopping and checking out the library, I went to the Norwegian Petroleum Museum. Stavanger is a hub of the oil industry in Norway and this museum gives a really comprehensive tour of the ins and outs of what it has meant for Norway to find oil offshore. I found the displays really informative and there was a wide variety of styles. The digital displays were excellent, taking you on a prehistoric tour of how the oil was trapped and formed deep under the ocean, and another that was an immersive projection of the process of retrieving the resources and equipment used. Throughout the museum are models of rigs, drills, escape vessels and diving equipment. After taking in all the models you can also go outside onto platforms that stick out over the water as if you were on a rig, and you can even make your way down in an emergency escape chute(which I of course tried out). The information in the museum is so interesting and also includes the darker side, detailing the accidents and tragedies that have occurred and also a number of sections that interrogate the impact that the oil industry has had on the world, for good and bad. It was a really impressive collection and curation of the industry. The Petroleum museum is only one of many museums in Stavanger that are worth a visit, so I will certainly be back to explore more. 

Stavanger is a bustling city with a lot to offer. Being easily accessible for commuters and local visitors; having a variety of activities for tourists from the region as well as the cruise ship clientele; and boasting beautiful architecture and surrounding vistas; all make Stavanger a city well worth a day trip or longer excursion. It does wonders for me when I need to escape the quiet farm life and let my city girl side get her fix.