GOING WITH THE FLOW: Scandinavia Part Nine

Sometimes the journey is as much fun as getting there, and the detours can be the best part. Our journey to Stavanger was one of those times.

Just to give some context for this, we'd debated how to get to Stavanger and - with our minds understanding a 'ferry' to be like the catamarans used for short crossings - had vetoed sailing to Stavanger, deciding instead on a noon time sailing to Kristiansand with a bus trip to Sandnes.

We'd bought tickets the day before (we thought) for the morning train to Hirtshals, made it in time to Randers station and all was going well....until......

Um, the tickets for the train? Turned out only to be the reservations. No ticket = big fine. EXCEPT we have the favour of God and walk in grace. The conductor recognised we'd done our best and thankfully allowed us to buy our tickets there and then without any fine. Thank you Jesus.

Praising him for our favour and prompt arrival (it was a mega tight schedule) we also arrived in time to do a sprint from the train station to the ferry terminal AND made it in time for boarding the noon catarmaran......except it wasn't sailing! Seriously! After all our searching, planning, praying and RUNNING (with the luggage you see above), we hadn't seen the small Norwegian print that said that week the boats were in for maintenance and there would be no noon crossing!

Not allowing ourselves to be phased, we took a taxi over to the other ferry terminal with plans to sail with them at dinner instead.....only to hear the same story! Seriously! Two ferry companies with boats in for service and small print on the website to tell us. In Norwegian. And Danish. This unexpected (for us) maintenance meant we'd now spend the day in the ferry terminal and catch an overnight boat to Stavanger. Ten hours crossing the North Sea in March following something like an eight hour wait. And what a blessing it was!!!!

We all needed a bit of a down day anyway, and although we'd have been sitting if we traveled, it's not quite the same thing. The terminal wasn't uncomfortable, we had snacks and hot drinks on hand, free wifi (praise the Lord!) and a wonderful sea view. Lisa and I decided to go for a walk and found this little gift sitting outside the terminal building......

City bikes!

We later guessed they must have been some employee's way of getting round, but for then they were a gift to us!

These bikes are free to use - just drop in a deposit like a shopping cart. Great idea!

We hopped on, braved the wind and headed in what we thought was the direction of town to see what snacks we could find.

It was great to get out in the fresh air, and we met a man who led us to a Kiwi store (yes we followed a stranger who spoke no English so it was never clear if we were going to arrive at the store or were just following him home!) where we stocked up on snacks.

We stopped to explore some of the WWII bunkers and the harbour area before returning to our camp in the ferry terminal. Blues skies, fresh breeze, colourful grafitti and hardly a person round made it hard to imagine what it was like back in the winters of the war as Allied troups landed on the shores hoping to penetrate Europe. Even harder to imagine was the hours spent in those cold, dark, damp stone bunkers and - like visiting any war building or museum - I emerged thankful for those who have served and given their life for my freedom.

The trip just got better as we boarded our 'ferry' to find that it is, in fact, one of the boats (newest in the fleet) used for Nordic cruises and came complete with TV, heated bathroom floor, shower and all the restaurants and entertainment you'd expect on a cruise. Talk about an unexpected surprise! Now, I'm not sure that it would hold up for more than a couple of days without getting boring because it wasn't actually all THAT big, but for the evening it was MORE than adequate for our needs. We all got some duty free shopping in, a good night's sleep, amazing sunrise and a great breakfast buffet before arriving early in Stavanger ready to hit the road for a full day of ministry. The trip back was NOT so pleasant.....but that's another story!