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I flew from Ithaca to Newark, Newark to London, then London to Stavanger. We landed to the west at Heathrow (I don't recall if it was Runway 27R or 27L), flying over the River Thames, and getting a good view of downtown London, including the London Eye, Parliament, and the phallic Swiss Re building in business center. I was using my regular 50mm lens and the pictures came out surprisingly well. We were probably around 2000-3000 feet up at the time.
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The Tower Bridge is the right-most bridge, and the Swiss Re buidling is visible...(more)
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The Millennium bridge (footbridge) is visible as the fourth bridge from the...(more)
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Looking east back towards London. Thinking about it, since we were heading...(more)
I arrived in Stavanger, Norway on May 17,
which is National Day in Norway. By the time I got to the hotel, it
was around 4pm and I had missed most of the National Day activities.
People from the Honeynet Workshop were gathering at the House of
Fingerfood somewhere in downtown Stavanger, so I figured I'd go
there.
I hadn't really put much thought into the
fact that I'm pretty poor at navigating, I wasn't really sure
exactly where I was going, I hadn't slept on the red-eye flight
and it was now about 11pm for me, so I had been running on no sleep
for about a day and a half. Also, apparently in the older section
of Stavanger, street signs do not appear frequently. Also, it was
cold and rainy. I had a map, but I was short on clues.
I did manage to find the restaurant eventually, and the timing
wasn't bad, as dinner was going to start in a few minutes,
and I saw a National Day parade with lots of people, dressed
in traditional Norwegian costumes, with lots of Norway flags.
So it was a bit of an adventure, in a good way.
The parade was in Old Stavanger (Gamle Stavanger), with narrow streets and old buildings. I was trying to find the restaurant but got distracted by the parade. It was hard to find streets that were labeled or ones that appeared on the hotel map I had. After much wandering, I found a landmark and was able to orient myself and get to the restaurant. Afterwards I wandered around Old Stavanger a little before heading back to the hotel. I was quite tired by that point.
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Valberg Tower (Valbergtårnet), an old watchtower at the top of a hill, the...(more)
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I thought this was just some sort of stylized sculpture of a Nordic Rune. ...(more)
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A side view of the Stavanger Cathedral, with the Soltreet sculpture next to...(more)
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The side of the cathedral with some tulips in the foreground and a sculpture in...(more)
I had switched over to Norwegian time pretty easily, aided by not sleeping for the flight over. But for some reason, I got a little confused on Tuesday, woke up at 5am and didn't realize how early it was (there was no clock in the hotel room, and I figured the front desk just forgot my wake-up call) and figured since no one was at breakfast I'd just go for a walk to a park and lake across the street from the hotel. I was surprised the sun was so low on the horizon since it should have been up for a few hours already, yet never thought that perhaps, just maybe, it wasn't the world that was screwy, but maybe I was just a bit messed up timezone-wise. Anyway, it did allow me to walk around Lake Stokkavatnet.
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Monday night, there was a nice rainbow visible from my hotel window. I saw it...(more)
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A grassy field with a trail (and exercise station in the center of the picture)...(more)
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The path winds by people's houses. I had no idea how early it was and didn't...(more)
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The sign with random Norwegian graffiti was glowing in the low angle of the...(more)
Madlabekken Park was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel (east instead of north). It's a smaller lake but had a nice park. Also, here at 5pm, there were more people than at 5am at Stokkavatnet.
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A cute little hut and pond. Everything in Norway must either be strikingly...(more)
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Swan-butt. It was in that pose for around 30 seconds to a minute, as I was...(more)
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But no, the swan was fine. It came up for air and then shortly after that,...(more)
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It was odd the way the straight line of trees all have branches that grow out...(more)
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I think this was some sort of art thing. [Update] Someone I met in Stavanger...(more)
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Pretty pink flowers on the trees. I turned back here, because the group was...(more)
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A panoramic shot of the Madlabekken lake from one of the clearings on the path....(more)
On Wednesday, the Honeynet Conference organizers reserved a restaurant at the top of the tallest building in town for us. It was a 10 minute walk from the hotel. It was called Vju (pronounced "view") and was an appropriate name, as it had a great view of Stavanger. I took some pictures of the area. Also, someone at the conference had a 50mm f1.4 lens that I borrowed to take a few very narrow depth-of-field pictures of the desserts. He said that he had taken quote a few pictures of "food porn" when he first got the lens.
On Thursday, I headed out to the airport, along with someone I had met at the conference. I was hoping to get to walk to a beach near the airport, but my navigational ability tends to be weak normally, and very weak when I'm in a strange place where I can't read any signs. So I walked around a little, then headed back to the airport to catch my flight to Oslo.
