Today we stopped at the port of Sandness in Norway. This is an industrial area, close to the town of Stavanger. We could not berth in Stavanger because there was another cruise ship there.
We visited Stavanger in 2017 and had a wonderful day that would be difficult to top. So for today, we booked a tour to a whisky distillery.
The drive initially was through brand new roads with special cycle and bus lanes, all very new and well thought out. Public transport buses even have priority lanes that go straight through the middle of roundabouts!
We firstly visited Sverd I Fjell (meaning Swords in Mountain) which represents peace because once the swords are in rock they cannot be removed. This is on the shore of the fjord, where the brass swords stand 10 metres tall.
Next our tour took us through gentle roads in farming areas. The farms all look so well kept, we are told the government subsidises farmers to keep unused land mowed so the countryside all looks nice. Not sure how true this is, but based on what we’ve seen, easy to believe.
The landscape then turned to rocky hills and countryside, with small amounts of green among the rocks. People even build houses on thee rock formations!
We eventually arrived at Berenstens Distillery in the town of Egersund. This was alongside a river, attached to a fjord that curiously has no tide. There are rows of boat houses here that always have the water level at the same point.
At the distillery visitor centre we initially were given beer to refresh ourselves. This is historically a soda drink factory, who now have branched into RTD (ready to drink), Gin, Whisky and other beverages. While most products are ready to drink as soon as manufactured, their whisky is still within the first 10 years of production, so even their oldest barrels remain to see how well they do. Therefore unlike many other distillery tours we have done, here we learned a very different story, not of heritage but of new products and the risk they are carrying on this journey.
After seeing the small distillery, which was very hot inside, we learned all about the business model behind starting a brewery and marketing a new product, and how the alcohol laws work in Norway.
We were all seated and provided multiple tastings from the early barrels, each matched with fudge or chocolate, a novel way of presenting the samples.
We hadn’t had lunch, and by now were tipsy from all the beer and whisky. Time to head back to our coach, where most of us snoozed on the return trip.
We were stopped by authorities at a vehicle checkpoint, even though full of passengers!
This was our last stop in Norway, tomorrow we have a day at sea as we steam towards Iceland.
No comments:
Post a Comment