Sandnessjoen, Norway has a 2023 population of 5,778 and is located on the island of Alsta.
Sandnessjoen received town status in 1999 and direct flights from Oslo began in June, 2011.
The Norwegian Star docked in Sandnessjoen, Norway on Thursday June 8, 2023 at 7:00am. By 8:05am the ship was cleared to passengers to go ashore, however, I remained on the ship until 8:25am as the city shuttle service didn’t begin until 8:30am. The cost for the shuttle service was 50NOK or $4.74USD at the time of this writing. The driver only accepts NOK so be sure to have some NOK on hand if you are going to use this service.
It’s only a couple miles to town so one could actually walk there and back but I knew I would be walking 3-5 miles while in town so opted to pay the 50NOK and take the shuttle service. The bus drops you at the Kulturbadet Bibliotek (Library).
My goal for this day was a visit to Torolvstein, aka Hovdingsete to the locals. I had made contact with Oddvar Pettersen, the CEO of Torolvstein, prior to my arrival and had arranged to meet him at Torolvstein at 10am on June 8, 2023.
My Rome2Rio app indicated that from the library to Torolvstein I had an option to walk 5 minutes to the bus terminal, board bus #704 and get off at the Radasen bus stop at Torolvstein.
Since I had taken the shuttle into town I elected to walk the distance of about 0.8
mile, a 17-20 minute walk to Torolvstein. When I arrived at the site at 9:45am, the Viking long
boat was closed but a sign on the door said it would open at 10am, my scheduled meeting time with Mr Pettersen.
Unfortunately by 11am neither Mr Pettersen or anyone else working for Torolvstein showed up so I decided to walk back to town. These are a few pictures I took of the local scenery.
As I made my way back to town I made an unscheduled stop at the Peter Dass Brygga for a local beer.
As I continued making my way back to the shuttle bus pickup location I made an unscheduled stop at the Helgelands Blad newspaper building. This proved to be a fantastic building and story associated with it. The newspaper is a 4th generation family business. The owner proceeded to take Marci and I on a private tour of the building, including the printing room.
1948 Printing Press
I then had the pleasure of meeting Editor Morten Hofstad. That very morning he was working on a story about the Norwegian Star ceremony as it was the first time the ship had stopped in Sandnessjoen. He asked to take our pictures for the article and, of course, we obliged.
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| Sharon Sparlin in the office of Editor Morton Ho |
The article was subsequently published and our picture did indeed appear in that article.
The town has limited offerings for cruise passengers but there are a couple of museums to checkout. Be sure and check opening times first.
It was time to head back to the shuttle stop but before boarding I made a quick stop at the library. As I was dropped at the pier I was greeted by these lovely ladies.
I was back onboard the Norwegian Star by 3:00pm. My step meter had registered 8,556 steps for 3.6 miles.
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