North span:-

Middle and south spans:-

From below; taken from deck of SS Black Watch:-

North Span from east. (Part of Forth Road Bridge and of Queensferry Crossing to left):-

Forth Road Bridge with Forth Bridge behind.

North spans:-

South spans. Bow of SS Black Watch in shot:-

After our stroll through Olden village we walked the road up past the new Olden Church – an older church building is in the centre of the village – in search of the lake we had been told wasn’t far away. The road runs beside the Oldeelva river for a while. It reminded me a bit of Scottish rivers.

River Oldeelva, Olden, Norway:-

The new church is in a typical Norwegian style:-

Closer view:-

Olden Church from graveyard. Note guy wires. According to the information in the link above a huge storm moved the church by 60 centimetres in 1967. The wires are to make sure that doesn’t happen again:-

Altar and stained glass, Olden Church:-

Organ loft:-

Looking back to Olden from a bit further up the road. The church and the SS Black Watch can be seen in centre of picture with the Oldeelva river meandering through in foreground.:-

Nærøyfjord is a branch of the Sognefjord which in turn is the largest and deepest in Norway. The SS Black Watch took a turn up Nærøyfjord on its way back to the sea after visiting Flåm.

Nærøyfjord entrance. The mists do make it look dramatic:-

Nærøyfjord:-

Further into Nærøyfjord. Waterfall on fjordside ahead:-

Further up Nærøyfjord:-

About halfway up fjord:-

Towards head of Nærøyfjord:-

Head of fjord:-

Looking back up Nærøyfjord:-

Houses, Nærøyfjord, Norway:-

The ship’s captain said this was the smallest church in Norway but it doesn’t look much smaller – if at all – than the one in Flåm:-

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Video of one of the waterfalls in Nærøyfjord:-

This is a panorama of Leixões from the SS Black Watch’s bow:-

On the edge of the beach near the harbour entrance lies this monument “Tragédia do Mar” or “Tragedy of the Sea” a sculpture commemorating the Shipwreck of 1947, where 152 sailors lost their lives:-

Much further along the promenade, too far away for us to walk to as we were pushed for time getting back to the ship, was this sculpture, “She Changes” by artist Janet Echelman.

I found this better photo by António M.L. Cabral on the internet:-

The harbour side, Ferrol. Lovely paving and trees:-

You can see the SS Black Watch in the background here berthed at Ferrol. That beardy bloke got in the photo again:-

Getting up on deck some time after we got back I could hear the sound of pipers again, coming from the quayside. I assume these were the Galician variety:-

I took some video. Click on the picture to take you to it. Galician pipes have a less strident sound than the Scottish variety:-

There was a delay to our departure because of what at first I couldn’t make out from the ship’s PA. I eventually cottoned on they’d said they were “bunkering”. I was amused that the same word is still used even though the ship won’t have coal bunkers but oil tanks instead.

It was a beautiful warm day and the ship put on an impromptu deck party, complete with six piece band.

My cynical self had the thought that they did this to push sales of sangria to offset any excess berthing fees arising from the overstay.

Thee is a lovely park in Avilés, called Ferrera Park. It was well used by people strolling or jogging and had that essential for a park – water; in this case a pond by which there were not only geese but a black swan.

Off to the side was a nice parterre garden:-

Complete with fountain:-

You know you’re not in Fife anymore when you see a tree like this:-

Just behind the parterre garden was this painted building:-

As the SS Black Watch left we passed this striking sculpture. It’s by Benjamín Menéndez and is called “Avilés”:-

Face-on view:-

This interesting rock formation sticks out into the Ría Avilés estuary:-

Further out where the estuary meets the Atlantic we could see loads of surfers riding the waves into Playa San Juan de Nieva but they were a bit too far off to photograph.

In the Museo de la Historia Urbana de Avilés (Museum of the History of the Town of Avilés) there are many exhibits relating to the town’s seafaring and industrial past as an iron manufacturing town as well as demonstrating the town’s expansion.

The town still has industry as can be seen from this photo taken from the SS Black Watch in port:-

There is a large window on an upper floor to the rear of the museum specially constructed to give a view of Avilés’s oldest building, the Church of Los Franciscanos (see a previous post.)

Below are two views of the same old street from different directions:-

This was an old colonnaded market we stumbled across:-

The first thing that strikes you as you look from a ship in dock at Avilés, Asturias, Spain, is the stunning set of Modernist buildings below which collectively make up the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre or Centro Niemeyer.

Stitch of two photos:-

View looking back from the walkway to the town, Reflections in the Ria de Avilés:-

Closer View showing stylised flower sculpture:-

Dome and Auditorium (curved building):-

Auditorium with “stick” horse:-

Stairway and vents:-

Tower:-

Dome, SS Black Watch in background:-

“Stick” horse detail:-

Stylised flowers, Avilés in background:-

Dome and Tower:-

Flowers and Avilés:-

Low rise building. (It’s multi-purpose. It seemed to house the restaurant/café):-

Auditorium reverse angle:-

Auditorium and tower:-

Edited to add: Actually on closer inspection that “stick” horse may be a “stick” woman.

Below is a photograph of the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier as viewed from Rosyth. This is the one that apparently won’t have any aircraft once it’s fitted out as we can’t afford them. Trident yes, it seems; warplanes no.

On Friday I realised that T Ronald Dump’s hair reminded me of this:-

The reason we were at Rosyth was to go on a cruise. On the Fred.Olsen Lines ship SS Black Watch. This was the ship’s (mascot?) Not figurehead. It was facing to the rear.

Sunset over the Forth: