Bergen, Norway

Well good thing we had prepared for rain, because it rained a lot in Bergen! I believe it's the rainiest city in Norway, and probably one of the rainiest cities in Europe. But it's also very quaint and beautiful; the city was the European Capital of Culture in 2000 and it's water front, Bryggen, is an UNESCO World Heritage site.

We took the most amazing train ride from Oslo to the West coast and traveled through incredible Norwegian landscape. We stayed at a typical chain hotel, but it did the job just fine and had a nice large Norwegian breakfast buffet in the morning. The size of Bergen is just perfect. Large enough for some good exploring, but doesn't feel very large and quite easy to get your bearings quickly.

Our main plan in Bergen was to enjoy the outdoors. In a short furnicular ride or walk from Bergen's city centre, you can reach mountainous hiking trails in the Mount Floyen or Mount Ulriken areas. So we started off the first morning with a hike up through Mount Floyen. It was warm and almost sunny when we took off, but by the afternoon, it was raining fairly good. Didn't stop us - although we looked like drowned rats! But we hiked around the top of Floyen and explored. Interesting to see how there are all of these mountain cabins scattered about. Not sure how they workk - if they belong to a family, or if you can rent one. The key thing of course is getting there! Not like there is an easy road to drive your car up! So they are mainly for hikers to use. And Norwegians like to hike! And in the rain!

In our exploring we found this tiny little old hut, which has been turned into a small art gallery. It's in the middle of nowhere on the tip of ledge on the mountain. But I think the cool thing is for those of us who stumble upon it, receive quite a nice culture surprise! Whoever runs it, changes out the works every few months and runs a blog. Pretty cool!

As food is so expensive as I mentioned in the Oslo post, we took on the typical European tourist habits, and ate mainly bread and cheese (and salami for me) for our lunches and even some dinners. It was much easier to shop in a supermarket and buy picnic type stuff. Plus that is so much fun anyway in a different country.

The next day after our open face breakfast sandwiches and coffee/tea, we took one of the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours on the fjords. We traveled by train, bus, boat, bus in a circular fashion from Bergen and back to Bergen in about 12 hours. The main highlights were some amazing waterfalls and of course the boat tour on the fjords. Our photos don't do the fjords justice, even though we took hundreds. We travelled along the Hardangerfjord and past all of the steep sloping fruit farms on the banks. Another wet and cold day, but obviously we found ways to enjoy a hot cup of coffee/tea and experience the Norwegian life! Here we are in a cafe in Eidfjord (on the end of the fjord), waiting for the rain to let up so we can explore the town.

Our last day, we didn't fly out until later at night, so still had some time to hike a bit in the morning. We took the cable car this time up Mount Ulriken. The weather was also somewhat sunny, so that was nice for our last day. We hiked a bit together, and then I was pretty shot from all of our activities, so went back to the cafe on the top and enjoyed a Norwegian boller (sweet baked bun) and a latte while overlooking the city. Brian hiked over to the next mountain and of course loved having his alone manly time to be one with the outdoors. :)

We flew from Bergen to Oslo, and then Oslo home to London. Got home late in the evening, but luckily had a day at home to recoup before heading back to work.

We'd love to return again sometime and explore our families roots, since we both have such a strong Norwegian presence in our lives. Will just have to live off of more bread and cheese!