Our boat arrived in Bergen the afternoon of Feb 13 and it was time to leave the Nordnorge. The previous day we had been instructed to be out of our rooms by 10am so the cleaning staff could ready the boat for the next group of people getting on. So, we spent a lot more time in the public areas than we had all trip.
One more photo from the boat:
One more landscape photo from the boat. So many little islands!
And then, we arrived in Bergen.
Our path off the ship. We were on our way to pick up our bags.
Got our bags, grabbed a taxi, and made it to our hotel – Det Hanseatiske Hotel.
These steps were really steep. Luckily one of the hotel maintenance men was there and helped me get my suitcase up (the elevator didn’t go up that high).
The bathroom floors were heated!
After getting settled in, we went for a walk around Bergen. It was sunny to start with but clouded up. Still pretty chilly, but not as cold as Kirkenes!
Our hotel was in the Finnegården area of Bergen, which includes Bryggen (the dock), also known as Tyskebryggen (the German dock). Bryggen is a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the Vågen harbour in Bergen, Norway. Bryggen has since 1979 been on the UNESCO list for World Cultural Heritage sites.
And here is the entrance to the famous Bergen Funicular. In case you don’t know, a funicular is operated by cable with the ascending and descending cars counterbalanced.
On the car on the way up, I ended up meeting one of the Bergen hashers – only because she was wearing “hash gear.” That was cool! Their hash day is Wednesday and unfortunately we were there on a Tuesday so I missed it.
Spectacular views of Bergen
It was very cold and windy up there, and we had neglected to bring our spikes so it was also slippery from all the ice, so, we didn’t spend a ton of time up there. And, we got a front row seat on the funicular on the way back down!
We had a beer at a bar, then dinner, and back to the hotel. Next morning I caught a flight back to England. It had snowed (and thundered!) through the night, and was raining the next morning, so it was a miserable 2 block walk to the bus stop to catch the Airporter Bus. And one of the roads on the way to the airport was closed due to flooding, so, it was a fun travel morning.
But, Kenn and I made it to the Bergen airport!
It was a nicely laid out airport, and, everything was ‘self’ check in – I hadn’t seen that really before. Probably due to travel restrictions within the EU changing (remember my post about all those agreements that I can’t remember the names of now?).
I even got to see my big pink bag get loaded onto the plane!
So, I flew from Bergen to Oslo, and then Oslo to England. It didn’t occur to me to see if I could have just flown directly back to England from Bergen. Oh well.
On the flight from Oslo, I ended up sitting next to a mom with her 2 year old daughter. During the flight the mom had to use the restroom, but before she got up, she gave the daughter 2 cookies. Right after she went into the restroom, the daughter dropped one of the cookies and started screaming bloody murder! Luckily she spoke English (since she was Norwegian). I asked her if it fell in her lap – no! Then I got down on my hands and knees to see if I could find it and then a hand magically appeared from between the seats, with a napkin and the cookie sitting on top of it. Thank God! The cookie was duly given back to the daughter who, luckily, immediately stopped crying. A few minutes later, the mom came back to her seat. I wasn’t going to mention what happened, but the mom said, “I heard my daughter crying?” So I told her what happened. She thanked me and just shook her head.
OK, I’ll end this post on that note. The next one will be a short summary of my last few days in England. And then, I will be done with the trip summary!
Stay tuned!