Greetings from Sunny Bergen

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We have had a fantastic couple of days in Bergen. On Monday we had a leisurely walk around the town, which is a mixture of modern concrete buildings and beautifully painted timber clad houses situated along narrow cobbled streets, tucked away from the main roads, high density but highly colourful living! It’s a tiny place though so it didn’t take too long to get our bearings, so we took the funicular railway up to Fløyen one of the seven mountains which surround Bergen (and more importantly the only one with a railway to get you up it!) Wonderful panoramic views from the top - although we got a bit sunburnt! With red noses we headed back down to town and returned to the hostel, where we sat on the roof terrace and had a couple of cheeky rum and cokes (it’s fun to stay at the YMCA!). Instant Chinese noodles formed our dinner for the day, which were rather interesting to say the least! After dinner we walked down to the harbour and watched the sun set. The sun doesn’t set here until about 11pm, which is very odd - it won’t be long until we see the midnight sun!

Yesterday we went hiking up to Fløyen and wandered some of the beautiful walking trails around the top, so we made a packed lunch and started the climb. Within about 2 minutes we realised how unfit we are!!! We met a friendly Norwegian lady who was power-walking up the hill and gave us directions, but we were soon lagging way behind and couldn’t keep up with her!!

Along the way up to the top we came across some timber huts with sedum roofs, which Dan found very exciting and took loads of photos (what a geek!). We stopped there and had some lunch, overlooking the harbour below and spotted a Hurtigruten boat coming in to dock and got very excited! J The scenery was beautiful, although the only wildlife we saw was a lone red squirrel. No sign of any other animals at all other than several groups of schoolchildren!

A quick wander around the old timber harbour buildings this morning was cool (photos to appear later, far too expensive in internet cafes here to spend too much time in them!) followed by spotting a lady in the fish market with a large cod strapped to her back, lord only knows why!

Off on the Hertigruten today no idea if theres internet access on it so we may be incommunicado for a week. Hopefully not though!

Danny and Claire.

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Comments

[mum]

lady with cod on her back
does she have a bit of a chip on her shoulder ?