Blogs from Western Norway, Norway, Europe

Bergen beckons. Another slow morning while we can before we hit the roads again in Denmark and Sweden. Wandered off through streets we hadn’t seen before. Noticed yesterday that there were a lot of black t shirted people around. We have a heavy metal pub near our hotel and it was buzzing last night with some very old hard rockers. Again this arvo it had quite a few sitting outside while the music pumped inside. Found out soon there was a heavy metal festival on in Bergen from 2/8 to 5/8 (today). Explains all the black t shirts I guess - and long hair and tatts…… Our wanderings took us up some very steep streets and eventually to a cathedral. There was a festival on (kids this time - no black t shirts here). Then down ... read more

On the train today heading firstly to Myrdal (on the line to Bergen) where we change trains to Flam. The Flam train is a very popular scenic train trip into the township of Flam where we stay overnight before continuing by ferry, bus and train into Bergen on Friday. Some of the scenery along this first part of the trip has been stunning. Lots of lakes and rivers following the train line - or is that the other way. Train following the rivers etc. Very busy train with comfy seats and lots of room around you to stretch out. Quite a few stops along the way but it has moved pretty well. At one stage it was showing the temp was 29 C. Has now fallen to 17 C. Geilo was a small stop before Myrdal, ... read more

Relatively good nights sleep considering we were rocked to sleep by the ships motion while in the open sea. Shower was fun - got wet when the shower head rolled with the waves. Was hot and strong so no real issues. We got out of the open waters and into some protected areas which was much nicer. Lots of people sleeping in lounges or on deck in protected spaces to avoid sea sickness. I didn’t think it was that bad. Even Stephanie survived. I did an early breakfast just after they opened at 0700. Not many people around. When Stephanie surfaced I went back to keep her company. Much busier now with people climbing over others to get to food. No fun there. Quiet day of sailing today. The only excursion today was 7.5 hours in ... read more

Today is our second day in Bergen, and because we are staying in town, our only tour for the day was a city tour with a local guide at 9:30AM. This allowed us a well needed late sleep and we set the alarm for 7:30 for plenty of time to relax and have a good breakfast before our 9:30 tour. Unfortunately, we left the hotel room windows opens and someone dumped a bunch of glass bottles into the dumpster at 7:00 and woke us both up. Oh well, it was a good plan at least to sleep late. Breakfast was great and we puttered around the room until the tour started. We met up with out local tour guide, Liv who was born and raised in Bergen and has lived here all her life. She was ... read more

This morning is what Insight Vacations calls a “relaxed start” which just means we get a much needed sleep in as we don’t leave until 10:00AM. The reality is that the Geiranger to Hellesylt ferry doesn’t leave until 11:00AM, so we couldn’t leave earlier if we wanted to. But we did get down to the ferry early, as this is a public ferry and there are also other tour busses taking the same ride. Today is also the 4thof July, but as Americans are the minority on this trip, none were willing to sing the National Anthem to celebrate. On July 1, it was Canada Day, and one of the Canadians handed out little Canadian Flag pins to everyone to celebrate. No Americans were handing out American Flag pins today. So disappointing! So Maja got the ... read more