Exploring Bergen

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This morning we were doing a walking tour of Bergen and needed to meet our local guide at 10am. This meant plenty of time to hbae breakfast and get ready. Our guides name is Olga and she is from Russia but is married to 'a viking'! It was raining again this morning but I had my wet weather gear on, so was feeling quite comfortable. As usual, the first thing anyone tells you is just how much it rains in Bergen. Olga told us rains on 280 days of the year, which is more than what I said in my blog yesterday. I've been here two days now - and it has rained on both haha. We started our walk towards the harbour and Olga shared interesting information along the way. It was challenging for her as the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra was rehearsing on the outdoor stage right out front of our hotel and she had to try to speak (shout) over the top of it. Speaking of which - apparently the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest orchestra in Europe - it celebrated 350 years three years ago!

We then walked through the inside fish market - this is one of the places we checked out for dinner last night. Olga pointed out various fish and seafood items and explained about some of the ways Salmon is marinaded. We then made our way along the waterfront to the UNESCO heritage site of Bryggen. Bryggen is a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings which were built by Germans who wanted to use this area as a trading post. It is a fascinating area with narrow, cobbled streets and lots of historic stories to tell. The buildings you see out front, facing the harbour, as really just a facade and then when you step in behind them, you realise just how many buildings there are running all the way back up to the other street. The people that lived here were only men and they were poor. They were the workers for the fishing port and the trading merchants.

We then walked to St Mary's chutch which is the oldest existing building in Bergen and was probably built between 1130 and 1170. We continued to meander our way through Bryggen, checking out the buildings along the way. We were heading to the base of the funicular as we were to ride this up to the top. The funicular travels fairly quickly up to the top of Mount Fløyen, high is 30 metres above sea level. It didn't take us long in the queue to shuffle our way onto the funicular and before we knew it, we were up the top! The vie was spectacular but unfortunately the rain made it not so good to see clearly. A few of us decided to grab a coffee to warm up a bit then headed out to take some more photos. The rain had cleared somewhat so the photos were a bit clearer this time. Olga had told us about a walking path you can take to walk back down and Jonathan and I both wanted to do this. Everyone else got the funicular back down to the city centre.

It started to rain again as we set off on our walk but we both felt comfortable in our wet weather gear so we headed to the lake first. It was a very pretty lake on top of Mount Fløyen and we walked a lap around it before starting our walk down. Th walk down was about 3 kms and was zigzag all the way. Half way down it really started to pour! This was when my not-so-waterproof shoes (runners) started to fill up with water! My camera bag also had water seeping in so things weren't quite as pleasant as they were previously. We continued our walk down as there wasn't much you could do about it - it as such a lovely walk otherwise as we saw so many streams and little waterfalls along the way. We also walked past the white houses that are visible in any photos taken of Bergen, when looking towards Mt Fløyen. Before long we found ourselves back at the place we got the funicular from so we could see the fish market straight ahead.

By now it was close to 2:30 so I wanted to pick up something to eat as I knew I wouldn't want to go out again until I could dry off some of my clothes. I had noticed there was a stall making Paella so wanted to get some of that to try. The serve was huge so I asked Jonathan if he wanted half - which he did. The people working the stall were so lovely - they divided the serve into two portions and then wrapped it all up in tinfoil and placed it into a plastic bag so we could get it back to the hotel without it getting wet. Once at the hotel we each took our dish and headed to our respective rooms. It was nice to strip off my wet clothes and change into dry ones - and then I sat down and enjoyed the delicious Paella. It was also nice to able to just have some time to chill out and relax.

At 6pm I met Cynthia, Sandy and Felicia downstairs and we headed out to have dinner at the indoor fish market. It was still raining lightly when we left the hotel but it started to get heavier as we approach the harbour area. We made a dash for the building, just as the rain really started to full heavily. Most of the tables for these indoor restaurants are under tents/marquees and the rain was really weighing down on the roofs, so much so that the staff were running around with broom handles to try to push the gathered water out. It made for interesting viewing! We had trouble getting a table in any of the marquees as they were either full or the tables booked but we did manage to get one in the tent where people are allowed to smoke - not ideal but we were out of options. Also making it challenging to get a table was the fact that many of them were now getting wet, from the overflow from the roof. Anyway, we settled in and ordered a drink each - I decided to try the local apple cider, which we nice. We ordered our food - I had the fish & chips which was using the local cod - and had a lovely meal. Finally the rain stopped - and it was really lovely outside but still overcast.

After dinner we walked towards our hotel as we wanted to catch the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra playing their free concert in the main mall area - right near our hotel. We were lucky to see them play the last few songs. I then decided to head back to the hotel to have a glass of red wine in the lobby, so I could people watch. There were still large group of uni students running around, dressed up and singing or shouting. It is their first week of uni and apparently this is a tradition that goes on for all the new students and lasts the whole week. Crazy. As I was sitting there, Jonathan came into the lobby to tell me how beautiful it was at the moment down at the harbour and they was just popping in to get his camera. It was a little after 9:30 and I was feeling tired so I said I wouldn't worry about it. I headed upstairs but could see how nice it was, so I grabbed my camera and headed out the door.

It was indeed beautiful- the first time I have seen Bergen without rain! It was so clear and the blue sky was so surprising i was able to take many photos. If only this was the time we were going up the funicular! Now that I was out and there was still a little time left with light, I walked to the big lake I had noticed when I was up Mt Fløyen which also had a gazebo. From here I went back to my hotel, quite happy with this late evening excursion!

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