Bergen to Stavanger

---

We woke up this morning and had breakfast in our hotel. We set off and walked through the fish market and saw tons of fresh fish, woolen hats, mittens and sweaters, and much to our surprise: seal, wolf, and reindeer skins! We remember reading not too long ago that Norway was being chided by the international community for its blatant disregard for endangered species. And here we see piles of skins for sale in one small market. It’s such a shame.

From here we walked through the old streets and saw up close the wooden houses on the water front - now home to small shops and museums. From the side you can see the steel beams being used to support the walls and from a distance you can see that each house (although connected) has shifted and sank in different directions at different rates. We question just how long these buildings will stand in a city built in on a salt water harbor where it rains for more than two-thirds of the year.

From here we made our way to the Funicular Station. We boarded the car and rode up to Mt. Floien - 300 meters above the harbor. Although the rain came and went all afternoon, we had a relatively unobstructed view of the city below. This funicular system was first created in the 1920’s and has been upgraded about four times since then. There are three stops up to the top - apparently used as public transportation by the residents living on the hillside.

We walked to Zuperia after our ride down; it’s a restaurant that serves mainly soups. We were cold and wet and it sounds great. We thought of the Soup Nazi as Romas ate Fish Soup (like New England clam chowder only with muscles and shrimp too) and Olivia and I each had creamy chicken soup. And they serve each bowl with steamy hot, fresh bread. Yum!!

We walked back to the hotel, called a cab, and had one of the most frightening rides ever. Remember, Romas and I have ridden in NYC cabs, Boston cabs, and other cabs in the US and abroad. This was the kind of ride where you hold on and let out little gasps and expletives as you go. We were overjoyed to finally arrive at the airport to pick up our rental car.

We ended up getting a free upgrade…to a BMW 3-series. (Romas was quite pleased!) But seeing as I made all the arrangements for the trip, I listed myself as the primary driver!! HAHA!! So I started the drive out of Bergen (with TomTom’s guidance!) on narrow roads - so narrow they were basically one lane without a shoulder. Every 300 meters or so there was a small paved cut-out which increased the road by about ½ a lane - just enough to get out of the way and allow someone to pass. It was a little nerve-racking! But as crazy as Norwegian drivers seemed in towns and in the city, they were very conscientious and cautious on these crazy roads.

We were all a little surprised when TomTom piped up, “At the end of the road, take the ferry.” “Huh???” was echoed in the car by all three of us. Interestingly enough the road ended but was continued by a ferry and then the same road picked up again on the other side. We were a little surprised but it was cool to see the landscape from the water. By the time we reached our hostel, we’d taken three ferries! Who knew?!? 😊

Another interesting part of our journey to the hostel were the tunnels; some were what we’d consider “normal” (a couple kilometers or less to cut through a mountain or bypass water). Others (and we encountered three on our short drive!!) were outrageously steep and deep!! The longest was 8km long with a downgrade of 7%!f(MISSING)or the first 4km and then 7%!b(MISSING)ack up for the last 4km. Another was incredibly steep: a grade of 9%!f(MISSING)or a 6km tunnel. The deepest tunnel was over 300meters deep at the bottom. Our ears were popping and the air was thick and stale. It was creepy knowing how deep below ground we were!

We have an issue with the excessive use of rotaries in Norway. I realize that Europe uses them much more than we’ve ever seen in America, and for the most part, they work very effectively. However, I would say more than half of the rotaries we saw on our drive were way too small! They had two lanes of traffic merging from all sides with only enough room for one car to go around. There were also “rotaries” that were barely the size of a manhole cover! You barely had to turn the wheel to go around them. Now what’s the point of that??

We arrived at the hostel around 10pm (and it was still light out!) You can imagine how screwed up your body gets when it’s only really dark between 12am and 4am. It’s hard to go to sleep and even harder to stay asleep. You go to bed with birds chirping and it looks as bright as noon by 8am. It’s crazy.

Anyway - the plan was to wake up the next day and go hiking. We were planning to hike Pulpit Rock but rain was in the forecast (again!) Would we catch a break?

---