Blogs from Bergen, Western Norway, Norway, Europe - page 7

We arrived in Bergen mid afternoon, checked into our Air BnB then waited for Zoë to arrive. After catching up, we headed out to the Bryggen to wander its narrow alley ways and in and out of shops. It is a beautiful city, all the old architecture is lovely- a mix of timber and concrete structures. We wandered around the markets, admiring vast quantities of seafood, dried elk, moose and whale meat and cheeses of all tastes. Norway has a sweet cheese that is made from condensed milk, so it has a subtle caramel flavour to it. It is only eaten in small quantities and usually at breakfast time. We walked up to the funnicular took it up to the top. The views were lovely from the Fløyen. We could see all across Bergen. There are ... read more

As Andy was staying with the cousins in Sandefjord and I was in Oslo, we decided it would be easier and more fun for me to catch the train to Porsgrunn via Sandefjord where Andy would hop on. At Porsgrunn, we then caught a bus to Langesund and boarded the Fford Line ferry to Bergen. Once we had dropped off our bags in our cabin, Andy immediately checked out the emergency exits and safety procedures. I had a lesson on life rafts and shoots. The ferry goes first to Hirtshals, Denmark where it stops for about an hour for trucks cars and passengers to disembark and new passengers and vehicles to get on. This takes about an hour. You are not allowed to disembark if you are not leaving the ship. From Hirtshals, the ship continues ... read more

So Bergen has been lovely so far. We spent the first day hanging out taking it easy and trying to get used to this well populated city. Comparative to Stavanger of course. Bergen is one of the most popular cities to visit in Norway, other than Oslo. There are so many people out and about. We didn't have any issues finding a cafe for lunch and a restaurant for dinner (which was surprisingly hard to do in stavanger ). We hung out and got a few pints at the end of course and ran into some American chaos who talked our ears off. We got carded at the bar. Drinking age here is 18 so we don't know how to feel about that. Today we took an 11.5 hour boat cruise and hike and excursion through ... read more

Here we are in Bergen with Chris, Hege, Lilly and Stella. We made a hasty decision a couple of weeks back that we would like to help Stella celebrate her 6th birthday. We have never been there for her birthday, while we have been at most of Lilly's, so we decided that it was about time we were there. So after the long trip via LA to London, we spent a night in a hotel at Heathrow to have a decent sleep and a rest which was very benefical. The next day we arrived at Bergen airport were Chris picked us up and took us home were we sneaked to the front door and rang the bell. Stella and Lilly came to the door and stood, dumfounded and stared at us for a few seconds before ... read more

Oh Boy. Did It Ever. I wish everyone a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year. Here in Norway I have welcomed the New Year in, in a very spectacular way. I was treated to an amazing sight by just standing in Chris and Hege's house watching the surrounding hills, valleys and waters light up to welcome the New Year. Wherever you looked there were rockets lighting up the sky, there were people standing on veranda's / decks of nearly every house waving sparklers in the air, watching fireworks on the ground, and the sky was alight. Every household appeared to have lots and lots of rockets that appeared to be of such a high standard that they seemed to be commercial ones. A show that started with the sporadic rocket at about 4pm {it's dark then ... read more