Day 12 Bergen

Europe » Norway » Western Norway
August 7th 2018

Published: August 8th 2018

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TishandAndrew

Bergen

The Balmoral docked in Bergen

By the time we awoke, our ship had berthed in Bergen, Norway’s second largest town and a 13 mile, 6 hour hike awaited. Bergen is nestled around a number of islands and hills and there happened to be another 3 cruise ships berthed in Bergen the morning we arrived so the city was buzzing with tourists. We booked a guided hiking tour which included a guided tour of the old part of the city and a brief history of Norway’s past. We didn’t know that Norway had pretty much been part of Sweden, Denmark, and Russia for most of its history and only became an independent nation in the 20th century complete with a new royal family donated by Denmark. Our 6 hour hike began with a trip up the funicular where we got a Birdseye view of downtown Bergen and Andrew was able to meet his first Norwegian Troll and parted with a kiss on the tip of his nose.

We then commenced our 6 hour hike across the ridge line of the mountains overlooking Bergen walking past numerous lakes and water storage’s before making our way to a view point overlooking the southern part of the city. From

Bergen

Heritage timber buildings along the Bergen Harbour

there, we made our way to a farm and were taught about Norwegian sheep and horses including the Fiord Horse and Norwegian Working Horse. Our guide had brought her dog Mozart along for the journey and as soon as he hit the farm, her ran around in circles in the sheep paddock (he was a larger version of an Australian Sheep Dog). Lunch at the farm included locally made reasberry and apple cordial and a magnificent cod and salmon chowder which was up there with the best soups that Andrew had consumed. Lunch was served in a “Root Cellar” which was an original 1800’s stone cellar used to store food during the Norwegian winters. Winter food storage’s were very important in Norway because if you lost them in a fire, you basically starved to death.

From the farm, we caught a mini-bus bak to the ship which left a couple of hours to tour around downtown Bergen. The city has some amazing architecture and is famous for its heritage timber constructed buildings on the harbour which lean and sag and were even burned during Nazi occupation in World War 2 but still stand today filled with tourist shops and

Bergen

A ride up the Funicular

restaurants. The heart of Bergen is quite cosmopolitan but the harbour with its open air fish markets retain much of the past and the fishing heritage of the city. However, before we knew it, 6:00 pm was approaching and it was time to return to the ship. In the evening, we saw the main show in the Neptune Lounge who was a comedian named Brenda Collins who was like 4’6” and was a bundle of energy now in her 51st year in show business.

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