Bergen

Sunday 20^th May

We woke to see the sun shining, which was pleasing following yesterday’s rain.  After breakfast we walked to the Floibanen Funicular, Scandinavia’s only cable railway and travelled 320 metres up to the top of Mt. Floyen and with a clear sunny sky we had the most spectacular views all over Bergen and surrounds.  The day was so clear and still we could hear the church bells ringing down in Bergen.

Sitting for while enjoying the views we then strolled along tracks through the woods, where there are several picnic areas and childrens’ play areas, in amongst some of the trees were several wooden sculptures.  In winter these tracks are used for cross country skiing. 

After enjoying our lunch overlooking Bergen we caught the Funicular down to continue our walk through the little cobble stoned lanes, past all the ancient timber building, many leaning in several directions.  Some of the lanes the houses fronted were so narrow we wondered how they would get service vehicles along them and after our time in Holland without a bump in a street, the hills throughout Bergen tested us.

We paused briefly at our hotel before continuing our walk alongside the harbour, arriving at the end of a peninsular where the aquarium is situated together with a wooded park and a viewing area with plenty of seats, allowing us to look out at several of the harbours around Bergen.  In the park was a large North West Pacific Totem Pole, presented by Seattle to Bergen on the occasion of their 900^th Anniversary.

Bergan was founded by King Olav Kyrre in 1070 and it became Norway’s first real capital in the 13^th century.  Until 1830 Bergen was the biggest town in Norway and the largest in Scandinavia for a period during the Middle Ages when it was a major European trading and seafaring port and one of the Hanseatic merchants’ four most important trading centres.

Walking back on the opposite side of the peninsular and through hilly, narrow cobbled stone lanes past many old houses we arrived at another small harbour and on the opposite side was the Hurtigruten Ferry Terminal, where we leave tomorrow for our eleven day trip along the coast of Norway. 

We decided to walk around to the terminal and then try and plot a route back to our hotel which didn’t include too many hills and cobbled stone lanes, because tomorrow we have to drag our cases to the terminal.  It didn’t appear that there is such a route and we were resigned to a rough walk with our cases but the receptionist at the hotel suggested a slightly longer route which should be a little smoother.  As we don’t board tomorrow until 4:00 pm we will check it out in the morning.