It's now 11:30PM and I am writing the rest of my notes sitting in the hostel. The train, ferry and bus rides today were beautiful. Norway certainly is a lovely country. The Flam train stopped a few times to pick up and let off passengers and once to let everyone get off the train to take photos of a wonderful waterfall. The ferry ride was great - beautiful scenery, calm water and an opportunity to sit and relax in the sun. The bus ride was also very scenic and also made a stop at a hotel on the way up above Flam so we could take pictures of the valley and fjord below. Our train ride to Bergen was hot and nothing special, but we still saw pretty scenery along the way.
We arrived at Bergen at 8:30PM and the sun was still way up in the sky (probably where it would be about 3PM back home) and it was still very hot outside. We went to the information cernter and then to our hostel. The young man at reception told us this is the hottest day in 100 years in Norway - 32 degrees Celcius (about 90 degrees Farenheit).
We are in a huge co-ed room (about 35 beds) and it's hot in the hostel. They have a nice big dining area though, and a garden off the dorm room. Alot of people were sitting outside because of the heat. Shari and I walked down to the waterfront to find something to eat, but it's hard to find reasonably priced food here. Neither of us wanted to have a big dinner so we finally settled on sausages at the hot dog place. Mine had garlic and chili and it was a good size but it cost almost US$6. We sat on a doorstep to eat our sausages and then walked back down by the water to take a picture of the sunset. Unfortunately, there were lots of buildings in front of us so we didn't get a great view of the sky, but the colors were beatuiful in the part we could see. It was 10:0PM and the sun was still setting.
From the little I've seen, I really like Bergen. It's very quant and I'm looking forward to doing some hiking tomorrow. We can take the funicular (sort of a tram) up to the top of Mt. Floyen (320 meters) and hike on some trails up there. There are 2 trails that each make 5 kilometer loops through hilly woodlands. You can even walk back down to the city (about 40 minutes). Another option is to take the Ulriksbanen cable car to the top of Mt. Ulriken (642 meters) and walk across to the funicular (about 3 hours).
7/17: Even though we didn't need to rush off anywhere today, I still got up pretty early (about 7AM). I took a shower and sat in the garden area with a cup of coffee and read my book. I thought it was pretty neat to be relaxing in Bergen on a Thursday morning at 8AM rather than commuting to work.
We went over to the library about 10AM to use the internet (another free one) and it was nice to get messgaes from people I haven't heard from in a while. We then bought some lunch stuff at a reasonably priced (for Norway) grocery store and walked to the funicular. It was a quick, steep ride up to the top of Mt. Floyen and we had wonderful views of the city and surrounding waters from the observation area up there.
We started walking on one of the hiking paths and found nice, shady are under some pine trees to stop to eat lunch. Then we did a hike up to another peak at 552 meters so we actually got some good exercise today. There were a couple of stone monuments up there and we took some more pictures looking down on Bergen. It was so beautiful to walk through the woods and to be up high ands see lots of little lakes and ponds up on the mountain. That kind of terrain really makes me feel good inside, but it also makes me miss home. It reminded both of us of Maine.
We walked all the way down to the city from the top of the mountain and then went over to check out the carnival near the lake in the middle of the city, called Lille Langegardsvann. We did a really fun thing at the carnival - we rode the pariserhjul (can you guess what that is?) Next was a wonderful hour's nap laying in the shade on the grass near the lake.
It supposedly rains about 275 days a year in Bergen and we have had beautiful weather for 2 days, until about 6:30 tonight. Shari went back to the hostel and I went to the train station to call Susan. Just as I was dialing the phone the sky broke loose and it absolutely poured. It lasted only about 10 minutes, but it really cleared the air and it was much cooler after it stopped.
Dinner for me tonight will be potatoes, fresh carrots and canned corn. I bought a tub of margerine which will make all those things taste great. I'm carrying around cheese, salami, mayo and now butter. I can put them in the refrigerator when we are staying at a hostel, otherwsie they are just in my pack. I don't worry too much about the food spoiling because I haven't gotten sick from bad food in all my times of backpacking.
After dinner Shari and I went out for a walk down to the waterfront and the information center about 9:30. Earlier in the day, I had thought about going to a concert that started at 10PM but I figured I probably wouldn't be awake for it. Well, I found myself right next to the Old Federal Bank building just before 10PM and that's where the concert was being held. Shari wasn't interested in attending, so she went off on her own and I went in and bought a ticket. Edvard Grieg was a Norwegian composer born in 1843, who lived in Bergen, and this was a performance of his works and works of a few other West Norwegian composers. The performance was called Grieg in Bergen, and it was a story about Grieg, his music, his environment and his love for Nina (his wife). It was performed by a soprano, Hilde Veslemay Hagen, and a pianist, Annabel Guaita, with a mixture of readings about Grieg's life, readings from his diary, singing and piano music. It was very well done and both the pianist and singer were terrific. It was a 70 minute concert, so I was back to the hostel a little before 11:30PM.
HOME PAGE
HOME PAGE