Though we felt good when we arrived, it was pretty obvious we were a bit jet-lagged when everyone (even Kerwin) slept in late. Ryan and I woke up around 10:30am, made some breakfast in the room (after purchasing supplies at the 7-11 down the street the night before), and were ready just in time to make the noon walking tour. The walking tour was less walking than expected, but was still interesting. The guide took us through the Bryggen Museum, describing the many fires throughout the years that had burned down much of Bergen and viewing remnants from original buildings.

Similar to parts of New York, the parts of Bergen closest to the water are built on landfill. When a fire occurred, the rubble would be pushed into the water and new buildings would be built on top of that. She then walked us through the Schotstuene (old assembly hall) ending at the Hanseatic Museum.

Dried cod, at one time the principal export of Bergen — Looks delicious!

After the ‘walking’ tour, we did some more walking; to the train station to pick up tickets for the following day, past the lake, some art museums, around Johanneskirken.

Longhorn found in Bergen

Yoga in the middle of the square

I become part of the art

There was a slack line setup near the lake.  This is about as far as we all got before falling off.  Pictures courtesy of Loan.

View from Johanneskirken

Bryggen Quay from across the water. The 11 houses on the right are original and are all slightly tilted from settling.

Kirken means church in Norwegian, and we visited a few of them in Norway. We don’t quite understand why, but all the churches in Bergen were closed on Sunday afternoon.
Mariakirken, a big church in the center of town, had been closed down for renovations and had a special opening this evening for an organ recital. It was a new organ that had just been installed, and the builders of the organ were in attendance. There were a few presentations before the recital (all in Norwegian, best guess was thanking the people who donated $, thanking the people who built the organ, etc). The organ sounded great. But there isn’t really much to watch during an organ recital, since the organist plays from the 2nd floor back of the church. I’m pretty sure all of us fell asleep at some point during the recital.

We arrived in Bergen around 11am on Saturday, June 20^th. The plan was to take the bus into Bergen, which we quickly learned was easier said than done. Taking the bus itself was easy, trying to purchase tickets from the machine was a bit more challenging. The sign on the machine translated roughly to “only short cards”. Huh? Everyone else attempting to buy tickets also had problems. After a few of us trying with credit cards, Dan finally got his debit to work, and we all loaded on the bus.

Bergen is a beautiful city on the west coast of Norway, the second largest city after Oslo. The city is in an area known as the ‘Seven Mountains’, which we personally experienced while dragging our bags from the bus stop down near the quay up the steep cobblestone streets to our lodging.

This was the first time Ryan and I had used AirBnB. Turned out pretty well, very small flat, but clean and in a good location. The owners lived on the 2^nd floor and were available for anything we needed. We took a nap and showered, and met back up with Adam, Dan, Loan, and Kerwin (thinking this needs an acronym, cause I’m not going to want to type it over and over; how about KLAD?). The weather was beautiful, a trend on this trip, so we walked around the town, over to the Bergenhaus castle, with view of Rosencrantz Tower and Hakon’s Hall, down to the quay. Ryan and I were having some camera issues at this point, so most of our pictures are out of focus. Luckily, the issue seemed to resolve itself.

During the summer months, all the bars along the water, called Bryggen Quay, have tables and benches setup outside, where people sit and schmooze till midnight throughout the week. We stopped at the fish market to pick up some very fresh fish for dinner. The market was relatively small, maybe about a 100m of sidewalk with vendors (mostly fish) on either side. Ryan and I got kabobs, with shrimp, salmon, and cod. The shrimp and salmon were delicious; Some of the best salmon I’ve ever had. I also had samplings of reindeer and whale sausage, both of which just tasted like sausage.

Bryggen Quay

Delicious fish kabobs

Ryan enjoying his fish kabob

After dinner, we took the Floibanen funicular railway up to Mount Foyen to enjoy the beautiful view of the city.

View from the top

We walked back down, through the troll infested woods and past the invisible witch.

Troll pictures above courtesy of Loan.

The guys couldn’t pass up joining the late night crowds sitting outside at the quay, and we stopped there for a drink before heading to bed.

P.S. Loan took some amazing pictures throughout the trip, some of which I’m including in the blog.  I will try to give credit whenever possible.

Last year, Ryan’s cousin Adam told us about a trip he, Loan (girlfriend), Dan (brother), and Kerwin (father) were taking to Norway. Ryan and I never pass up a chance to travel to a new place, so we asked if we could tag along. Luckily, the timing worked out perfectly for us, and we were able to join them.

Selfie at JFK: Waiting for our flight

Huge thanks to Adam and Dan for planning an awesome trip! Ryan and I were total slackers, barely looking at any plans until two weeks before the trip. Adam and Dan planned a great route, starting in Bergen, heading down to Pulpit Rock, up to glaciers in Jostadalbreen, continuing up to Alesund, across to Ringebu, followed by Lillehammer, and finishing in Oslo. While it was a lot of driving, we really enjoyed having the flexibility of a car, and the view around each curve was more breathtaking than the last, and there were a lot of curves.