Sydney Bergen

Sunday, July 14, 2019
Bergen, Hordaland, International
Left Sydney on the Emirates night flight on Friday arriving into Bergen Saturday afternoon.
We are on our own till day three in Bergen when the others catch up with us.    They have spent some time in Oslo and then the Flam railway all of which we have done at least twice.
Map of our trip    this is the actual trip as advertised
Arrived to misty rain after the usual flight via Dubai and Oslo.
Caught up with a number of films including “Pretty Woman” which I hadn’t seen since it was released.  Also I looked at the recent UK film  "Peterloo' which  was a period film set in Manchester depicting the events leading up to the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.
Made by Mike Leigh it had good credentials but the story line got to involved with details that it did not hold my interest.
I did see "Asterisk and the secret portion" an animated version of the Asterisk comic strip. Very good if you like this sort of thing. 
We landed in Oslo with about a 2hr stopover before catching the domestic flight to Bergen. Although we had booked our luggage through (and it was labelled such) we still had to collect it and go through customs. Then find the domestic terminal, luckily upstairs and at the other end of the building. Then had 'check in ' our bags quick and easy since we had our boarding passes however we did jump the queue of the other domestic travelers.
Then had to walk to furthest end of the terminal to find the loading gate. Certainly needed  the 2 hrs.
 About 35 minute flight landed into Bergen and light rain. Our last leg was to catch the Flybussen airport bus into the city. We found the bus but it wasn't the one going past our hotel - we would have had to wait 90 minutes for the right one- so we decided to take it and then get a taxi to the hotel. 
Finally arrived about 5:30pm ready to have an early night. We were in bed by 8:00pm
Sunday
Had a good nights sleep, we both woke up about 3pm but managed to get back to sleep till breakfast. 
Hit the town about 9am .'rarin to go' as the saying goes, however  there was patchy rain showers and about 16C but we did jjhave the hotel umbrella and we had warm clothing.
Our hotel was very close to the Bryggen shops and hence the waterfront. This particular weekend there were many tall ships in town but by about 10am there were masses of people walking alongside the waters edge looking at the boats.
Just googled the Tall ships website see https://tallshipsbergen.no/?lang=en. Apparently this weekend culminates a period of racing of a number of training ships from around the world.
We walked past about 3 bigger ships and a couple of smaller ones. A concer  t stage was being setup. Obviously a big event. Some of the ships will have restaurant facilities during the evening.
We decided in the afternoon to visit the Knitting museum, which in fact is an historic knitting mill which closed in 1989 after about 120 years of operation. It has many of the original machines many of still are turned on briefly for the tourists. Very interesting and luckily the tour guide gave the whole tour in English. 
Evening at the  hotel. Good meal and pleasant wine.
Monday:  Still overcast but the rain lessened. We out to see more of the ships about 9:30am much less crowds but by 12 noon many more people were about.  
We had a leisurely walk past the ships with Leith going on board one of them. Walked up to a high class silver manufacturer and shop Arven. Some lovely items but we resisted. A short to the Bryggens Museum which had some interesting artifacts of area.
Finally a brief stop at St Mary's Church  the oldest church building in Bergen. Built around 1130 by the then King it has been restored many times.
Finally a late lunch a walk through the Bryggen shops- now thronged with people and back to the hotel for a rest.
The group join us about 8:30pm for a late dinner. We will welcome them having had dinner at a civilized hour.
Next day on the way to the airport we went via the Greig Museum where we had lunch and then attended their normal 1:00pm concert. This started late so we had to rush to catch .our plane to Reykjavik. We caught it with minutes to spare since it was a long walk to the gate.
The concert was excellent young pianist playing Greig. 
Arrived  after about a 2hr flight to a lovely clear day albeit cold. Big airport lots of people. We had a two bus trip  to our hotel (Hella). 

Comments

Jen and Bones
2019-07-28

Hi David and Leith, I am reading your email a bit late as I know you are half way round Iceland by now. I've looked at the map which gives a really clear idea of what is what. Great scenery if I can believe the pictures! The tall ships look amazing, interesting that so much information is in English?? I wonder what the weather is like now as we are hearing lots about the heatwave in Europe and how it is going to melt the icecap? Have fun Jen and Bones

Norman Cowper
2019-07-29

Dear David and Leith, Interesting trip. The rain must be a bit of negative. Enjoy your continuing journeys. Regards Norman

Shelagh
2019-08-01

Sounds wonderful, Tall ships always inspiring of tales. Memories of Bergen and Oslo came flooding back, do hope Iceland doesn't live up to its name!! Look forward to more. Happy sunny days, there has been a bit of rain for your garden Leith!!

2025-02-14

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