Thursday, August 3 - Bergen, Norway

This day was overcast, chilly, and not nearly as warm and pretty as the day we arrived. We enjoyed room service breakfast; I had oatmeal and Brock had eggs. The coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice were excellent!

Right off the bat we had a shore excursion by steam boat at 7:30 a.m. It went through several of the harbors and gave us a good look of shore by water.

The ship we rode on was an antique steam ship. We stayed out on the front deck.

It gave us several good looks at our own ship, the Viking Saturn; we were staying on this port side.

This is a totem pole that Bergen's sister city, Seattle, gifted to it. Bergen reminded us very much of Seattle (without all the homeless people).

This is the King of Norway's ship which happened to be in town for repairs:

A pretty pedestrian walkway:

Another view of the front of our ship:

This incredibly beautiful sailboat, the Sea Eagle, dominates the harbor:

Another handsome sailboat with Bryggen behind it:

More of the pretty shoreline in Bryggen, with many shops:

The Rosenkrantz Tower complex:

The historic outdoor fish market:

Right next to the modern building housing the indoor fish market:

We had some free time in between shore excursions, so we used that time to walk into town. We got a closer look at the boats while we waited for the shops to open up. This sailboat impressed us:

Brock felt anchored here:

We got a close-up view of the Sea Eagle:

It turns out this vessel has just been on a 20 month circumnavigation of the globe! It looks like it made it through just fine. We decided that we would much rather circumnavigate the globe in this vessel than in our Harbor Island friend Joe Hagan's 30 foot sailboat!

We enjoyed walking through the outdoor fish market, already open at 9:00 a.m. A mighty fine lunch could be had here! Yum, yum! Take a look at the size of those crab legs!

Note the fish soup in the lower left corner, below. We would have many a wonderful bowl of fish soup before the trip is over.

Look what we just happened to run into, a home away from home!

While shopping we ran into Kathy and Mary of Brisbane, Australia; we met them on the steamboat ride!

One of the funnest things we did on this day was buy some matching sweaters made by Dale of Norway! The sweaters we bought were thinner weight wool than the heavy sweater Brock bought several years ago in the States. We also bought matching hats, and I got an extra red hat, and we bought small Norwegian flags and postcards for family and friends. We were delighted with our purchases!

Here is the story of the Rosenkrantz Tower:

I took a panoramic photo of the site:

Our next shore excursion, "Mount Floien Hike", began later than scheduled at 11:30 a.m. because our guide was late. She was Maria of Bilboa, Spain.

After we left the vicinity of the ship, she gave us a brief tour of the old town, otherwise known as Bryggen. She explained that the most wealthy homeowners painted their homes white. Red paint was the least expensive, pigmented with iron. Yellow paint was considered mid-grade.

This is how you get your furniture onto the upper floor; you use a pulley:

Our walking tour led us to a funicular, which we rode up to the top of the mountain for some amazing views.

We were not alone at the top!

Not a bad view to be found!

You can see where our ship was in relation to town, the Rosenkrantz Tower, and the War Eagle:

This is the Hurtigruten coming into town:

This fellow has a bird's eye view:

We're not too far from the North Pole! We would later go to Nordkapp (North Cape).

Once we had finished admiring the view, we began a hike up higher and then back down all the way to the ship. Here are are some of the things we saw along the way:

Once we got part way, look what we found! A rest stop!

More fantastic vistas:

We found a hidden lake at the top:

On the way down, we passed the funicular track:

This house and garden caught my eye:

Between our morning outing and this shore excursion hike, we figured we hiked 5-6 miles. Once back to the ship (around 3:30 p.m.), we were pretty worn out. However, when the ship left Bergen, we got out to say good-bye. We passed under a large suspension bridge.

Factoids about Bergen:

• It has a population of 300,000.

• It rains 260/365 days (2/3 days) per year.

• Wealthy people drive electric cards, own race boats, and have houses painted white.

• The State kept most of the oil money amounting to $250,000/person.

• As a result, a medical visit costs only 25 Euros per visit.

• People from Norway and Europe can attend college for free here.