The weather greeted us with miserable grey clouds and rain. All the other towns we've visited have been small, and I suppose I hadn't really thought about the fact that Bergen is actually a very large city.
We heard tales of exploding ships and fires ripping through the city. We were shown the old houses and parts of town as well as the new. I have to say, I found Bergen really lovely, especially the old wooden houses.
It reminded me of all the spaghetti western films, those wild west towns built of wood.
We wandered up and down the stairs, and over the balconies. There are lots of little shops and small businesses both upstairs and downstairs.
It was absolutely brilliant. Shame about the rain, but it really didn't spoil our pleasure in the place at all.
After popping in and out of some of the souvenir shops, we gave up trying to see anymore and went and hid in Starbucks for a coffee and free wi-fi. By the time our coats had stopped dripping it was more or less time to get blown back to the ship (with a little bit more rain chucked in).
Peter and I were escorting again - Intro to Bergen and Funicular, not a tour we'd have chosen ourselves to be honest, but then we would have missed out on so much. Surrounded by seven mountains, the fjord at it's centre and with masses of history, Bergen is actually a really good place to visit and our tour took us for a drive through so much of it's history.
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| A view across the river during our tour. Medieval Houses alongside the modern. |
At the end of the tour we were taken up a funicular to the top of one of the mountains (I couldn't tell you which one), to enjoy the views. What I found surprising, although it makes perfect sense to be honest, is that the funicular is not just there for the tourists to get a view from the top, it's there for the commute up the hill for the citizens of Bergen. There were actually four stops leading off to various suburbs on the mountainside. Needless to say, the views at the top were brilliant.
The tour was only for the morning, so once back to ship, we had a bit of lunch and ventured back out to see if we could find on foot some of the brilliant things we'd seen from the bus window. Unfortunately the weather had different ideas, as soon as we started to walk away from the ship it started chucking it down. And it didn't stop.
We did manage to get to the Hanseatic Wharfe - actually we were sheltering from the buckets of water coming out of the sky, and we stumbled into the alleys between the buildings.
We were absolutely made up. The space between these buildings is just incredible. The Hanseatic Wharfe warehouses/shops were built shortly after a fire in 1702, and as we stepped into those alleys, it was like stepping back in time.
Still, we've enjoyed our day here and I only have good thoughts of Bergen, I'd like to come back to be honest, mebbe another cruise then?
Tomorrow is our last sea day, and then we arrive back in Tilbury. So that's it, the end of another holiday. I have to say I have really enjoyed this one. I really think I would like to come back and see more of Norway and it's fjords. Not straight away though, I've got to go to Iceland next. Cool eh?
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