Last day in Bergen

Well, this is sad. Our flight leaves at 7:30 pm, and we are spending our last day in Bergen. Fortunately the check out is at 12 noon, so we’ll have a room to nip back to for the morning. We had another walk round and I found a fantastic camera shop. Something of a payback for all the time I’ve spent in wool shops over the last few days.

Anyhoo, I did buy a camera, but it is kind of a joke device, shaped like a film cassette and with a tiny viewfinder sticking out of it. It does work, and you can get pictures out of it.

I was a bit upset to discover that it was sold without a memory card but since we were having our lunchtime sandwich opposite a tech shop I was able to head across the road and solve that problem easily. The camera is a blind box deal, with six different film simulations. So they say. The pictures are quite low resolution, massively over-sharpened and rather charming.

The pictures below have been made deliberately small so that they don’t look too bad.

After lunch we chilled in the hotel lobby before walking to the station and taking a tram to the airport. The tram is not the fastest way to get there but it is the cheapest, at around four quids for the pair of us. Plus you get to visit all the places where normal people hang out and see a bit more scenery.

The airport was nice until we got to the “cattle class” gate for the plane. They must have considered the probable passenger count for each plane as a few hundred and then gone ahead with the plans for only sixty or so seats at the gate. I’d like to have been at that meeting.

The flight home was smooth, and at around nine o’clock in the evening we started the two hour journey home in the car. Unfortunately, we were now back in England using English roads. Which they like to close at night so they can play with them. So, we got the diversion experience of a lifetime. As in “it seemed to take a lifetime to get home” and “it will take a sizeable chunk of a lifetime to forget it”. One part of the diversion planning process seemed to involve sending enormous lorries down tiny roads past rows of parked cars outside neat little houses that probably weren’t expecting motorway traffic levels.

We also need to mention the signage. What there was of it. You might think that if you were planning a road diversion, you’d get an appropriate number of signs in. Not so. Signs were rare and confusing. At one point we spotted one with the word “Diversion” on it being displayed upside down, presumably so that the arrow pointed the correct way. It felt like we got home in spite of this “help”. In the end we let the Satnav sort it out and just hoped it would get us back on the motorway after the blockage. Which it did. If you ever wonder if you should take a trip to Norway you totally should. We had a great time.

Putting the fun into funicular

We used our special power of getting up early to ensure that we got to the funicular railway before the queues started. Side note: Nothing pleases us more than walking past a big queue for something we walked straight into an hour ago. Anyhoo, the railway was great, the views tremendous and they had a splendid wildlife park at the top of the railway. With goats.

They were also running some kind of, er, run, at the top with figures in track suits tightening shoelaces and donning ankle tracking brackets to precisely time their entries. We just had a hot chocolate and watched them all.

Then it was back down for a quick sandwich lunch and a walk around Bergen, which is lovely. Getting lost is not a problem if you know that you can always walk downhill to the water’s edge. Then it was out for another nice meal. Italian this time. By the time we’d finished – walking out past a huge queue waiting to get in – yay! It was close to sunset and we’d enjoyed the funicular so much we thought we’d do it again. So we did. Slight snag. The sun sets right behind the city, so the pictures had to be taken right into the light. But as it got lower this became less of a problem. And it was great to see the city slowly light up below us.

Yet another cruise

Time for another cruise this morning. This one was not electric but was pretty high-speed diesel. Going out on the deck to grab pictures was braver and more exciting than I would have liked and the light wasn’t that amazing – although the scenery was. A member of the crew was saying that if the captain is in a good mood he’ll take the boat right into a waterfall cascading down the side of the fjord. He was and he did. I wondered about asking what the captain would do if he was in a bad mood but decided against it.

We found a lovely place for lunch by mistake, looking for a different (and as it turned out probably lessor) one. Then, in our quest to find the missing B&O hifi store we found a really nice wool shop. Norway folks take their knitting and crochet really seriously. In fact, they seem to take everything in life properly seriously. Until you make them laugh, at which point they really go for it.  

We did plan to go back to the same place for dinner (a mistake we’ve made many times) but it was full so we were forced to strike out and find somewhere new. Which we did. The owner told us he had only opened the day before. It was awesome. Just the right amount of food for us. On a stick. Although I’m told that the proper name for this form of serving is skewer.

Boat, Bus, Train

The day started with a trip on a boat. Which was very nice. Same kind of setup as the first day, but with slightly less pleasing weather. That dropped us off to pick up a bus ride past even more nice scenery to Voss where we caught the train to Bergen.

Tunnel vision on the bus

Not our train

Everything fitted together nicely, including a filling station purchased meal, eaten in the Voss station waiting room. Then on to Bergen. A quick walk from the station to the hotel. Past a Bang and Olufsen HiFi shop. Not seen one of those in a while. We must be in the posh part of town.

Down in Flam

Flam is lovely. Based at the end of a fjord it is a tiny village with just hotels, museums, souvenir shops and a general store to its name. Business looks to be good though, what with a succession of cruise ships dropping of interested folks with cash to spend and time to kill.

We took a walk around and found a little Farm Café with superb garden and even a swing. In the afternoon we did a bit more wandering, then headed for our poshest lunch of the tour (it turned out).

We managed to inadvertently shoplift a bag from the museum (the assistant forgot to charge us), but having decided that we wanted good rather than larcenous memories of the place we took it back and offered to pay. They were pleased to see us and we got a discount. So honestly is not a bad policy after all.

Six hours to Flam

The title of this post is a bit of a fiction. It’s actually six hours to Myrdal, with another hour or so down the side of the fjord to Flam. The trip was billed as one of the most beautiful railway journeys in the world and I quite agree with this. Although it turned out to be spectacularly difficult to capture the scenery through the thick, double glazed, train windows.

The lines in the sky are the reflections of the carriage lights. I need to find a way to get rid of them.

We got on the train first thing, got off it a couple of hours into the journey to stretch our legs for ten minutes, and then climbed up above the tree line to Myrdal. Which was quite chilly and totally vindicated our choice of cosy clothing. The train ride down on the Flam Railway (which is a thing) was very nice, with a stop halfway to look at a waterfall.

We arrived starving and found a lovely place to eat which also served good beer.

..although some of the staff were a bit wooden. Ho ho.

Electric Cruising

Lots of boats

Best way to see Oslo? From boat. Best kind of boat? An electric one. We were up bright and early to get on the first of our pre-arranged “trips around the bay”. This was on a super modern, carbon fibre, all electric boat which glided silently out into the bay and around a bunch of pretty islands and inlets. You could wander around the boat taking pictures, so I did. The weather started super-grey – a bit like being at home – but it got nicer and nicer until we arrived back in something approaching sunshine.

Private island

Walked back from the boat past an amazing bakery where we had a couple of amazing sandwiches. No dry ice , but it did have a really good view of the harbour.

After a quick freshen up at the hotel we headed for the opera house. They let you walk on the roof, and this is totally a good thing. The views were superb and the lighting rather special.

I even managed to find a really nice camera store where I didn’t buy a camera. Or a lens. But did get a rather nice bag.

A change of pace for tea, where we headed for “Proud Mary’s”, a pub/venue which served up a bunch of nice nibbles which, considering the huge breakfast and lunch that we had enjoyed, fitted the bill perfectly.  Then to bed. Big journey tomorrow.

Hello Oslo

Today finds us in Oslo as part of our one-week world tour of Norway. We were up at 6:00 am and off on the road by 7:00am. The journey to the airport – always a giggle – was enlivened by plenty of queues and jeopardy. But we got to Manchester in good time and after a quick trip in and out of the car park (got to love their signage) we got parked up and hot footed it over to Terminal 2 in time to have a coffee in a place with thousands of people and no seats.

Then through passport control, a quick lunch, a half hour delay in the plane and off we went. I think short haul flights are allowed to have their seats closer together than long haul ones. All I can say is ouch.

We got to Oslo in good time and had a very smooth train journey to the hotel. Checked in, a quick walk around and then tea at The Duck and Dumplings, a place I spotted on the map while making plans on the plane after landing. Very nice food and deserts with dry ice.

I asked if all meals in Norway are accompanied by billowing white smoke and I was told that they are. Rather looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

You may have noticed some interruption to the service at robmiles.com today. It turns out that the day you leave the country is probably not the best day to transfer your domain name. Particularly if the domain you are moving is used in the email address used for 2 factor authentication with your DNS provider. All of which added up to an interesting conversation with a NameCheap support person who was super helpful and managed to give me enough access to able to sort it out with the help of the hotel wi-fi. Very glad I brought the laptop now…..