We’ve had a lovely time in Bergen, for the most part. Having so much fun, in fact, that we haven’t stopped to blog the details for want of time.
Right now though, I have plenty of time: shortly before boarding our flight, just after the plane arrived at the gate, SAS announced that there was a problem with a sensor in the door, and they were going to delay boarding while they investigated. Shortly afterwards they announced that they had to fly in the necessary parts and that the flight would therefore be cancelled and that we would be contacted with details of alternative arrangements. Shortly after that I received a text message to say that we had been re-booked on a direct flight to Trondheim operated by Widerøe, leaving at 17:25. So I got up to go for a walk around the terminal. In doing that I found a gate with a Widerøe flight to Trondheim leaving at 13:40 (and another leaving at 15:00) so I waited for a while to ask the ground crew if we could be promoted to either of those flights, instead. Unfortunately, neither had two spare seats, and we are two. So here we are in the “lounge” of one of the terminal “restaurants” (one that serves wine) killing time until five-ish. And what better way to kill time than looking at photos and catching up on the story?
So: the first full day in Bergen involved a walk around the harbour front to the right/east side. This took us past the famous Bryggen wooden buildings (some of which are now comically crooked) and then past the enormous fishing boats that were tied up. Eight of them, I counted later. The amount of fish that these things must bring ashore boggles the mind. Further around there were waterfront buildings built out over the water, in various states of repair and modernity. From there we walked back into town via the “high road” past what is claimed to be the worlds cutest fire station (Unesco listed). While I was looking the other way at some park-statuary, the lights flashed and (Cath tells me) a correspondingly cute fire truck dashed out. I believe that she managed to catch it in pixels, so perhaps I can share a shot of that later.
Got back to the hotel, relaxed, and then out to our dinner reservation at Bien Basar which is famous for having rediscovered “Persetorsk” (pressed and slightly preserved cod) but which we both agreed was a little disappointing, at least compared to the hotel restaurant..
On the second day (the 5th) we wandered in the opposite direction: past the rotunda in the park, past the not-quite-opened Julmarkt (Christmas Market) occupying the paved plaza on the edge of the lake, and marvelled at the floating Christmas tree moored just off shore in the lake. Walked around the lake towards the art gallery area (didn’t go to see the Munch exhibitions) and past them to the opera house, which is a cool modern building that didn’t seem to have a cafe. Stopped in from the rain at the fish market for a bowl of Bergen fish soup: excellent. From there we wandered back to the hotel for a rest and then hoped that they had a place for us at the restaurant for dinner. It is peak Christmas-party season, so they were not initially hopeful, but it was late-ish (after 8pm) and they had a table free by then that they were able to make up for us. Both had the monkfish with mushroom sauce and both thought it delicious.
Yesterday (the 6th) we took the funicular up to the top of the mountain (well, it’s 800m) behind the city, took some photos from the top and then had a very pleasant walk back down. It was raining pretty hard, but we had our good umbrellas and were well rugged up: it was lovely, although after the two hours of hiking Cath’s knee was very much in need of a sit down. We tried a hot-dog from the famous Trekroneren stand. Mine (“wild game”) was OK, but nothing to get too excited about, Cath’s (“smoked bratwurst”) seemed to enthuse her even less. By that stage the bar that we had been eying off, “Vinyl”, a beer-and-vinyl-record-rock joint, had opened, so we adjourned there for some comfortable seats with a view of the street, good music and delicious beers (or wines). Called the hotel to see if they could feed us again, but they could not: fully booked. So I looked for rated restaurants on Maps and found one (French bistro) close by that could take us. So we had French for our last night in Bergen: duck pate and seafood bisque for me, tartare and entrecote for Cath: all good.
Slept well, up bright and sparky at 07:00 to pack. Hotel breakfast, check-out, made it to the tram stop in plenty of time. Got to the airport at about 10:00, … and we’ve been here ever since.
We have a restaurant booking in Trondheim at 20:00. Hope we make it!
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