It’s been a few days since the last post.  We’ve had a few quiet days and if I’m honest… I just wasn’t feeling it, but I’m back on the horse, so to speak, and ready to give you another dose of life in Norway.

So….. we finally got off that boat when we landed in Bergen and we didn’t even look back to say goodbye.  It was a great experience, don’t get me wrong, but after two full days and nights of rough weather and feeling nauseous…. we were more than ready for a bit of sturdy ground…. and even now I’m still swaying.

Our hotel in Bergen is right smack bang in the middle of everything….. and what a gorgeous little town it is.

Now Chris Hemsworth did make a promise and it was obviously taking a bit of time to find his hammer or some such excuse, because day one in Bergen absolutely pissed down.  This is the view from our room.

We popped into the fish market to get out of the rain and to check our their wares.  It’s only a very small market with a restaurant attached, so I wouldn’t say that it was the original, but they had some nice looking wares.

We pressed on with our brollies and rain coats taking in the pretty sights.  Me Jenny seems to be pretty happy to be out and about.

We did a few chores today – picked up our Bergen Card which gives you discounts and free admission to lots of places….. but if I’m honest, I don’t usually buy those cards, like the New York Pass because I rarely go to enough things on the list to warrant the price of them, but when booking everything we thought why not?  Well, after being in Bergen a couple of days I can tell you why not.  In October in Bergen, or indeed Norway, there are a lot of things that are closed because it’s no longer summer, some things were closed for renovation and some things just weren’t of any interest to us….. like the Leprosy Museum – I tried to get Jenny to go, but she just didn’t want to!  So, we probably didn’t get our money’s worth there – hindsight and a few open exhibitions are a wonderful thing.

Our other job was to pick up our train tickets for when we depart Bergen.  We found the train station with ease and then had the friendliest encounter with a train station worker that I’ve ever had ever in my whole life.  Talk about pleasant and helpful!

Once we were all up to date with our paperwork, we meandered back in the direction of our hotel via some little cobbled and windy streets.  I like to dip into the back streets in a new place, espcially when they look pretty safe and non dodgey.

This little corner house is the reason that we don’t put our naked candles near the flammable curtains.

This whole area had a special charm about it – like there was a fabulously colourful festival, but it finished yesterday type of vibe.

There were some funky little cafes that we weren’t sure if they were open or not….

But then you’d turn another knobbly corner you felt like you were in Diagon Alley from Harry Potter and we wondered if maybe JK had been to Bergen and this was in fact where she got her inspiration?

Here’s me Blomster…. doing a bit of forrentning.

Then wouldn’t you know it, Chris Hemsworth must have finally found his hammer and the sky cleared!  We continued our wandering – sans umbrellas, which was a lovely change…. I mean, we still had them about our person – we’re not that silly.

This is the Bergen Theatre – such a lovely building and out the front is the statue of a very famous Norwegian playwright…. Henrik Ibsen.  Now I don’t know about you, but I think that somebody has used a bit of artistic licence with a couple of his facial features… and possibly his body.

I’d like to know what is going on with the entry to this whiskey bar…. do you need magical powers to get down there?  More of JK’s work perhaps?

Now this jaunty looking chap (below) was also quite famous here in Bergen – his name is Edvard Greig and he’s a Norwegian composer and pianist, and it seems quite fitting that they would celebrate a musician here because there are about as many record shops and instrument shops as there are hairdressers.

Also, we met an Australian waiter who came to Bergen especially to pursue his dream of being a musician…. that seems strange, right, but you see, we came to learn that James, our waiter came to Bergen with a friend, who is also a musician and they’ve been here for two years and his mate got married to a Norwegian lady and James himself has a local girlfriend now as well, she’s a singer in a different band.  They like play gigs all over, like even in Sweden.  He was going to join her band, but a female singer didn’t really suit his style of music and anyway, he doesn’t really like the cold, but he’s from Queensland and he doesn’t really like it too hot either.  He’s thinking about coming back to Australia for a visit soon.  He’s got an aunty who lives in Perth and he might go and visit her when he goes back.

There are art installations all over the city and sometimes it’s tricky to know how you’re meant to appreciate it.

We thought we’d take advantage of the no rain that had been so generously given to us by heading up the funicular to check out the view.

The ride up was pretty uneventful athough everybody tries to get into the bottom carriage because that’s the best view out over the harbour as you are ascending.

There are signs up there that say you can’t fly a drone….. nor are you allowed to fly your broomstick – honestly, there are so many rules!

Up the top there is a whole nature playground for the kiddies and a cafe and of course a gift shop, but there are also a herd of goats that live up there.  They have these electronic cowbells around their neck and they give off a sound when they wander off too far away from the grazing fields.  Apparently the sounds get louder and louder warning them that if they go too far an electric shock will occur….. possibly why they’re all hanging around this one area.  There were groups of little kids all clambering to touch and have a photo with the goats.  They were so calm and placid…. you could even say they were a little bit zen – check out the photo on the left (below)

One little guy seemed to have wandered away from the rest of the herd, but was working her way back….  Me Jenny has such a way with ‘outside’ animals.  She’s great with a cat or a small lap dog though.

So the rain couldn’t help itself and down she came again, so we headed for the funicular.  We all crammed into the carriages with people jostling for the best spot to see a worse angle of the view that they just saw at the top.

There’s a chap – you can just see him – who is blowing the leaves off the track.  I’m not sure I’d want that job…. she’s pretty steep!

When you get people in a small environment like this, where you can’t get away, it’s pretty germy and gross.  People are coughing and sniffling, etc…. but what makes it more gross is people like this woman next to Me Jenny.  She obviously had a cold or the flu or pneumonia or something and the poor thing didn’t have a tissue or a hanky or a sleeve, she also didn’t have any words to ask her several travelling companions if they had any of the above that she could use…. all she could do was sniff and I’m not talking just a little sniff until I can find myself a tissue…  She was giving it her absolute best go.  It was disgusting.  It made us feel quite bilious and Jenny had to plug her ear so she wouldn’t be sick.  This woman is lucky she turned her head when she did – SHAME LADY – SHAME!

So, what should have been a lovely, relaxing, scenic ride ended with us elbowing people out the way so we could take a breath of fresh air….  then we continued our wandering.

This was a school that had decorated bikes and tied them to the fence – a very creative use of up cycling.

Then just next to the school there was a small grassed area and somebody had crocheted covers for all the trees….  another school initiative perhaps?

Nap time!