We spent two nights in Bergen, not realizing that the town was a major hub on the tourbus circuit. But we managed to avoid most of the August crowds and found a few gems amidst the tourist clutter. The old Bryggen wharf is rightfully listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. This complex of old wooden buildings was great fun to explore and believe it or not, the cafés that are still remaining here were some of the cheapest and least over-run ones in the city.
We also took the cable train up the mountain to the famous city overlook. The views alone were worth the ride up, but the crowds thinned dramatically as we hiked into the surrounding forest. We walked for almost two hours without ever really knowing where we were going - the Norwegians could learn a lot from Belgium on how to properly mark a trail.
Which brings up an interesting, and completely unexpected observation … the Norwegian culture, at least on the western coast, was very disappointing to us. I first started feeling a little bit uneasy about it when we asked the cab driver on the way into town from the airport to point out anything special and the first thing that he mentioned was the local mall. Culturally, it went downhill from there for us. The people were friendly enough, but there was an underlying lack of sense of community that we’ve come to love in central or southern European countries.
But the natural beauty of this northern land is unparalleled. Bergen is beautifully situated in a natural harbor surrounded by mountains, but it only got nicer once we boarded the little boat for the “scenic” part of our trip. With a thick low-hanging cloud cover above us, we motored north through thousands of islands along the craggy western coast of Norway. This alone was scenic enough to meet my expectations, but when we rounded an inlet about an hour into the trip and pushed toward the mouth of The Sognefjord, I knew that I would be seeing the most spectacular scenery that I’ve ever seen in my life.
These photo’s don’t do it justice. The autofocus on my camera kept picking up stray bits of mist floating around and caused more than a third of my pictures to go to waste and the remaining ones to come across as dark and depressing, which it wasn't. But suffice it to say that if our mouths weren’t hanging open at the jaw dropping beauty, then they were wide with childish grins as we huddled against the dampness, not wanting to miss a single minute.
The harbor of Bergen.
Fish market.
View of Bergen from the top of the mountain. Paul and Gloria joined us to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
They start them young in Norway.
In Bryggen's old streets
Entry to the Fjords
Any bit of flat land is used to build and farm on. It's a really hard way of life in the fjords. There is very little road access. The kids even go to school by boat.
The famous narrows...all that's missing is the cruise ship coming through.
This is the small fjord and farm of Finnabotn. The farm is now used as a guesthouse.
We've only seen this clarity of water reflection one other time in our lives. It was almost disorienting it was so clear.
Heidi? A nice hike in the mountains above Finnabotn with waterfalls cascading all around us.
This boat was also owned by our captain. To put the scale of the mountains into perspective, this boat holds more than 100 passengers (ours held 10).
The small village of Undredal. It got it's first road service only 20 years ago. What a fantastic setting! And the brown carmelized goat cheese found only here is delicious.
A lonely sailboat. We mostly had the fjord to ourselves, which surprised us for August.
We stopped at another farm that has been the same family for more than 500 years. With a waterfall like that right behind your house, why would you sell?
A nice bike ride to stretch the legs on one of our village stops.
The bus ride back to Bergen was also very scenic. The switchbacks up from the road seen below were amazing!
For anyone interested, the complete set of photo's can be found at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/dglasstetter/Norway
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