Even though we were pretty tired the previous night we found ourselves getting up at 6 am, so we headed down at this early hour to get some breakfast. Surprisingly, the buffet was almost full.
Breakfast was good, with lots of fish of very high quality. With so many people sometimes we had to line up for some foods, and the buses lined up outside explained the source of all the guests. Because of the location right near the train station and the wide streets out front, our hotel was popular with tour groups.
After a quick stop back in our room we went out and hit the road early. The original idea of staying a day in Bergen was to allow another chance at a fjord cruise if necessary. I didn’t know if it would be rainy, or if the cruise that we took yesterday would be enough to satisfy, but as it turned out we were happy to just spend time relaxing in Bergen before moving on to our next country.
We walked through town, making a minor wrong turn but eventually finding our way to the waterfront. The big attraction there is the UNESCO awarded Bryggen – a row of historic waterfront buildings that have been preserved. Similar (but slightly less colorful) to the Nyhavn canal buildings in Copenhagen, these buildings had a variety of shops (some less than traditional) and overlooked the ships coming and going in the harbor. We walked through a fish market, similar to what we had seen in Helsinki – set up mainly for tourists and not yet open. Inside the harbor many ships were docked, one named “Eric Bloodaxe”, and others much larger that were built to push around cruise ships. We circled around the waterfront and behind to see St. Mary’s Church, and then sat on a bench to rest. From the bench I ordered online tickets for the funicular that runs to the mountains above Bergen, and then we walked several blocks down some old streets that were under construction.
When we got to the funicular entrance it was completely hidden inside the building, and built in to the mountain so as not to disturb the view of the mountainside. When we arrived there was no line, so we got right on the modern funicular car. About halfway up the car emerged and then you could enjoy views of the city through the clear glass windows on the top of the vehicle.
Once at the top we could enjoy panoramic views of the city, the ocean, and dark rain clouds far on the horizon. There were a few other things at the top – a bunch of goats lounging around, a pod that elevates into the trees (available for overnight rentals!) and a troll forest. Trolls are a part of the local folklore, and they had made some cute/grotesque statues of trolls and hidden them here and there in the woods.
It was a popular destination – we recognized the Japanese family that had sat around us on the train the previous evening – and as we were wrapping up there were a lot of people arriving. We grabbed a ride down the hill, and found a rather long line waiting to go up the hill. Our timing had been perfect.
And speaking of perfect timing, we started to seek out a place to have some sparkling wine, and ducked into the fish market just as the rain started coming down. We talked to a waiter in an attached restaurant, and he was happy to sit us at a table in the glass enclosed back patio. Through the glass ceiling and windows we watched people running for cover and getting wet while we sipped our bubbles and stayed dry.
While Kuniko had a Prosecco, I took a chance to try a local cider, that was dry and quite flavorful. My good experience with this cider caused some problems for me later in Sweden, however. Along with the bubbles we decided to order a sampler plate of various caviar, called “Caviar Symphony”. I asked our very friendly waiter if one plate would be enough for two people, and he just smiled and said we could always order another one if it came to that.
The caviar was one of my highlights of the trip. It had four kinds of fish eggs – black and red varieties of lumpfish eggs, trout and salmon eggs. There was also some crème fraiche, red onions, some bread and also some dill. It was perfect with the bubbles in with the rain falling around us.
We spent a while there as the place was empty and nobody was in a hurry with the rain outside. We watched a Korean family try to take a table at the next restaurant while bringing along McDonald’s bags full of food – they soon got kicked out but came back later without the food. A staff member of our restaurant talked with us a while about her experiences living in Norway – she came from Argentina, and was working in different countries in Europe.
After a second round of bubbles the rain seemed to be tapering off, so we decided to go ahead and move on. As we left the fish market we took a closer look at the seafood on ice – they had everything you’d expect: big king crabs, shrimp and lobster, even smoked whale. We saw a lot of whale on the menus in Norway, which is the only country besides Japan that does commercial whaling.
Nearby we went through to supermarket to see what kinds of things they sold, and then walked around a shopping center (the entrance was hard to find!) and stopped in Flying Tiger, and also walked through Normal!, which is a similar sort of store, more like a drug store that we had first seen in Oslo. In the shopping center we made a bathroom stop, and somebody was just walking out when I grabbed the door and went in. Kuniko had to pay to enter her bathroom – and it turned out that I illegally used the toilet in Norway. I should have tapped my credit card (like Kuniko did) to pay to use the restroom, so I accidentally saved a little money through ignorance.
We walked back to our hotel in a light rain to take a break there – and we both were enjoying staying in a town that makes it so easy to walk around. Similar to Japan, it is easy to get around without a car and we didn’t even need to use the light rail system in Bergen until we left for the airport.
We had expected our room to be cleaned by the time we returned but found a tag hanging near the door that said that they clean the rooms every three days. Unfortunately we had already thrown our wet towels into the bottom of the shower and we were out of soap in the dispenser by the sink, so we called the operator and they brought those items for us.
In the late afternoon we went back out into town to look around some more. One thing we noticed right away was that there were roving groups of young people, maybe college age, wearing odd clothes and participating in various activities. Some were running impromptu races, others playing games or trying to limbo under a pole. Later we heard from our waiter that it was a sort of college social club activity day, but it was surprising how many people were out and about.
Thanks to online reservations we were able to get into the restaurant that had been packed the previous evening. We had dinner at Pingvinen, and it was really good. We started with a crab and fish salad, served with flatbread crackers slathered in butter. For main courses we had a big slice of fish pie, and also a bowl of plukkfish, which contained fish and potatoes mixed with a handful of heavily roasted meat chunks on top, and pickled onions on the side. This was one of our favorite meals of the trip, and we wanted to take a shot at cooking them at some point.
After dinner we walked around a little more and then headed back to our hotel. Since there was a bar out front we hoped to have a cocktail, but despite a huge amount of booze bottles on the shelf they had only a few choices. The staff looked pretty busy and stressed. Eventually I had a Moscow Mule, and Kuniko ordered a Porn Star Martini. The bartended heard Kuniko say “Oishii!” and he said that he is a big fan of anime. Finally we decided to go up and head to bed. It was still light out when we went upstairs at 10 pm.
