Tracy-Shane-Trips

So this is the last day of the cruise. Here’s the last morning view from the balcony.

We had early room service this morning and left the ship at 8:25am to meet up with our excursion. It was the e-bike tour of Bergen, and it was raining. Of course, the trip was rain or shine, so we dressed warmly, and they provided ponchos. It was in the upper 50s, so it was cold and rainy, but we actually had fun. Our guide was Kristina, a college student studying marketing at the local university, and she was well-spoken and knowledgeable. Here’s our route. If you can see the blue dotted line that goes up into the base of the mountains, that’s us! But remember, e-bikes, so we had lots of help, and even I enjoyed the ride. Of course I hit a few big potholes so my tush is really sore. Maybe there will be a hottub at the Hilton in Stockholm.

We got our helmets and instructions on how to use the bikes, and we were off.

We saw some amazing views from up in the mountains. At one point we stopped, and our guide told us a story about a race that is fun up in the mountains on an old trail built by monks. Stoltzekleiven translates to “the proud slope”, and it is a very steep outdoor stone stairway and hiking trail. It goes up to the peak of Mount Sandviksfjellet. It’s roughly 0.5 miles long, with about 908 steep steps made of stone and wood, and about 300 meters high, with an average climb of 36%. It’s also home to a famous annual uphill running race of the same name. People from all over the world come to run the hills.

Kristina also told us a hilarious story about a Norwegian documentary series called Der ingen skulle tru at nokon kunne bu (which translates to Where No One Would Think Anyone Could Live). Produced by the public broadcaster NRK, the popular program features profiles of people who choose to live solitary, remote lives in extreme and isolated corners of Norway, such as steep mountain ledges, abandoned islands, and deep fjord edges.

Here’s a photo of Shane standing in front of the Fløibanen funicular. It connects the city center to Fløyen, with its mountain walks and magnificent views of the city. It is one of Bergen’s major tourist attractions and one of Norway’s most visited attractions. The line is 848 m (2,782 ft) long, covers a height difference of 302 m (991 ft), and carries nearly two million passengers a year.

Here are some more views. You can see the ship in the distance in the one in the lower left. One of the things I noticed along the path was about 10 little waterfalls. We were going too fast for me to stop and take a photo; I didn’t want to lose the group. But it was really pretty.

When we got back down to the city, we visited a few gorgeous old churches from the 1100s. There was the Bergen Cathedral and St Mary’s.

We stopped in the city at a shop that sells traditional Norwegian dress clothes that are mostly worn on National Day, May 17, for weddings, graduations, communions, and similar special occasions. I got a photo of Shane on his bike.

The last stretch we rode past the main street by the pier and the gorgeous old houses lining the street. The colorful wooden houses of Bryggen Wharf stand out as one of Bergen’s most iconic landmarks and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The wharf features vibrant red, orange, yellow, and white wooden merchant buildings. These iconic medieval harborfront, stepped-gable wooden buildings were used during the Hanseatic League trading days and date back to the 14th century; they have been meticulously preserved and now house shops, restaurants, and museums that showcase the city’s maritime heritage. On the next block, another old building, but I forget what that one was. The screenshot on the right are the really colorful ones.

Along the way, we saw this cool guy driving on the sidewalk in his little car, and I had to take his picture.

It’s about 6pm here, and I am going to wait to post to see if I can get one last sunset, but it’s still really foggy and rainy, so we’ll see. I’m also exhausted, so I might not make it to 10:30pm. I’ll check back in with you after dinner.

Tonight was Taste of Norway and needless to say, there was a lot of fish. Shane ordered steak and fries from room service and I tried a few things like fish cakes and grilled shrimp. It was OK, but they’ve had better meals for me here. We did our last sorbet of the trip, Shane got mint chocolate chip and cherry and red wine and I got chocolate chip and nutella. It was good, as usually. Hard to have a bad sorbet flavor.

It’s too cloudy for a sunset and it won’t be until much later anyway. We check out at 8am tomorrow and catch the transfer to the airport and are off to Sweden at 130pm. I’ll definitely keep going on this blog so stay on the lookout for a new post.

Tracy