North to Norway

It was time to move on today, heading north to Bergen in Norway. Our flight was at 10am, so we didn’t have to start too early. We were flying Norweigan Air, the Jetstar of Norway. It had won awards for the best budget airline in Europe though, so we were hoping to avoid the horror stories of airlines like Ryanair. It turned out to be fine, and we arrived on time in the right place. It’s also probably the only time we will ever have the seat numbers 1A, 1B and 1C! We were lucky enough to fly over Norway in perfect weather and the snowy views were absolutely stunning. We were even more delighted when we arrived in Bergen to perfect sunshine and a light layer of snow on the ground. For a place that has 266 wet days a year, and 26 wet days in December, it was what we had hoped for, but never expected.

We had the choice of bus or light rail to get us to Bergen Centre. Surprisingly the bus took 20 minutes and the rail an hour, so it wasn’t a hard decision. We also thought we might see more from the bus, but all we really saw was the inside of road tunnels. Bergen is built around 7 hills and the Norwegians like to tunnel as much as the Italians. We were able to access our room early so dumped our stuff and went straight out to make the most of the sunshine before it disappeared. We grabbed a snack at the Narvesen and went straight to Floibanen, the funicular that took us up Mt Floyen. This city is a bit like Wellington, with bigger hills and steeper cliffs. Mt Floyen is 360m above sea level so the views back down to Bergen and beyond were impressive.

Beyond the top of the cable car is a huge network of hiking trails. We didn’t have a map or a much daylight left, so we did a short walk up to a lake. From there we just did short walks in various directions and then returned to the lake. We would have loved to explore further but had no map and limited daylight, so didn’t want to risk getting lost in the freezing conditions. The scenery was beautiful especially with the layer of snow, and it was fun finding huts and playgrounds hidden in the trees. We didn’t have to wait long to enjoy the sunset, the sun went down at around 3:30pm.

For dinner tonight we had our first experience of Lithuanian cuisine. Most of the things on the menu sounded very foreign, but Lithuanian Schnitzel sounded pretty good. Unfortunately the “sauce on the side” got lost in translation and we ended up with mushroom sauce all over our schnitzel. None of us like mushrooms, but we scraped it off as best we could and it filled us up.