Category: Norway

Bergen

We’ve had a great time in Bergen despite the cool weather. Yesterday we walked straight up hill rather than taking the train and then some more on the mountain. Bergen is very mountainous so we had some great views of the mainly white wooden houses from the top of the mountain and from the bottom too.  We had our dinner at the centrally located fish market and it was quite expensive considering it was on plastic plates! (610 kroner ~$100).Today it rained most of the morning so we strolled around the city district using umbrellas I bought for a souvenir for Cara and Melanie in Kiel! In the afternoon we met Shannon’s friend Anna Erwens and she again walked us to the top of the mountain but another way via Bergen fitness test , an ascent up 600 stone steps. Lucky I do the Shack Bay stairs otherwise I wouldn’t have managed it. We had excellent views of Bergen and some of the islands. We had dinner of smoked trout that they catch themselves up at their ‘country’ house in Voss  , and bread and wild raspberries they picked themselves.

 

Moss and Oslo

We arrived by ferry to Oslo and walked from the ferry terminal to the railway station. It was a sunny day and about high teens in temperature. Oslo is very green as is Norway in general. I had to find a toilet which I did with difficulty in the old palace gardens but couldn’t  use it cause I had to swipe a credit card to go.! Finally found a toilet in the railway station but had to pay $1:60 to go .. 10 NK! We then stored our bags at the railway station and walked to Frogner park where there are over 200 statues some bronze and some granite. We had a small bite at a cafe and found everything very expensive but Oslo is one of the most expensive places to visit so luckily we are visiting with Sarah and John in Moss which is 60km away.

We took the train from Oslo to Moss and Sarah picked us up at the station. We traveled through mountains covered in Birch and Spruce ..40% of Norway is forested and only 1% urban. It has a population of just under 5 million and is second to Iceland in being the most sparsley populated countries in Europe. Wood products, oil and fish are it’s main exports. We stayed in Moss for 3 nights and were wined and dined at Sarah and Johns. They live near the woods so we went  on several walks there and Rick did a couple of runs. We also went on a couple drives to  Jeloy island and a castle  an hours drive away near Sweden at Fredrikstad. The night before we left them Rick realized he doesn’t have his passport and had it last at Oslo railway station when we bought a SIM card.  We have to get a temporary passport when we make an appointment with the consulate in Oslo on our return trip! We are traveling to Bergen from Oslo  so have time to update our Blog.

Kiel to Oslo

Two days after the triathlon we left the beautiful village of Kalbensteinberg to head to Oslo. We were a bite late to get started still recovering from the previous night’s Australasian after party though Lil says the schnapps left her head as clear as a bell. Fortunately the GPS lead us to the exact location of the Nuremberg main railway station following the inevitable Bavarian detour.

Having mailed my bike back the day before ,I decided the helmet was too bulky and sent it back home also – hope I see them again. We were soon on our way to Kiel via Hamburg . The trip passes through green fields and forests. When you see the amount of forest here it just makes you wonder what we have done to Australia. We arrived in Kiel about 5pm . It is located and the end of a long natural harbor . We checked into the B&B Hotel and walked on the bridge over the harbor locating where we had to go the next day and bought some groceries for dinner from Lidl .

Next day we boarded the color fantasy , it is a huge ferry , with a large ‘promenade’ on deck 7 with multiple restaurants ,show lounge , casino  and shopping centre. There is a large sundeck and another bar on the observation deck.  Dinner was the ‘grand buffet’ with a large selection of Scandanavian fare including every possible way to cook herring , moose and reindeer sausage . After dinner we watched the sunset the chilled out on the observation deck where a band was playing , partaking in a bit of cha cha and rock and roll before hitting the sack.

We slept till 8 the had coffee in the observation deck till we arrived in Oslo.