Bergen, Norway - Wednesday, 10/2

Bergen! 

I wasn’t expecting much from today, 

probably because I didn’t know much about the area, 

Pretty houses on the mountain

but it turned out to be really fun.

 Local park and fountain viewed from the bus

We rode the hop on, hop off bus again, 

 Same park, viewed from Mt Fløyen - it’s huge!

getting off halfway around the loop 

  Very steep, pretty road leading to funicular station

at the Mount Fløyen funicular stop - 

the station had a huge line, but we walked right in after I bought tix online while standing in line. Score! -

for a ride up the mountain 

for lunch, 

Wine bar restaurant 

 Those very big wine glasses held Coke - there’s no Diet Coke here, only Coke Lite which I can’t stand

goats -

including this guy, who refused to let you pass until you scritched his head -

forest

with huge trees- 

trolls -

this was my favorite -

and spectacular

180° views of town, fjord and mountains…

and our ship in the distance ⬇️ (red dot).

The bus’s tour recording wasn’t synced with the route, 

 Colorful shops facing the harbor

which was really disappointing, 

 Famous block-long fish market, established in the 1200’s 

so there’s not much info on some of these pics. 

 University History Museum (I think…)

The one story that (almost) synced up was of these “chimney houses”. 

After a major fire in the 1800’s, building laws said housing had to be built of brick….which was expensive… 

so they built with wood and covered the exterior with a layer of bricks… essentially creating a “chimney” if the house(s) caught fire. Hugely dangerous

Thursday, 10/3, we are at sea; 

 Looking back at the downtown shops

Friday we’re in Amsterdam; 

 St. Mary’s Church

Saturday in Bruges; 

 No idea… love the style

then to London on Sunday for the flight home. 

 Drive wheel for funicular, on top of Mt Fløyen

 Love the cobblestone pattern

 Only sign we saw for the trolls. They are behind the restaurant, up a hill, so if you don’t know they are there you’ll likely miss them

 Going down!

 Waiting for the funicular

 Baby yacht parking - the big yachts were off to the right…

 One of at least 3 companies using the ‘hop on/off’ slogan

Geiranger, Norway - Tuesday, 10/1

Today we were in Geiranger, Norway, 

Early morning ferry view from the balcony

a mountain/fjord town of 250 permanent residents 

whose economy is based entirely on tourism - 

they host about 2 cruise ships a day during the summer season. 

 Twisty, winding road, switchbacking up the mountain

So beautiful! 

 Made a new friend. There was a long line of adults waiting to have their picture taken with him. 

We walked around, 

 Balcony view to the right, looking toward town

did a little shopping, 

 Mountain view to the left 

then headed back for hubby’s birthday dinner 

 Yummy cake… for me. He had (dairy free) sorbet instead. .

at Cagney’s, 

 It took two hands to hold that enormous wine glass!

the excellent steak restaurant on board. 

 Warp drive elevator

Some cool things we saw -

tiny houses (for trolls??) -

motorized floats ⬆️ give new meaning to ‘rolling up the sidewalks’ -

open mouth ferry loading - cars drive in on the right, lid drops back down and away they go -

 Very tiny town

and the coolest thing of all (video is too big to upload here ☹️) was the ship spinning in place 180° so we could go back out the same way we came in. So amazing to watch. 

Cross fingers for us please - tonight is our best shot for seeing the aurora borealis. We’ve had thick cloud cover every other night so far.

 Our window seat at dinner