First some photos of wooden houses Kristiansand

Thursday 4 August:  Bergen

I wake with the light to early morning rain, but the sky clears as we pass under two suspension bridges that connect Bergen, the capital of the fjords, with the rest of Norway.  Large bridges are not a common sight in Norway, since it is the tunnel-building capital of the world (more on the tunnels later)—as well as the per capita pizza consumption capital (who knew?).

Since this my second visit to Bergen, I decide to take an all-day tour to the Hardangerfjord. On my fist visit in 1968 I was a poor graduate student spending some nights on trains to avoid the expensive hotels of Scandinavia (expensive for Europe even then in 1968). After departing from Bergen the bus crosses the Fusafjord by a 10-minute ferry ride.  We drive through the countryside for two hours—much too quickly—and without many stops (unfortunately); the changing landscapes seem to whiz by.  We do make a brief stop at the Holdhus church, built entirely of wood in 1726 (on the foundation of an earlier 1306 Stave church). And then another hour on the bus until we reach the fjord-side Hardangerfjord Hotel for a buffet lunch of all the choice goodies of Norwegian cuisine (several kinds of salmon, herring, salads, and breads).

After enjoying the scenic beauty of the hotel we are driving again alongside the fjord.  This particular fjord is one of the widest and deepest in Norway.  The return ride over and under the mountains to Bergen is much shorter than the outbound trip.  We make stops at a waterfall you can walk under and several other viewpoints. There are about 35 tunnels cutting through the countryside between the fjord and Bergen. The deep rock drilling the Norwegians developed for their oil industry is used for infrastructure that connects the cities without destroying the environment. The highlight of the trip back to the ship is the tour guide’s reading of several typical Norwegian fairy-tales, involving three brothers who have a marked resemblance to Cinderella and her sisters.

Although I enjoyed the scenery and took lots of pictures, this excursion involved too much bus riding and by the time we returned to the ship there wasn’t any time to see Bergen again at all.

Sail Away and Dinner

As the ship prepares to leave Bergen at 5 pm, I finally run into Tom (from Tucson) who tells me that he and Melody have decided to forgo the formalities of the dining room. We sail north up the coast during dinner:  veal and mushroom ragout in puff pastry, Caesar salad with anchovies, Coho salmon in teriyaki sauce, and a fruit platter—along with the start of a bottle of Pinot Grigot. There is much too much to eat.  I really shouldn’t have had that pizza snack at 4 pm.