Huge steel poles, red construction tape everywhere, people coming and going, no one to assist you, no signs to tell you where to go? A dirty, muddy landscape greeted us as we alighted from the train…. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WHITE WORLD OF BEAUTIFUL SNOW SCENERY AND THE HELPFUL PEOPLE WE HAD ENCOUNTERED ALONG THE WAY ON OUR “NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL” TRIP?

We had arrived at Bergen. 20^th January

Raining and cold we made our way to the taxi-and miserable and quite wet entered our hotel room. We were told that Bergen rained all the time and they were right! But our horrible introduction to Bergen was short-lived. Our room was in the new town and faced the harbour with the quaint buildings of the old town standing like a toy set in front of us! It really was a postcard..even if a wet one!

Founded more than 900 years ago, Bergen has roots to the Viking Age and was for several hundred years the centre of prosperous trade between Norway and the rest of Europe. ‘Bryggen’, which we knew as the Old town, is the most obvious remnant from this time, and is today home to many of the city’s restaurants, pubs, craft shops and historical museums. On a Norwegian scale, Bergen is a large city, but one with a small-town charm and atmosphere.

Bergen really was a pleasure to explore. Even in the rain. We just donned the wet weather gear- took the umbrellas and walked through the old town. What was strange as we explored the lanes and cobblestones was seeing the old town buildings, none built on secure foundations, leaning! … they lean into each other! Many buildings leaning sideways but still being used as a craft shop, or souvenir, or a dress/clothes shop! Unusual. The old town even had its own waterfall, right next door to a house! Water cascading beside you all day would certainly make you want to use the bathroom a lot!

And of course, we did the funicular railway……but not like most people who do it in the daytime, we did it at night. This truly was straight up the mountain side, with apparently great views of the city. No views on the night we did it – just drizzling skies and fog with lights appearing as vague nebula in the mist. The website showed people on sleds sliding down the hill under an orange lit artificial sky of lights, and Marc was deeply disappointed the snow was not thick enough or dry enough (remember it was raining) to do this, so instead we walked all the way down from the top. Sounds ok?

No- it was dark! No orange lights to shine the way! And with rain settling in, we made our way down the mountain along poorly signposted tracks in darkness. Amazingly, people were coming towards us (we could hear them rather than see them) and they were running up the mountain. Holding Marc’s hand very tightly, I walked gingerly down the mountain side in the dark. Of course, about halfway down, the orange lights came into view as did the city skyscape and I felt much happier that I could now see!

Typical of my walks with Marc – got to do something challenging every day!

Onto Sweden!