Notes on a tourist town

The touring ideal according to tour  leader H is three " activities " a day ( although some members of the group insist  that one of those things should be an afternoon nap ) 

Organising Three things a day is easy for tour leader H when  you are staying in the middle of tour leader heaven aka Bergen . The tourist information centre is almost on our door step as are most of the  "in town " tourist highlights. 

( The down side  of our great central location is that most of people who are ekeing out an existence from tourist begging seem to be hanging on our door step but like all good tourists we pretend not to notice and hope they won't chase us up the street demanding to share some of the expensive tourist tucker we have just picked up from local bakery)

That said the three things that tour  leader  " H " managed to fit in the itinerary on the first day was 

1. The Museum walking tour that gave us a brief  overview of the last 700 years of Bergen history by checkin out the local historic buildings. It was lead by a very cute young tour guide dressed in local costume. ( very easy to keep track of her in the crowd) 

2. After lunch  ( a la Coop) we set out for the Ulriken cable car that takes you to the top of the mountain in the middle of the city. A great place  to start numerous walks and get lost in the wilderness ( although if you were local  they seemed to be using it like  some sort of extreme jogging track  - well extreme to us flabbies from the flat land anyway )  . We  as per usual don 't seem to have to worry about getting lost on the actual  walk because once again we had a bit of trouble finding the entrance to the cable car . Wandering the highways looking for deviously hidden street signs is  always good way to check out the " burbs".

Number 3 was attending a Grieg music concert in the church just behind where we are staying  . ( shock ! horror  ! classical music you say - well I say we are just as cultured as the other 30 people in the crowd ( just like a SW music concert)  . We did wonder if half the people there were actually family of the performers as one of them was called Erik from and he was from Bergen. The name Erik is a clincher for a home crowd. 

We were  very pleased with our own personal performances as we both managed to stay awake through the whole thing with only a few sneaky  lollies chewed to keep the sugar up . Erik's offsider was a singer and he gave some great background  ( in English ) about the music . ( Grieg was a Norwegian  with nationalist tendencies ). 

Of course it's hard to pass a music venue  ( particularly when it is practically next door  ) that has a musician called Erik performing . This is probably not that uncommon in Scandanavia  as this is definitely the home of the Erik . Every second street name or suburb or rail way station seems to have Erik in the  title. It is also fitting  that our last airbnb  flat here  in Bergen is owned by an Erik  ( who is also a musician or lives with a musician if the ukes on the wall are anything to go by  ( yes people who play  ukes do count as musicians. ) 

We ended the evening  ( yes a big day we actually did 4 things. ) by Hanging out at the local bar drinking mocktales  ( for me anyway ).  If you can't  beat them join them as the sounds from this local busy watering hole waffled loudly into our bedroom window for most of the night. 

Day 2 trip to the fjord 

Yes you can't come to Bergen without visiting a fjord. ( and a bar judging from the number of people doing so outside our window  until the early hours. ) We booked tickets on a fjord cruise that was only going to take 7 hours instead of the usual 12.  Tour leader H was a bit  worried our chosen fjord may not be deep enough but who cares  I say  atleast we dont have to spend all day on a boat. ( mmmm Tour leader H is starting to question my attitude to " touring"  as such ??? ) Of course when we get on board we realise its not really a cruise but a regular ferry run to pretty little town called Rosendal. We weren't worried as it  looked to be a nice spot to fill  in the  3 hours before we had to get on the return boat .  

We walked to a water fall through a gentle undulating landscape  ( yes even my calf muscles could cope) along tree lined roads  , babbling waterways and green paddocks with grazing sheep  ' ( or maybe they were goats - difficult to tell with all that hair ) . It was beautifully quiet after the hustle of Bergen . There were hardly any tourists. (  they had all gone on the 12 hour cruises ) . There were possibilities of some longer walks Inluding a big hike to a glacier but again  we only had a three hour ferry turn around time (  phew - I managed to hide the late leaving ferry timetable from tour  leader H ) 

We had our lunch overlooking the waterfall  only disturbed by the occasional sound of gunshots (yes  it did make digestion a little difficult and I made a note to look up the Norwegian gun laws when I got back  or should I say if we got back - Scandinavian crime thrillers are not always the best background reading ) . 

We had a lovely  quiet stroll back ( ie no more gunshots ) . We dropped into the local manor / castle tourist attraction with  it's beautiful historic gardens   ( very cheap because we accidently got in through a back gate) 

We also strolled through the stone garden which featured geological examples from the local area . Many of them had been polished to show the glorious colours and textures  of the different minerals of the region  ( and also great kitchen renovation possibilities ) 

The ride home was a good time for a snooze catch up because as an experienced tour groupy you know that having seen one scenic scandanavian boat  cruise you have seen  ' em all.

Tour leader H had decided on dinner at a lonely planet recommended restaurant - Pingvinen . We had  Fish stew ( like tuna mornay except local fish - I presume) and fish pie , a large fish patty - very nice.)  It was a very popular place so we shared  our table with some other travellers    -  a couple who had lived in Lakes district in England for the last 35 years  who were very entertaining and interested in our Australian lives and also six young Americans who had just finished grad school and were travelling before they started work. They were also  wanting to engage in some lively discussion comparing holiday notes . Great fun 

This morning we had to move out of Hanne  and Eriks flat making sure we complied with the numerous instructive notes left for the " guests"   ( I also had to check that Harley didn't write any silly new ones. ) Jobs done  - That gave me one hours shopping time before  we had to catch our train to Oslo. Tour leader H times it perfectly again as most of the shops I wanted to see did not open until after we left town  - foiled again by tour leaders time table  - oh well there is still the 3 days in Copenhagen coming up and Amy tells me they have the longest continual shopping strip in Europe. Now that is something to look forward to...