Trip Day 9

Wednesday Augut 16

We are supposed to be ready at 9 am with our suitcases packed. So we have plenty of time. Time to have a cup of coffee in the room ... just like yesterday. Yesterday I had to do some searching. I saw the water kettle but not the base to get the water hot. Where? I finally found it. So today it was easy.

 

Press against the board and a tray comes out. And there was the base screwed to it.

I tried to "behave" better at the breakfast buffet. What a battle, ha-ha. At 9 am we meet a local guide. Magda was a young woman, originally from Poland like her husband. He wanted to come to Norway, She wasn't so sure because it was so cold. She needs sun. But she was very bubbly, knowledgeable about the area and fun. She took us through the old town (Bryggen) .... uphill.

There was graffiti but not in a shabby way. Some was funny like ShakesBear.

Of course we can asks questions too about daily life etc.

Gerhard Armauer Hansen lived here. He discovered what causes leprosy.

St. Mary's Church was established 1130 in Bryggen and is still being used as a congregation.

We saw a large flock of pidgeons and Magda had just told us that there is a new law which forbids to feed them when we saw this busdriver sharing his sandwich with them. We laughed but Magda told him that he could go to jail for it. He said he didn't know.

When we came to this part were the Hansa trade people used to live, Magda pointed out this door which says: Bossdoor. It even had a sign with times on it. Well, this is a Bryggen slang word. Boss means trash! Not what we thought.

Back to the hotel. When we had started our sightseeing walk we had passed a knitting shop just around the corner from the hotel. All this talk about spending so much time just sailing and looking from a ship for 6 days I thought quickly that knitting a shawl could just be the thing for me. James and I dashed quickly into the shop and I came out which a big ball of wool, a circular knitting needle 80cm and a pattern. Unfortunately that was only in Norwegian but about that later.

To the hotel room. Get the luggage and go down. The bus was there but we were in plenty of time. I can't wait to start. If I have internet I can find a pattern.

But first we have another "controversial topic visit". The bus takes us to the Coastal Museum in øygarden. It's quite a drive.

Because of the timing we have lunch first. The fish soup was brought to the large table and we could help ourselves. It was very delishes and even James took several helpings. 

Dessert was another tradition. A pancake with heavy cream (whipped) and choice of jams. Very nice.

The girl who served us told me that she folds it over to eat taking it with her hands. Yes, that worked well.

Then we saw a video and had a question and answer session because we were actually visiting one of those fish farms. The opposite from yesterday. You need data from both sides to make up your mind about it. Stephen encouraged us to ask any question we wanted, even if controversial.

After a safety briefing and having put on lifepreservers we were brought over to the fish nets. The boat sits 10 so he had to go twice but that boat is fast.

I am usualy a bit of a scardy cat with things like that but I quite enjoyed the ride. Too short.

Both sides (yesterday and today) were somewhat extreme but all was very interesting. Something to think about and pondering when going food shopping.

The boat brought us back to land and the bus took us back to Bergen. It was quite a drive. 

I took this map screenshot too late. We were already half way.

This is the tip missing in the above photo.

But we are not done with Bergen. Yesterday we had plans to go up the mountain with the funicular. But there would have been no view because of the weather. We are hoping for better luck today. Stephen had already the tickets. 

It was fun going up.

And we did have a nice view. Not blue sky nice view but I still felt lucky. I like views from high-up.

There is our ship, the Hurtigruten "Polarlys".

James is checking on his phone how high we are from 0 sea level.

And down we go again. We didn't need a lot of time.

And now we are actually going to the ship. Stephen gives us our boarding papers and we have to go and watch a safety video first, then we get our cards scanned that we have done it and can board. 

We can't get into our cabins right away but at 6 pm is our dinner time. We were told it was a buffet and today it was open seating. For other times we have a table number. 

Lots of stuff on the gigantic buffet. Decision, decision. We were 7 of our group on a round table. Here is my dessert plate. Doesn't look very nice. I just took a few samples but believe me, it was delicious. 

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We were supposed to leave the table to make room for the next people having dinner. If necessary take our coffee or other drink with us into the lounge area. 

I got the cards from the room (we could go in by now) and Betty, Marc, James and I played "Five Crowns". They liked the game. We had fun. 

The ship sailed at 8:30pm. The captain announced over the loud speakers that we should go to deck 7 to buy a glass of champagne and celebrate but we didn't think that was necessary. Actually, we thought it was funny that he suggested the buying champagne part. 

I have no idea when we finally went to bed. It is light for so long. It is difficult.