Norway: Bergen

For the tail end of our Norway whirlwind adventure, we spent about 24 hours in Bergen on the west coast. As I mentioned in the previous post, the train ride into town was beautiful. After we settled into our AirBnB, we headed down the steep switchbacks into the old town of Bergen.

View from the train into Bergen

Looking down the switchbacks from our AirBnb

One side of Bergen's harbor is lined an area with old wooden houses and lanes called "Bryggen." It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was built starting around 1070. It was originally a large commercial complex of warehouses for merchants in the area. It's now been converted to artist studios, shops, and restaurants. We wandered briefly through the area before going to have dinner at a burger place.

Charlotte and me in front of the shopfronts in Bryggen

The narrow wooden lanes of Bryggen

After dinner, we took turns pushing the stroller back up the mountain (whew! seriously a challenge!) and got Charlotte to bed. I grabbed my phone and ran back outside to grab a picture of the gorgeous sunset!

The next morning we took the tram up the remainder of the mountain we were staying on, Mt. Floyen. We got on the Floibanen tram from a stop just up the street, and quickly ascended steeply to the top and were treated to amazing views of Bergen and the surrounding area. We made the mistake of telling Charlotte there was a playground at the top, so she was mostly losing her mind while we looked at the boring view and were not immediately at said playground. We got there eventually!

View from Mt. Floyen

The tram making its way up to the top

Finally, playground time

We opted to walk down the mountain, which was a pleasant way to see the views through the sparse trees. At times it felt like a controlled fall, especially for the person making sure the stroller didn't escape down the steep trail!

Because the check-out time was noon at our AirBnb, we collected our luggage and headed to the train station. We used a locker for the rest of the afternoon for most of our stuff, then headed out to wander around the city. We found a nice city park to relax in, then grabbed some Chipotle-like burritos for lunch. 

We saw a few references to the US presidential election while we were there, this one was the most light-hearted.

After lunch, we walked out to the end of the Nordnes peninsula, across the harbor from Bryggen. We walked through a cute shopping district, and then spent some time relaxing and enjoying the view from the park surrounding the aquarium at the end of the peninsula. Charlotte blessedly, FINALLY, decided to take a nap in her stroller for about 45 minutes, so we just sat and enjoyed the quiet there until she woke up -- watching the boat traffic on the waterfront.

Shopping district

Finally.

Looking across the water at Bryggen

The side of Mt Floyen, where our AirBnB was located. We could locate it by the somewhat purple roof (hard to see in this pic).

After returning from the Aquarium park, we visited the famous Bergen street fish & farmer's market. I thought Charlotte would be wrinkling her nose and commenting on the smell, but she actually loved it and asked to walk through it two more times!

From there, we headed back to the train station to collect our luggage, then crossed the street and boarded the bus to the airport. The Bergen airport was odd -- not enough space to sit at gates, and very crowded as a result due to people standing in the walkways. They also didn't allow us to gate-check the stroller, so we had a harder time wrangling Charlotte than we usually do at airports. Our drive home from Gatwick was late, but we didn't hit any traffic at least! By the time we got home around 1 am, Paul only had about 3 hours before he was scheduled to leave for Heathrow Airport for a work trip back to the States. World traveller!!