Here it is Wednesday January 8th and we have a day to explore about Bergen. No real plans but lots of options. It is 0600 as I write and breakfast doesn’t start till 0700.
We do like the Clarion Admiral for two reasons, well, three reasons. One is location, perfect for walking about the older area of Bergen. Two is it is reasonably priced. And Three the best reason is their BREAKFAST!. This is the second best breakfast spread in the World. (Table Bay in Cape Town gets #1).
Most venues we wish to visit open at 10 so we have time to ponder our options.
Back to our room, first we are in a basic room, I like to call these types of rooms RV rooms. RV as one person can move at a time and storage is limited. These do work for us.
We left the hotel with the intention of finding the winding streets of Bergen. We walked uphill on snow covered slippery sidewalks and roads finding some of those quaint streets. We started with the intent of going to the Natural History Museum. We had visited it on our last trip and were very impressed and made the comment one could spend a day here. We changed our mind as we saw blue sky and thought we might want to take advantage of the nice day.
Yesterday the front desk clerk suggested a chocolate cafe which we should visit. Hot cocoa at this time seemed like a good Idea so off we went. We located Fjak Cafe to sample their offerings. This chocolatier does specialty chocolates created from imported cocoa beans from around the world. Here I had a darker cocoa from Tanzania and Lynn had a milk chocolate from Haiti. WOW! They were excellent. We did get a couple pieces of chocolate to have later in the evening. I will definitely recommend this location for a mid morning or mid day treat.
We then made our way to the Bryggen area of Bergen. Bryggen is a historic harbor district in Bergen, one of North Europe’s oldest port cities on the west coast of Norway which was established as a centre for trade by the 12th century. In 1350 the Hanseatic League established a “Hanseatic Office” in Bergen. They gradually acquired ownership of Bryggen and controlled the trade in stockfish from Northern Norway through privileges granted by the Crown. The Hanseatic League established a total of four overseas Hanseatic Offices, Bryggen being the only one preserved today. Here we wondered amongst these old building along the waterfront.
This area is now filled with various shops, yet one can still get a feel for what this area was like during the days of fish trade. Currently the Hanseatic Museum is being refurbished and is closed. We also made our way by several churches hoping to get a view of their interiors but alas they were all closed. There is a tall ship in port the Fullriggen "Sørlandet" is a unique cultural heritage of the maritime Norway. Fullriggen (full rigger) SS "Sørlandet" is the world's oldest operational tall ship.
While it is just a bit before 1:00 pm (1300) the sun was ready to set below one of the Seven Mountains of Bergen. Incidentally, there is a 900 space underground parking garage here in Bergen. A good use of their Mountains.
We strolled along the harbor taking a few photos.
Oh Look, the hot dog stand, such a coincidence,
OK a reindeer sausage we will have. We then made our way back to the hotel via the back roads finding some kewl murals along the way.
The cobble stone walkways have been snow covered with very narrow walkways. Some are cleared nicely and many not so nicely. One needs to be very careful walking about on these sidewalks. We will definitely be taking a cab to the ship tomorrow.
Still adjusting to the time zone, we are finding ourselves sleepy at an early hour.
But it feels like late afternoon.
