Land of Gnomes. And Trolls!

Figuring out how to start these posts off is always the hardest part. That and actually bringing myself to write the thing. Some start with the journey, some start with the decision making process, some start halfway through the trip, then the introduction sort of helps tell me how to structure the rest of it, do I go through chronologically reeling off everything that happened, do I jump about randomly as though I'm too easily distracted to be able to finish a thought in one go, or do I spend most of the post waffling, then briefly mention that we also went on holiday somewhere in the last paragraph? 

I don't really know this time. 

The journey probably does warrant a mention just because of how remarkably uneventful it was, it was probably the most stress-free travelling ever. No queues at security, leaving plenty of time to stop and have a meal before flying. Flight was shorter than advertised, no queues at passport control, and a (pre-booked) taxi driver waiting for us as soon as we arrived. We did take our lives into our hands slightly because he drove us to the hotel in a Tesla though, but thankfully it didn't explode on this occasion.

   

In case you are in any way curious, the destination we had arrived in was Bergen in Norway. At least we think so, the hillside by the airport wasn't quite sure where we were. 

Bergen turned out to be that somewhat unusual sort of place where it seemed like everyone I spoke to had already been. As though it's one of those places that everyone goes, and no-one had told me about it.

Our trip had 3 full days and we managed to fit in quite a bit, especially since for one of the wettest cities in the world, we had glorious sunshine the whole time we were there.

On the first day, we walked around Bryggen (that's all the old wooden buildings along the port that feature on all the Burgen fridge magnets), went to an indoor zoo, then rode the funicular train up the hill. It's much like a regular train, but slanted so all the sections are stepped up from each other to level it out. Basically, the train would be crazy if you moved it onto a track on level ground.

From the top you get an excellent view across Bergen, and if like us, you only buy a one-way train ticket, you also get a nice walk back down the hill, which is definitely worth it, you walk through the forest on the way down, and down is so much easier than up, probably even easier still if you actually stick to the paths.

Which we didn't. All along the path down there's little "shortcuts" that take you down little barely there stone and mud paths, which are much harder to navigate as you scramble your way downhill, it is much more likely you'll find trolls though, weirdly, we did not, however hard I looked. When we arrived back on the main path, there was a sense of relief that we had made it. until we saw another little path slightly further on. After falling over or otherwise sustaining minor injuries walking down one, we decided to stick to the path the next time we found one though.

For the second day, Rachael had found an outdoor museum called 'Old Bergen' a village made to look like it was from Bergen in the past, with actors playing a series of villagers. It was a 10 minute bus ride away, or for a bit more money (probably), a 50 minute boat ride away. Naturally, we took the boat.

Inside there were a series of buildings, including homes, shops and a school set up to look like they would have done, with a series of villagers either being remarkably relaxed about strangers traipsing through their homes, or putting on little scenes in the square. In this one this young delivery man (who was previously a dentist) is proposing to his girlfriend (who was previously married I believe to a trader - I believe these were probably all different characters)

Arriving by Beffen (the boat) gave us 20% of the admission price, and also the same discount off admission to the aquarium, so, we decided to get off at the aquarium and go there on the way back (damn you for the effective marketing strategy!)

The aquarium was quite a good one, it had outdoor areas with seals, otters and penguins, all the fish and crustaceans you would expect, and also crocodiles in the basement.

On the last day we took another boat trip, this one was a bit further, out to the fjords and too see some nice waterfalls

Oh but I do get to make a callback to a 16 year old bit:

The Bergen Dog

A good hot-dog, made with proper sausages. I found the original time I did this, and it was all structured with ratings and so on. I can't be bothered doing that, but here's a photo.