Bergen, Norway Day 26 - Bryggen, Mount Fløyen, Kunstmuseum

3:30am Woke up this morning, slept only a couple of hours last night because we had an early flight to Bergen this morning at 6:30am.  We caught the taxi to the airport, then I went to customs so that I could claim the tax back on clothes and the iPad that I bought.  I had to check get luggage labelled at the check in counter, go to another counter to show the customs officer what I purchased, then get two stamps on the tax free cheque before finally having my luggage dropped off at the same counter.  Then I had to visit the customs office desk which was closed, and deposit the cheques there.  They really know how to make things more complicated than required, just like engineering!

There's a notice before you pass through the customs that separates the actual halls where you catch the plane before you check in, that says that they are now monitoring the MAC addresses of phones but of course they are not stealing any phone data.  Good to know that the Germany government is spying on, I mean taking care of the citizens!

9:30am Arrived in Bergen going through Copenhagen.  We caught the shuttle bus from the airport to the central area and walked only 800m to the hotel.  I got to make use of my limited Norwegian, yesss!!

Along Håkonsgaten

Rain rain rain, the weather's not very good today, been raining!  A lot!  And it's cold and windy too.

12pm  Took a walk down to the city area, which is only 800m away from where we are.  Very walkable city.  They have a park called Byparken, smaller than Frogner park in Oslo but still pretty.

At the tourist information centre, we booked a do it yourself tour tomorrow for Hardanger area which should be awesome!  After that we took a walk to the Bryggen area where we had lunch.  Fish casserole and it was delicious, it had truffle oil in it.  Yummo.  I also got to use my Norwegian here when I ordered food and asked for the toilets.  I know, it's such a hard thing to do!

The nicest McDonald's building ever?

2:30pm Started walking towards Mount Fløyen, we were going to catch the Fløibanen Funicular which is like a tram but we couldn't find it.  Eventually we climbed maybe half the journey before catching it from one of the stops.  The stop was called Fjellveien.  At least we saved 18 kroner each which is enough to support a hospital in a 3rd world country for a month.

After a few minutes we got to the top.  Here's the view from the top, pretty spectacular.  It is however, cold, and really windy.  Really windy.  And cloudy.  Not very good weather but still.

I also found a Norwegian troll!

We took the tram down to the last station and found out where the terminal station (Vetrlidsalmenning) is.

4:20pm We walked to the kunstmuseum which is an art and design museum.  It houses exhibits of silver, Chinese artefacts (temporary exhibit), and furniture designs.  That's what we saw anyway for the first 3 levels, the 4th level was closed.

You wouldn't want to spank your child with these spoons

A comfortable chair to look at

5pm ish Walked back to the hotel then went out again for dinner at a sushi place called Sumo.  I had been telling the better half about how good Sushi is in Norway.  Not only that the taste is consistent everywhere I've been, in Oslo and in Bergen!  We had a large tray of sushi and some hot chocolate too.  At this point is was really cold and windy.  Even colder than earlier.  We had to sit outside because the inside was full.

Miso soup to start

Sushi, it's bloody good in Norway.  The best I've had.

Hot chocolate, this was free.  Amazing.  Nothing is free in Norway but the hot chocolate was.

Spent the next couple of hours eating, watching people walk past in the rain, some with dodgy umbrellas.  Even saw some chopstick covers float cruising along the puddle on the floor near the couch we were sitting.  Good thing we had a blanket, and hot chocolate.  After that we walked to Rimi where I bought water and some nuts for tomorrow's journey.

Today's walk count was 9000+ steps.  And I got to use my Norwegian in Rimi and in Sumo too!  I'm buggered now so off to bed.