8th June

The sun was out and the weather meant to be improving through today, so after breakfast we decided to head off in a different direction to our usual track to see one of the many Museums in Bergen and the Botanic Gardens nearby.  It was good to be off the tourist track and see where the real people lived.  There is a lot of construction work happening here at the moment - roads mainly, but there was a sign on the Museum when we arrived, which we sort of worked out, meant that the Museum was closed for renovations and would open again in 2018…hmmm oh well off to the Botanic Gardens … hmm…these too were having a bit of a makeover.  What was there was really lovely, a small veggie patch, some beautiful rhododendrons and azaleas.  The tulips and daffodils were a bit past it but would have been lovely a few weeks ago.

From there we decided to find the Railway Station to check on our booking for tomorrow.  With limited signage, and our limited understanding of Norwegian we found the bus station by mistake and from there found the Rail station.  So all set for tomorrow we can enjoy the rest of today.

For lunch we headed back to the wharf area.  We stopped at a Norwegian Café called Madam Anne – a big bowl of a traditional fish soup with bread, blackberry juice and a coffee.

We then went to join the long queue waiting to buy tickets for the funicular ride to the top of Mt. Floyen – one of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen.  The carriage was very crowded so we didn’t get to see anything much on the way up except the person opposite who was also holding on trying to keep their balance.  The view at the top was worth the few minutes’ discomfort.  We then followed a track through the wooded area of the mountain.  It was beautiful.  Den started singing ‘Norwegian Wood’ - it was still beautiful.

It had got even colder so it was time for a sit in the café and have a coffee break.  As we headed to the funicular we were surprised to hear big kettle drums and then the opening chords of a famous orchestral piece being played on a baby grand.  A large crowd had gathered.  The duo would repeatedly only play the first few opening bars and stop.  The crowd started laughing every time they stopped.  I really enjoyed the fact that most people would not have understood the language of the person next to them but we could all laugh at the same thing.

We went and lined up to go back down.  This time we were first in line so we got a front seat and so a fabulous view all the way back. 

It was a very busy day and so back to the Hotel, but on the way – well we actually detoured to go to a wool shop.  I hadn’t done any knitting for a week and it was time to remedy that.  So then back to the Hotel for any easy dinner and maybe watch some TV, and I could start some knitting.