Day 22 - Bergen22 Jun 2007
|
|
a cloudy day in downtown Bergen
our bus on the ferry crossing
salmon farm in distance
| Today is 7 ½ hours of bus touring around the countryside. This is good as Lynne's back is sore after yesterday and my ankles are moderately sore, otherwise we recovered very well. Our tour guide is a little slow in speaking and hard to understand as he grapples with Norwegian to English in his head, but is very informative. For example, we pass a very long and old wooden building which he says was used to make "roe". Makes sense as the main industry used to be fishing, squeezing eggs out of fish would be a bonus. Then his says the thread of the "robes" needs to be long. I'm puzzled, wondering why they needed such long robes back then. Maybe it was an aristocrat thing. Then he says the long "ropes" were very important for the fishing. Ah ha now we get it. The bus drives onto a ferry for a short crossing and we get off to stretch our legs. The wind is cold and Lynne gets to wear her coat for the first time. We did bring a lot of cold weather clothes. Maybe we will get to use them back in London? Most of the trip is very good scenery. Very green birch, spruce, pine forests, small farms, rectangular 1, 2 or 3 storied building with steep slated or grassed roofs. Mountains capped with snow, waterfalls, lakes, valleys, churches, and so on. After a while it all looks like we are going around in circles. But is all very pretty. While in the bus, we have our first daytime rain of the two cruises. It lasts about 3 minutes. Bergen has been in a drought having gone 10 days without rain almost ruining its reputation as the wettest city in Norway. Lunch is at a fjord side hotel in Oysteso. We journey back to Bergen via a very scenic waterside route and through many road tunnels. This is the last port on this cruise and the evening dinner is a formal affair as we begin the 1 ½ day voyage back to Southampton. It is hard to believe our cruise holiday is almost over. |
Advertisement 
|
