Scandinavia Trip Part 6 - Bergen Day 1

The next day we departed Sogndal for Bergen. We first rode the bus to Kaupanger where we took a ferry. We went on a cruise of Sognefjord, supposedly the longest and deepest of all Norwegian fjords. It rained hard for the first time of our tour while we were on the ferry. Kathy stayed on the deck with her rain gear. I took shelter to protect my camera. I was glad to have the Disney World poncho with me, in addition to my rain jacket. The fjords get narrower as we went on and we saw lots of waterfalls. 

We met up with Odd, our bus driver, at the end of the ferry ride. He took us to Flam to catch a train ride which ascends 3000 feet in 12 miles. The scenery was very pretty, but the sightseeing got interrupted by many tunnels. 

We changed train at the mountain station in Myrdal. The second train ride took us to Voss where we had limited time for a sandwich and rest stop. This is where Kopi had to pay a hotel for us to use the restrooms. Kathy and Ngoan had coffee while I walked about and took pictures of a church. 

Odd dropped us off at the fish market in Bergen where Kopi gave us a quick tour. Bergen is the second largest city of Norway, surrounded by mountains. It is in the region known as De syv fjell, or the Seven Mountains. The city was an old trading port. The harbor was part of the Hanseatic League. We find it very convenient that our hotel is right in the city, near the Bryggen wharf. A McDonald and a Starbucks are nearby. Kathy and I had a very nice corner room with three big windows. We can easily walk to the fish market where we had dinner. This is where I had the 4^th fish soup. It wasn’t as good as the first two. I bought reindeer sausages from a Vietnamese merchant to take home as gifts, only to have them taken away at Dulles airport customs. (For some reason, the merchant kept pushing for me to buy moose and whale sausages instead and kept giving me samples to try to convince me.) After dinner, Kathy and I went out to explore the city while Ngoan stayed behind because of the rain. 

After the walk, I enjoyed the hot dry sauna by myself. The sauna room is in the gym which was empty the entire time I was there. No one came down to use either the gym nor the sauna, which was entirely fine with me.