...
OK ... that's a total lie. After Kristiansund I was NOT making any jokes about Chinese fire drills with Tina! :)
There were no significant stops before we got to our final disembarkation city of Bergen. However, there was still more fantastic scenery to be enjoyed.
It's pictures like this that remind me just how difficult if must have been to navigate around these waters even when Hurtigruten first started back in the late 19th century. There must be a ton of land hiding just beneath these ocean waters.
As we got closer to Bergen, we saw the outskirts of the town and the interaction of people with the Norwegian waters.
And then finally at 2:30 in the afternoon we reached our final port of Bergen. One of the Norwegian couples we'd gotten to be good friends with on the trip was rather proud to point out the Norwegian submarine exiting the Bergen coast line.
Of course she was a bit more proud every time we complemented their absolutely adorable 2 and 5 year old kids (boy and a girl ... blonde haired Nordic cuties ... whom I didn't get any picture of at all! :( )
So here's just a quick summary of the entire amazing sail from Kirkenes down to Bergen.
From 70 degrees North latitude to 72 degrees and then back all the way to balmy warm 60 degrees north. What a fabulous trip.
So getting to Bergen we had to get to the hotel and get our rent a car out at the airport, in no particular order. So I had checked on board about a bus transfer out to the airport, but they wanted the equivalent of $80 to get us out there. A cab was said to be running us $95 for a 10 mile ride. So I just convinced Tina that we'd walk to the hotel (a 1 km walk according to Google Maps) and figure out how to get to the airport from there. Bergen, being the second largest town in Norway, has a really good bus system. So off we went dragging our 3 weeks worth of luggage with us to the hotel. Now ... 1 km is easy ... except when 40% of that km consists of a rise in altitude. Tina was biting her tongue ... welllllll ... kinda ... but I was having memories of Kristiansund. I offered to pull up her luggage along with mine ... but she wasn't having any of that. (I won't use the word martyr here because that would be totally rude.)
Anyway, we made it to the hotel ... finally ... and went in to check in ... only to find out they had no elevators ... and graciously put us up on the 3rd floor, where each floor is an antique 16 feet tall. Thankfully Tina allowed me to carry the bags upstairs around winding, tiny staircases. Small price to pay to keep my marriage in tact. :)
So down to the local bus station ... thankfully downhill all the way and only 10 blocks or so ... and then onto the bus to the airport for a mere $30 for the 2 of us. See there ... hard work does pay off. We get the car and drive back to the liftless hotel, shower up and head out for the evening.
Bergen is a great town with more great flowers and buildings to see.
Here's a pic of the opera house in Bergen, dating back to the early 1900's. Bergen is huge on orchestral music. We saw a ton of young adults carrying around string instruments.
We ended up doing dinner in the old fish market area of the city.
After all she'd been through for the last couple of days, I was feeling really REALLY sorry for Tina (ok ... maybe myself too) and offered to buy her this small upgrade to our boat if it would make her feel better.
Alas, she's way tooooooo happy with our 23 foot Hurricane to ever possibly consider trading down to this fuel guzzling monster of a boat.
And some people wonder why I love this girl so much.
Until next time, so long from Norway.
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