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Norway #1: Bergen

I've wanted to go to the Lofoten Islands for a long time. They are above the arctic circle, just off the coast of Norway. Photos that I've seen show spectacular rock peaks rising directly out of the North Sea. Incredibly scenic, they are famous with both hikers and climbers. I've been to Norway once, forty years ago, but didn't get nearly that far north. A few years ago, Sandy and I signed up for a group hiking trip there with Mountain Travel - Sobek, but something came up (I don't remember what) and we had to postpone the trip till the following year. Then COVID hit and we had to cancel completely. We booked a trip again this year hoping that the third time would be the charm.

Since travel costs have been going up, this time we picked Backroads, a different adventure travel company that is less expensive than Mountain Travel. We signed up for their "Norway's Lofoten Islands Hiking Tour". Since traveling to Norway is both time consuming and expensive, we added additional travel on our own both before and after the organized tour. At the front end of our trip, we planned several days in Bergen, the city we would fly to from the US. From there we would take the coastal ferry to Lofoten, a four day trip. The ferry line has been operated by the Norwegian company Hurtigruten for over a hundred and thirty years. It would give us a chance to see some of the impressive coastline and fjords of Norway. After our Backroads trip, we planned to finish with some time in Oslo before flying home. Altogether that added up to a two and a half week trip. Everything was set. Now we just needed to hope for good weather. It can be very fickle that far north, close to the North Sea.

It's a long way from Boise to Norway and our routing made it worse. We started with a flight to San Francisco, which is almost exactly the wrong direction. From there we flew to Frankfurt. On the great circle route over the pole that the flight takes, it overshoots our final destination by hundreds of miles. Then we flew north again to Bergen. Not efficient, but that was the cheapest way to go with the best connections.

Fortunately just before we left, Sandy got a special offer from United Airlines in her email. We always fly United internationally when we can because we both have premier status from the travel we did during our working careers. The offer was a relatively inexpensive upgrade to first class (United called it "Polaris Class") for our intercontinental flight. She jumped on that offer right away. I don't do well on overnight intercontinental flights. I am not able to sleep, so I get overtired and uncomfortable on the plane, and am really dragging the next day after we land. It's a drag but just something I have to deal with when I travel.

First class was really nice, with a seat that fully reclined, and lots of extra room on the sides so I wasn't bumping elbows with the people next to me. There was even room to keep my backpack with all my stuff right next to me. I actually slept about two and a half hours on the flight. It doesn't seem like much but it made a huge difference. For once I could enjoy a long flight rather than just endure it. I think I could get used to flying first class.

Things changed when we got to Frankfurt. First, they didn't have a jetway. They just parked way out on the tarmac and had us board a shuttle to take us to the terminal. They packed us in like sardines (they couldn't afford two shuttles for a big plane?), and for some reason, it took over twenty minutes to get us to the terminal where they let us off. It seemed like we drove around the airport forever. When we finally got off the shuttle, we figured that we could just go through EU immigration and then walk to our gate.

Wrong! We had to go to a different terminal to go through immigration and to get there we had to...you guessed it...take another shuttle. We followed the signs down a flight of stairs to where we could board the shuttle. There were a lot of people there, but they had lines set up that wound back and forth, just like for rides at Disneyland. Not that the rides here were any fun.

Fortunately we had four hours to make our connection, so we tried to be patient. Unfortunately things deteriorated even more. A family was traveling with a little girl, maybe six or seven, and she got sick. She threw up all over, and there was lots of it. Now about three of the loops of the line were unusable, so people just pushed ahead in a completely disorganized mass. On top of that, some people started to say "I have a close connection" and tried to push their way up to the front. It was total chaos. It was crowded and hot and smelled like puke. I kept asking myself why I thought that travel was fun.

After about half an hour we finally got on a shuttle that took us to the right terminal. It seemed like it took forever. We still had to go throug EU immigration, but that didn't take long. Finally, about two hours after landing, we got to the gate where our flight was going to depart. It turned out to be a good thing that we had given ourselves a lot of margin to make our connection.

Of course, when it was time to board our flight, we had to go down a flight of stairs again and wait in a narrow hallway for another shuttle.

...and wait.

...and wait.

The shuttle didn't come until half an hour after we were supposed to depart. By the time we got to our plane and everyone got on and settled, we were an hour late when we finally took off. Both Sandy and I vowed that we would never fly through Frankfurt again.

From this point on things improved. The flight to Bergen was smooth and seemed short after our intercontinental flight. When we reached Bergen, they had jetways, just like a real airport. The terminal was very new and wasn't crowded at all. Our bags were the very first ones off the plane and we got through customs quickly. Our driver was waiting right outside the terminal and after a fifteen minute ride we were at our hotel. We checked in and got settled in our room. Finally!

We were staying at the Thon Hotel Bristol Bergen. It was in the very center of town, right on the main central pedestrian mall. We knew that our hotel was in the middle of the tourist district because the building had a McDonalds on the ground floor.

It was dinner time but we gave McD's a pass and walked about two blocks to Peppes Pizza. We took our umbrellas since there was a light rain falling. We had a good pizza and by the time we headed back to the hotel, the rain had stopped. SPOILER ALERT: The weather had changed and we wouldn't have any more rain for the next week.

After our long trip and all the time zone changes, we crashed as soon as we were back at the hotel. That meant I woke up about midnight and couldn't go back to sleep. I did look outside to verify that it wasn't pitch dark. Sure enough, it was just twilight. Surprisingly, even though it was late, there were still quite a few people in the square. After watching the activity for a bit I just laid in bed till Sandy got up. We were at breakfast as soon as it opened. Sandy was anxious to check it out since she's the breakfast person in the family. She was happy with it so I was happy with it. Then it was time to go out and explore the city.

Bergen is on an inlet of the North Sea and is surrounded by seven mountains. It's known as the rainiest city in Europe, a reputation that's well deserved. On average, it has rain 200 to 240 days a year, with an annual total of almost a hundred inches. Today the forecast was for mostly clouds with some sun, but no rain. It sounded like good weather for exploring the city on foot.

We started out by walking to Vagen, a bay that serves as the central harbor. It was only a few blocks away and by the time we got there the sun was out. Since it was a Saturday, a lot was going on there. There was a stage set up for music. There were a lot of food trucks and vendor stalls. One offered some interesting local cuisine, like reindeer hot dogs and moose burgers. Too bad we had just eaten breakfast (not). There was a big crowd around one of the boats docked there where a band was playing traditional folk music, dressed in traditional garb. There were lots of tourists and lots of locals out taking advantage of the sunshine.

We walked around one side of the bay to Bryggen. It was the city's harbor district from the fourteenth to the mid fifteenth centuries, when Bergen was an important part of the Hanseatic League. Consisting mainly of wooden structures, much of Bryggen was destroyed over the years in a series of fires, the last major one as recent as 1955. The area has been carefully rebuilt according to the old city plan, with the buildings adhering to the architectural style of the fifteenth century harbor. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage site and a major tourist destination. The waterfront was several blocks long and was lined with cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops and museums. Narrow pedestrian walkways between the buildings led away from the water to even more shops. We spent quite a bit of time checking out all those shops. They had the usual touristy type stuff, including tshirts. That's usually my weakness but I was determined to limit myself to only a few new tshirts on this trip. I was going to wait until we got to the Lofoten Islands before I bought any. But there was also a lot of quality stuff from Norwegian companies, like Helly Hansen (outdoor gear), Dale of Norway (sweaters) and Scandanavian Explorer (both). Sandy was really excited about the Norwegian-style wool sweaters. I found a jacket on a sale rack that I really liked, although I decided to think about it before buying it. I always do. I'm not an impulse buyer. I did end up coming back the next day and getting it. Sandy bought a jacket too, as well as a beautiful wool sweater with matching hat and gloves. There was a lot more nice stuff, but we limited outselves since everything had to fit in our luggage and be hauled around for the next two weeks.

Next we walked a few blocks to the lower station for the Floibanen furnicular, a cable railway that goes from the city center to a point high on Mt. Floyen. We planned to take the furnicular tomorrow, when the afternoon was forecast to be warm and sunny, and do some hiking high on the mountain. Today we were just scoping things out. After going through the station, we went across the street to a bakery where we ordered skillingsbollers. They're a type of cinnamon roll that Bergen is famous for. We found a table outside so we could do two things at once. We could try out the cinnamon rolls (they were awesome) and we could watch the operation of the Floibanen so we knew what we could expect the next day. Fortified by the cinnamon rolls, we continued our reconaisance by walking to the ferry terminal. It was one bay over from Vagen. We found out where we checked in, where we would board, and where we could store our luggage between checking out of the hotel and getting on the ferry. That evening we had dinner at Egon, a restaurant attached to our hotel, and it was pretty good. Afterwards we went to bed early again.

This time I slept till 2 am, when I got up to look from our window to see what was going on in the square. There were lots of people again. Across the street, a guy was setting up what looked like a giant robot. I wasn't the only one watching. Lots of people on the street had stopped as well. Later, after breakfast, I went outside to check it out up close. Turned out it was a busking thing. You could take pictures with the robot and hopefully you would give him some donation for it. I took my photos and gave him a couple of bucks (well, a couple of kroner, actually).

Today we wanted to do a hike. The weatther forecast was good - some clouds in the morning and clear skies in the afternoon. To take advantage of the best weather, we decided to take the funicular up in the afternoon. I would use the morning to do laundry. We found a laundromat on map that wasn't too far away - it was actually close to the bottom station of the funicular. Since the trip was over two weeks long, we would need to do some laundry along the way. This was a chance to get a refresh of two days worth of clothes. Not enough to get us to the end of the trip, but it would help.

Well, when we finished breakfast it was bright and sunny out, but I decided to stick with the plan anyway. Sandy wasn't sleeping well because of the time change so she stayed in our room and rested. I walked to the laundromat, carrying my load of laundry in the reusable shopping bag that we had brought along just for this purpose. The laundromat was high tech. Instead of putting in coins, I had to download an app to my phone. I entered the number of a washing machine or dryer and then paid in the app with a credit card. Pretty fancy. While the stuff was running, I walked around the Vagen bay area again, taking advantage of the sunshine to get good pictures this time. I also went through the souvenir shops to try to decide if I was going to get the jacket that had caught my eye. I had a lot of time to kill because the drying took a looooong time. When it was finished I headed back to the hotel. Sandy felt better after resting and my chores were done. We were ready to go hiking.

We got to the Floibanen a little before noon. There was a line but it wasn't long and it moved quickly. After getting our tickets, we didn't make it on the next car to leave, but were near the head of the line for the car after that. They really crammed people in. I guess that was good as it kept the line from getting too long. It was a little uncomfortable but at least the ride up only took five minutes.

The upper station is at a place called Floyen. Although it's billed as "the top of Mt. Floyen", it's not a summit at all. It's just a point on the crest of the ridge above the city of Bergen. Because the cable railway provides easy access, there is a lot of tourist-oriented stuff there: a restaurant, a walk-up cafe, an ice cream stand, a huge playground, a petting zoo and a tourist shop. Hardly a mountain wilderness. And there were crowds of people. It was a beautiful day, and it seemed like the entire population of the city was up at Floyen taking advantage of the excellent weather. Since Bergen is the rainiest city in Europe, it was obvious that when the weather was good everyone went outside to enjoy it.

Although I didn't care for the crowds, I had to admit that Floyen was a spectacular viewpoint. About a thousand feet above sea level, it provides a spectacular view over Bergen and the surrounding mountains. Beyond the city, numerous waterways wound through a maze of islands on their way to the open ocean, visible about fifteen miles away. It was an incredibly beautiful scene. But after taking photos, we were ready to move on. It was time to do some hiking to get away from the hordes of people near the station.

Although Bergen is surrounded by mountains, they aren't sharp, alpine peaks. The area around Floyen is more of a high plateau, and several of the famous seven mountains of Bergen are just unimpressive local high points. We decided to try the hike to the top of Blamanen, a mountain about eight hundred feet higher than where we were at Floyen. Starting out in forest, we couldn't even see the high point that we were heading for. It wasn't exactly a remote wilderness hike either. We were walking on a service road. There are a number of communication towers in the highlands above Bergen so the area is crisscrossed with roads used to reach them. And although we left the great majority of people behind at Floyen, there were still a lot of hikers heading out along with us.

The road started out in forest. Walking was pleasant. Because it was a road, it wasn't that steep. The temperature was pleasant for hiking. After about a mile we reached a mountain hut where there was a small snack bar. As I said, this wasn't remote wilderness hiking.

At this point the top of Blamanen was less than a thousand feet straight east of us, but the direct route would be straight up a four hundred foot rock face. Fortunately the route turned north and paralleled the rock for about half a mile as it climbed. Evenntually it turned and climbed above the tree line to a low point between Blamanen and another mountain, Rundemanen. At this point we had several options. We could continue to Rundemanen. It's one of the famous "seven mountains of Bergen". But honestly, it was pretty underwhelming. The highest point was just a very gentle rise on an upland plateau. In fact, it was hard to tell exactly where the highest point was. There was a big communications tower nearby, as well as some kind of storage or maintenance building. It was about as uninspiring a mountaintop as you could imagine. Nope, not doing that one.

We could continue on to the top of Blamamen. There was even a continuation of the trail down the other side that returned to Floyen so we could make it a loop. But other hikers had commented on AllTrails that the second half of the loop beyond the top was overgrown with roots, and was muddy and slippery. Sandy had hurt her knee a few weeks before the trip and was still having a little trouble with it. Descending a wet, slippery obstacle course didn't sound like a smart thing to do.

Looking to the left, a road continued up the ridge. A short distance away it passed by a rocky outcrop which looked like it would be a great viewpoint. Looking to the left, the top of Blamanen looked like it was set quite a way back from the cliffside, which would limit the view from there. We opted for the nameless local high point with a view over the named summit without a view. The final stretch to the top was just a short scramble up some rocks that was easy enough even for a couple of old hikers like us to make it up.

The view from the top was fantastic, even more expansive than the one from Floyen. We were lucky to have a sunny day with beautiful, clear, bright blue skies. We took lots of photos, including the obligatory summit selfies, even it it wasn't much of a summit. Then we found some rocks to sit on where we could relax before heading back, while enjoying the magnificent view.

After a suitable rest, we started down. We made a short detour to get to Store Tindevatnet, a pretty, high lake (reservoir, actually). When we passed by the mountain hut, we stopped to buy a cold drink. Hiking in Europe is a little different than in North America and sometimes it has it's advantages. Our totals when we got back to Floyen were 4.15 miles and a thousand feet of elevation gain. A nice hike. The toughest part was waiting in the (long) line for the bathroom before we took the train back down to Bergen. We celebrated our successful hike with another cinamon roll at the bakery that was across the street from the bottom station of the Flobahnen.

That evening we had a good dinner at Bien Centro, an Italian restaurant a few blocks from our hotel. We called it a night early as we still weren't completely adjusted to the time change. We had enjoyed our time in Bergen. Tomorrow we would catch the ferry and head north to the arctic.