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Bergen, Norway

 Friday had us up early to take a ferry ride from Stavanger to Bergen. This was a large ferry - more like a small cruise ship with space for cars below, and people, shops, and cabins above. It took about 5.5 hours to get to Bergen by ferry and we mostly napped and read.

When we arrived at our hotel in Bergen, we were very hungry for lunch so we decided just to eat in the hotel’s restaurant since it was quick and easy. After lunch, we took a gondola up to ulriken where we got excellent views of the city and surrounding landscape.








After taking in our fill of the views, we headed back down the mountain and strolled through town to do some shopping and get a sense of the local atmosphere. The streets were very busy with people - much more so than in Stavanger. This is partly because of the locations and partly because it was now the weekend. When we were getting hungry again, we met up with 4 other members of our group and the six of us went to an Asian restaurant for some dinner. 



On Saturday the group split in two - one group (mine) went to Flam & a Viking village while the other stayed in Bergen and went on a walking food and culture tour.  The Viking village of gudvangen is about 2.5 hours away from Bergen. We were picked up by a chartered bus in the morning and we made one stop along the way to stretch our legs. 

At the Viking village, we tried archery and axe throwing before having a guided tour and seeing a blacksmith do some iron working.


Next, we loaded back into the bus and drove to a restaurant in Flam, overlooking the water. The food was excellent, and our view was beautiful.


After lunch, we started our journey back to Bergen. We stopped along the way to see a giant waterfall, Tvindefossen.




When we got back to Bergen we had about an hour before we were scheduled to meet up with the whole group for dinner, so we did a little more shopping and walking around in town by our hotel. We then went with the group to dinner where we had fish soup, a choice of catch of the day or steak, and a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. 












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