The Tour Begins

 

I finally met the fellow participants that were going to discover Scandinavia with me. There were nine of us, which is just about the most perfect size for a tour group. It made it easy for our tour guide, Paula, to keep track of us all. She was constantly counting to make sure nobody got lost. I was the only American, there were three people from New Zealand, three from the U.K. and two Canadians. They were all solo travelers, with the exception of one couple from New Zealand. 

In the U.S., breakfast in the hotels are generally cereal, store bought pastries in cellophane wrappers, juice and occasionally waffles. I have never seen breakfasts like I saw on this trip. There would be the eggs, sausages, bacon, beans table, the herring, sardine, seafood table, the bread and pastry table and the fruit and veggie/salad table. Of course, you will also need to have beverages – juices, coffees, smoothies, protein shots – the list goes on. We were very well fed, breakfast wise.

After breakfast, we started out with a walking tour of old Bergen. Behind all those wooden houses that I mentioned yesterday were small little alleyways and tiny little shops. We toured a fish market where we were fed a fish sampler platter.

Looking at the wooden houses from across the harbor

Shrimp/mackerel/smoked and marinated salmon/whale
I was rather conflicted about trying the whale

After lunch, we had a free afternoon.  This is one of the things I really liked about this tour.  They would give you a basic area tour to give you an overall feeling of the place and then you had free time to explore and do exactly what you wanted to do.  This first afternoon, the group decided to ride the funicular up to the top of the mountain which was a grand idea.  It is too bad that the weather was rainy and overcast, but the views were still stellar.   

The pond with the fountain is the museum district.  I spent a lot of time sitting around the park there. 

Is that a submarine out there?

Munch and trolls were everywhere

These trolls send mixed messages to our youngsters. 
How can they learn to tell the difference between cute, friendly trolls and the trolls that will eat you?

Coming back down the funicular

Next door to our hotel was the Bergenhus Fortress.  Parts of it were built in the 1100s.  It is considered to be one of the oldest and best preserved stone fortifications in Norway.