30: Sherwood Forest

14.07.2011 – 14.07.2011 sunny 21 °C

Another glorious day in Bergen. Spent the morning walking around more of the older part of town looking for the Funicular (cable car to the top of the mountain and look out). Found the cable car to discovered quite a line up (it snaked down the street) waiting to board (about 5 buses were all parked waiting for tourists!) strangely enough we decided to come back later and continued our wander. Ended up looking for the fish market with no success. On the way back to our hotel for lunch (we had made it at breakfast time) we found the Hanseatic League’s museum of Bergen. The Hanseatic League were a group of merchants from Germany who set up trading posts throughout Europe. The main export from Norway was “klippfisk” (dried and salted fish) which was a staple form of meat for people during the middle ages when there wasn’t any ability to keep meat for any length of time. The museum itself was setup just as the HQ for the Hanseatic League was setup a few hundred years ago. Really small rooms, and very small sleeping quarters! (gives the Japanese “capsule” hotels a run for their money..)

Straight after lunch we decided to walk to the other side of town and went over towards where the Hurtigruten docked the previous day. It was a real nice walk up along the cliffs, through some large park. The one thing I should say for the Norwegians is they know how to use their parks.. it feels like every spare piece of grass land needs to have someone sun baking on it! I guess when half of your year is cold and dark the sunshine is probably really welcome! Believe it or not there were a large number of people also swimming in this outdoor public pool.. Believe me, it is warm but not that warm!

We finished our walk with a trip up the Funicular (the crowds had thinned somewhat). Conductor and I decided to walk back down the hill rather than re-catch the cable car. The walk was really beautiful. The top of this particular mountain is all national park area and it has been designed with plenty of walking trails. The forest is a fir forest (we think) so it was reminiscent of where I think Robin Hood would have hid out in way back.. Plenty of granite rock formations and small streams so we are also certain that the Bergen trolls must live up this mountain! The couple of k walk was a really nice way to end the day!

Off onto the Flam Railway tomorrow!

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