This is a picture of a Norwegian fjord. In the pouring rain. So while not sparkling blue in clear sunshine, it was pretty impressive in its own right, with hundreds of rain induced waterfalls (as opposed to snow-melt ones). We also went up the funicular here, and investigated the ancient fortress, and the fish markets.

Prior to arriving in Bergen, we spent 2 nights in Oslo, and to our surprise kind of fell for the place. It was just meant to be a night or two breaking the long trip up to Bergen (which is lengthened by the need to avoid annoying tolls). But Oslo was full of gardens and flowers and sculpture and seemed less crowded than many other cities we have visited. And the Main Street was not in a state of reconstruction. Also impressive was the resistance museum, telling the story of the Norwegian resistance during WWII, which we were embarrassingly ignorant of. And we took a ferry ride down to Bygdoy to look at the museum in which the “Fram” resides, the ship Amundsen used to complete his epic journey to win the race to the South Pole. Most interesting.

To celebrate our leaving, someone decided to trigger the smoke alarm in our building on the morning we were heading off, so that saw us all on the pavement, roughly dressed with essentials clasped in our arms. Fortunately building security turned up pretty quick, gave the all clear, and let us back in. Made sure we left in good time anyway .....