July 20th. Bergen

We spent the day in Bergen. In planning for this trip we expected this leg to be the cold and rainy one. We brought warm clothes and rain jackets expecting terrible weather. It was in the mid-70s and sunny today. We were almost too hot?!!?? The weather did make for a good day to walk around this beautiful city. We booked a walking tour through the old German quarter of Bryggen. The tour included entrances to a three museums and a walk through the narrow alleys of the old town. We ate our lunch at one of the museums and then checked out the old German church, St. Mary's. The church was small, but was quite impressive inside. The fortress that protected Bergen was close by so we walked through its grounds. We then decided we were up for a challenge and walked to the Floibanen Funicular. While we were walking there, we stopped by a store that was wall-to-wall used stuff. The only way to get through the store was to walk through a narrow pathway of junk. It was a hoarder's dream and a neat-freak's nightmare! The funicular took us to the top of a mountain that overlooked Bergen and the harbor. The views were great and it helped to have such a nice day. We walked around and came across some docile mountain
goats. They pretty much just walked around and pooped everywhere. The challenge part of our mountain experience was the walk down. We could have taken the funicular down, but we wanted to save money and get a little hike in. It was quite a hike down. Luke decided to take a couple of "shortcuts," which made us all nervous. Our legs were feeling it once we got down to sea level. (Lorna and Barb did not make the trip up, which was good because it would have been tough on them). We took a break and then got dinner at a restaurant that served more typical Norwegian food. Some thought the food was good, others did not appreciate it. We called it early tonight because we have an early flight back to Oslo tomorrow. Once we get to Oslo we all go our separate ways. Luke, Lorna, and Amy head back to Minneapolis. Barb and Paul head back to Chicago. Ellie and I head to Edinburgh, Scotland. Ellie and I will spend the next six days in the U.K. looking at universities for Ellie. I will keep updating the blog if you want to follow along with us.