July 9 - Bergen, Norway

The Final Port

Today we docked in Bergen, the final stop of the cruise.  But the trip is FAR from over for us as we continue on to Iceland tomorrow for four days!  The photo above is of the Bryggen Wharf, a UNESCO protected area and if you google it, you will get THIS photo.  That's what is often so cool about our adventures is that some of the noted world-wide spots we're seeing them live and in color!  But let's back track for a moment.....last night as we cruised out of the Geiranger Fjord we had dinner at the specialty restaurant, Manfredi's.  If you've followed along daily you may remember we ate there earlier in the cruise.  Loved it so much that we returned this evening.  Below you see Kim so excited about her mussels, me toasting with an excellent sweet, white wine, and our main course - we shared the rib eye steak and each had our own smaller pasta dishes.

This is representative of the scenery as we sailed away ..... amazing.

We arrived in Bergen at 8 am and our first tour was at 8:30 am.  It was a basic bus tour around the city with two photo stops as kind of an introduction to the city.  We arrived back at 11 am and had about 40 minutes before we met on the dock to begin our second tour.  Nearly everyone on the tour was surprised that we walked as much through the town because the highlight was certainly our boat tour of the fjord while we had a King Crab lunch.  But the weather was superb and the guide was great.  Speaking of the weather, you may not realize how lucky we have been.  The temps have been in the low 60s of late and the skies sunny and clear.  That's HIGHLY unusual for Norway - for example our guide today was telling us how lucky we are as Bergen averages 280 days of rain a year and earlier this year went through 85 consecutive days with rain!  NOT for us!  Highlight photos from the walking tour through the picturesque city......

We boarded the boat around 1 pm.  We were led to a private dining and observation deck and had a catered lunch of Norwegian soup, King Crab, and fresh strawberries, along with white wine during the meal and a dessert liquor which was peach in flavor.  Just great.

As we were finishing the meal we pulled out and began about a 90 minute cruise through the picturesque fjord.  The weather was just awesome, with a very cool breeze - just what these Floridian kids wanted from the trip - blowing as we gazed out over Bergen and the surrounding areas that lie around the fjord.  What a great way to end our visit to Norway!