Our Nordic Escape and Hurtigruten Cruise

We woke early, as we had gone to bed early. We had both had a warm, comfortable night. We both agreed that separate duvets are definitely the way forward, none of that duvet tug of wars during the night or wind tunnel effect.

Breakfast was perfect, the Villa has its own chef who will cook your eggs to order and there was plenty to chose from in the buffet. We both had scrambled eggs and reminisced about the previous days awful scrambled egg experience in Jamie’s Diner. I had fruit and yogurt and T had….well…just about everything else on offer.

We left the Villa at around 10.00am and headed back into Bergen; we had decided to try to catch the Funicular up to Mt Fløyen, to walk to the Cathedral and to try and find the Hurtigruten Terminal for tomorrow’s shenanigans.

We found the Funicular building and bought 2 return tickets, we were really lucky and managed to get straight on to a cable car which made its way up to the top of Mt Fløyen, which sits 844 metres above sea level.

We soon reached the top of Mt Fløyen and was able to enjoy fantastic views over the city of Bergen and beyond before heading into the restaurant for a coffee and to enjoy the views even more, from ‘inside’.

Although we had paid for a return Funicular journey, T suggested walking down the mountain; we’d seen a sign which stated just 2.9 km to the city centre down what looked to be a straight path. Please keep in mind that we were on a mountain and that the snow was around 4 – 6 inches deep in the places which hadn’t been trodden down into an ice rink by skiers and tobogganers – we were to realise this about 1/4 of the way down.

Of course, I was the first over but managed to land very gracefully, on my bottom. Terry followed shortly after with a full body slam and back sled, he was literally on his back with his legs in the air, I followed in the same spot, also a full body fall, decided to stay down for a while and back sled to some nearby railings. We both suffered a further 4 or 5 falls, meanwhile, children were passing us on their toboggans having a whale of a time, probably thinking we were too. About 1/2 way down, as the unofficial toboggan run/ski slope became steeper and more glacial with less railings to hold on to T said ‘ I think we better turn back’ but hey, No Way was I even going to attempt going back uphill, so we carried on as best as we could.

Now, here’s a story. Before embarking on this trip I had discussed the issue of shoe spikes with T several times however, my concerns had been met with scoffs and retorts such as ‘we won’t need them; we’re not be going climbing mountains Lynne’

Enough said. We will be buying shoe spikes tomorrow en route to our ship.

Anyway, we reached the bottom of the mountain only a little worse for wear although right out of the city centre. We did find a coffee shop though, where we sat, kind of comatose for a short while, supping our lattes and sharing a slab of comforting Banana cake before heading back off to the city centre.

It seemed a long way to the Cathedral, made worse by hundreds of steps….well, maybe around 50, but seemed many more. The front doors were locked however, T noticed a couple of ladies coming out of a side door so in I went. Unfortunately, I busted in what looked like some sort of private family christening and was ushered out by a family guard, so that was the end of that. We decided, me on very tired legs by this time, to try to find the Hurtigruten Terminal.

About 1hr later, having walked a complete circle around Bergen University and the Cargo docking station, we found where we were supposed to be tomorrow. One of the Hurtigruten ships was in port, the MS Finnmarken. T was very impressed when I told him what I know of the MS Finnmarken, having poured over the Hurtigruten brochures since March last year. It could be my specialist subject on Mastermind. I just happened to mention about the ‘hell of a walk’ the passengers who decided to disembark would have to walk into the city centre when T got his bearings and noticed that we had taken a wrong turn. It took us less than 10 minutes to walk back in to the centre of Bergen.

Enough was enough, my poor feet needed a rest so we found a little restaurant where we decided to eat. It was only around 16.00 hrs but felt more like 20.00 hrs. I had a lovely steak and pasta salad and T had yet another Burger. I had a £12 glass of red wine and T had a small beer (£8). we think we tipped the waitress about £5 but couldn’t be certain. After our meal we walked slowly back to the Villa where T helped himself to a further 2 Croissants (up to 10 now) and I had a Pear. Healthy me.