2023-49: Bergen, Norway (Part 2)

This travel update is for part two of our two-week stay in Bergen, Norway. It covers September 14 – 17. “Any text in quotes and Italics has been copied and pasted from some informational website like Wikipedia.”

September 14, 2023 – Thursday: A Planning Day

We logged onto the computer this morning to book an Airbnb in Stockholm, Sweden, but the two places we “favorited” yesterday were no longer available! We spent some time looking at other options, then went out for a run. Upon our return, we decided to conduct an online search and found the website for the same management company (ApartDirect) listed on the Airbnb site for the apartments we like and booked an apartment directly from the company, which by the way, has multiple locations throughout the city. The apartment we reserved is in an area not too far from the city center of Stockholm, and is close to public transportation. Shown below are some pictures of the apartment we will be staying at in Stockholm. Apparently, the washing machine is also placed in the bathroom in Sweden!

After that Patti made us an excellent lunch of pasta with chicken, carrots and edamame. Here she is at the table with the amazing view out the window that could almost be a painting.

After lunch we investigated more about how to get from Stockholm to Copenhagen. It looks like the train is the best way to travel, but we might have to change trains either in Lund or Malmö depending on which website we looked at. We’ll have to figure that out and also see if we can book the tickets online from Bergen, or if we’ll need to wait until we’re in Stockholm and go to the ticket office at the train station. Patti looked at some “managed apartments” in Copenhagen, but we haven’t booked anything there yet.

We need to determine if we’re going to Cyprus after Copenhagen, and, if so, when will we leave? Our 90 days in the Schengen Zone ends October 23 and we want to leave at least a couple of days before that. Also, various airlines have deals on specific days of the week. For example, Norwegian Airlines has a $61 deal from Copenhagen to Cyprus but it’s only available on October 24, one day after our 90 days expire!

September 15, 2023 – Friday: More Reservations

We found the official Swedish train website this morning and I loaded their App onto my phone. But I couldn’t log into the App because I don’t have a Swedish personal identification number. I couldn’t log in on the website either for the same reason. I tried booking train tickets from Stockholm to Copenhagen on the website as a guest, but both my VISA and my American Express cards were declined. We made a snap decision to walk to the Bergen train station to see if they are able to make reservations for us. We were hopeful because they were able to make the Oslo to Stockholm Swedish train reservations for us earlier this week.

Before we left I watched this small boat with a man and a woman in it from our balcony. I think they are fishermen. They were motoring to small red buoys and pulling up the lines to look in what I think are traps. From what I could see it looked like they had fish and crabs in their black plastic bin. It’s nice that this waterway is healthy enough to get seafood out of.

On our way to the train station we walked through a nearby park that has this pretty fountain.

“This beautiful fountain is located between the upper and lower parts of Nygårdsparken. Looking at the cute and humble fountain, it can be surprising to know it has a link to the grandiose Vigeland Park in Oslo. Emanuel Vigeland who is the creator of the fountain, is the younger brother of Gustav Vigeland, who created the grand sculpture park in Oslo.”

We walked by this statue in another garden, paying tribute to young Norwegian men who fought in WWII.

This pond was very pretty. I’ve been really impressed with all the gardens and parks in Norway, and how well they are maintained.

At the train station we went to the ticket office and a young man named Jørgen made the reservations for us and printed out our tickets. So now we can take the train from Stockholm to Copenhagen. FYI, we had looked at using a third party ticketing agent such as Rail Ninja but they were charging $80USD as a fee, which we didn’t want to pay. I’m cheap that way, I don’t like using Ticketmaster either, because of all the added fees.

After the train station, it was lunchtime, so I got a kebab at a nearby street restaurant.

I’ve been eating more kebabs in Norway than I have in any other country!

On the walk home we went by the Opera House and I got my picture with this statue of Edvard Grieg, the famous Norwegian composer, done by Ingebrigt Vik.

“Ingebrigt Vik (5 March 1867 – 22 March 1927) was a Norwegian sculptor. Vik is regarded as having been one of Norway’s greatest sculptors from the first part of the 20th century.”

Later in the day, Patti found a studio apartment on Airbnb in Copenhagen for 10 nights that is a managed apartment and we booked it. We now have reservations for the next five weeks. Below is information about the Airbnb along with some photos.

Then we discussed options about where to go after Copenhagen. Initially, we were thinking of going to Cyprus, and we also looked at house/pet sitting opportunities in the United Kingdom, near London, but there was nothing available that piqued our interest. We also looked at renting a CruiseAmerica RV for the month of November and camping out around Florida, but that was over $4,000USD for just one month. I floated an option to return to the US from Copenhagen then drive up to Ohio to see some family and friends. It’s been well over two years since our last visit to the Cincinnati area — that’s the option we ended up selecting.

We then made airline reservations on Norwegian Airlines from Copenhagen to Oslo ($193.71USD) and Norse Atlantic Airlines reservations Oslo to Miami ($582.04USD) for October 20. Patti reserved an Avis rental car ($91.67USD) to pick up at the Miami airport and drop off the next day in Lakeland, Florida. We need to get to Mulberry (near Lakeland) to stay a couple of nights with my brother and his wife and pick up my car. So, we’ll be traveling from Copenhagen, Denmark to Lakeland, Florida, USA for about $870. I think that’s a decent price for two people. We’ll have to collect our bags from Norwegian Airlines at the Oslo airport then re-check them for the transatlantic flight on Norse Atlantic.

Now we have plans until the end of this year!

September 16, 2023 – Saturday: Taking it Easy

We didn’t have any particular reason to sleep late and not do much today, but, that’s pretty much what we did. We both went out for a midmorning run, then we walked down to a pizza place I’ve been wanting to try, called Pizzabakeren. It’s a chain that we’ve seen around Norway. They have cute graphics in their advertising.

I got the Chorizo Special pizza and it was average, while Patti decided to have something else for lunch. We also stopped by the Kiwi grocery store to pick up some food to make a picnic lunch for tomorrow’s hike.

September 17, 2023 – Sunday: Hiking Mount Fløyen

The weather was forecast to be good today and indeed we were greeted with clear blue skies when we awoke. So, it was a good day for a hike up the popular mount Fløyen.

“Fløyen or Fløyfjellet is one of the “city mountains” in Bergen, Hordaland, Norway. Its highest point is 400 m (1,300 ft) above sea level. The name could originate from fløystangen or a weather vane that was set up to indicate the direction of the wind for sailing ships. The view of the Bergen peninsula makes Fløyfjellet a popular attraction among tourists and locals alike. It has a funicular system called Fløibanen that transports passengers from the center of Bergen to a height of 320 m (1,050 ft) in roughly eight minutes.”

We thought that we would probably take the funicular railway, at least one way, just for the fun of it.

“The Fløibanen is a funicular railway in the Norwegian city of Bergen. It connects the city centre with the mountain of Fløyen, with its mountain walks and magnificent views of the city. It is one of Bergen’s major tourist attractions and one of Norway’s most visited attractions.”

But when we got to the lower station there was a long line for the funicular, so we decided to walk up the mountain. At first the path was steps between houses.

Then our path crossed over the funicular line. We watched it go by. It’s bright red.

This is a very popular hiking trail and there were lots of people on it.

We liked the moss-covered rocks and trees.

At the upper station for the funicular there were several buildings and a large area where people were sitting to enjoy the view.

We saw spectacular views of Bergen.

We ate our picnic lunch on some stone steps along with lots of other people then walked around the area. There were numerous playground areas with kids running around and playing everywhere. Patti decided to try an “L-Sit” again, and the boy in the blue jacket was trying it too.

According to the sign at the playground this is called “slutt” position.

“And that’s all I’m going to say about that. It actually translates as “end” position.

We walked through an area called Trollskogen, where according to Legend, if a Troll is caught out in the sun and/or in daylight, they turn to stone, although these trolls were carved from wood.

After checking out the trolls, we walked toward the playground area where there were many creative and challenging obstacle courses along with 100s of children running around and playing. Girls were pulling themselves up logs using ropes, and walking on balance beams, ladders and ropes.

Boys were holding onto the upper rope while bouncing on the lower rope.

Here’s Patti standing on a giant spider.

This three-level tree house was popular with kids waiting in line to climb up, crawl through and slide down.

We both attempted to complete some of the obstacle courses . . . needless to say, they weren’t easy to accomplish. Walking from tree stump to tree stump took some concentration and walking along the swinging ladder was tricky. The children tackled these activities with ease, while we both struggled. I believe our issue is that we were thinking about what we were doing, and therefore, moving slowly, while the kids just go and do it without thought.

Rather than going back down the same way we came up, we decided to take another path and ended up doing a loop. We walked about nine miles today. Here’s the path we took.

We saw additional exquisite views of the city as we made our way clockwise around the loop. The pond / lake (called Store Lungegårdsvannet [named after Lungegården – Vincents Lunge’s farm] is a bay situated at the end of the Puddefjorden) shown in the photo below has a biking / walking path around it. When we go on our runs, we usually follow this path. It’s approximately 1.9 mile around, so we both usually run around it two times. The starting point is about three quarters of a mile from our Airbnb, so our runs end up being between five and six miles.