Bergen - 60° 23' 42" N 05° 19' 25" E

Bergen Airport - great sign!

Because of Kate's non-Schengen passport, we needed to go to the airport to check in. On our return, the harbour was starting to get busy and boats needed to raft.  A boat with a Nordic flag that we didn't recognise rafted against us.  It turned out they were from the Faeroe Islands.

Air-dried lamb hanging off the solar panels. 
The air in Faeroe is the perfect humidity and saltiness for drying meat.

After we queried what was hanging off their solar panels, they invited us over to sample the air-dried lamb, dried fish and several types of dried whale.  All washed down with a wide variety of drinks including akvavitt, gin and hard lemonade.

Dried lamb, dried fish and two types of whale.  The cigarettes aren't ours.

It turned out they were musicians, of some renown.  They had just finished recording a new album.  Jacob was the sound engineer and Janus, the musician.  Check out Janus á Húsagarōi of The Crowberry Band.  Both the music and lyrics are amazing and he named his band after his grandmother who used to pick crowberries with him! Sean was handed a guitar and it was quite the night.  We were glad we only had to stumble over the life lines to our boat.

The weather was magical, it seemed like we had sailed into summer.  And, very excitingly, Jo and Ed had finally caught up with us.  They made the epic journey from Gloucester via Edinburgh to Bergen to join us for the week.  We have been trying to get together since we bought the boat. 

Lucky it's calm with four yachts rafted against us!

After they settled in, we got to work exploring Bergen.  The first stop was the castle.  We still love a good castle and this one had the lot, dungeons, boiling oil, witchcraft trials, grizzly deaths and and the goings on and intrigue of a medieval soap opera. 

Just a short walk around the harbour.

Sparsely curated but still quite interesting

The Welcoming Committee!

The sun came out and we decided it was mandatory to try the local brew in Bryggen, despite it being over touristy.  We are tourists after all!

Beers in Bryggen

In keeping with the tourist theme, we headed to the Fish Markets for a minke whale burger.  You will be pleased to learn that the minke whale is in no danger from us. We were very smug with our discussion to have one whale and one salmon burger between us.  The salmon burger was delicious and the whale burger?  It was okay but it's slightly odd flavour was not our favourite and we will stick to beef in our burgers going forward!

Minke whale burger

We booked a walking tour for the early evening and were treated to a wonderful two hours of history, culture, comedy and story telling by our fabulous guide Sami.

Sami in fine form, pontificating on the highlights of Bergen and Norwegian culture.

Along with walking to various landmarks, statues and neighbourhoods, Sami shared his musings on the Norwegian culture.  He noted that Norwegians avoid looking you in the eye and don't exchange smiles or speak small talk with you as other cultures may.  In his view, there are only four ways to make friends with a Norwegian:

• Meet at school
• Meet at work
• Have children at same stage as yours
• Join a sports group

 Although originally Indian and having lived for 13 years in Vancouver in his youth, Sami has plans to make Bergen his home.

Part of old Bergen

Old Volvo on the cobbled streets

We all had a wonderful time on the tour but had worked up a good appetite that was easily quenched with Reindeer sausages and beer.

Reindeer sausage

The next day, we were able to test out Sami's hypothesis - we went to a swimming pool to "do some sport."

The Gukorgøy was warm!

We made the two kilometre walk to the Gukorgøy and enjoyed a few warm laps of the 29°c fresh water pool.  Our experience at swimming in Norway wouldn't be complete without checking out the sauna.  As it was a public pool, everyone kept their swimsuits on.

We also confirmed that the best way to shake off the heat of the sauna is a plunge and a few strokes in the ocean.  We all went in at least twice to prove it hadn't been a fluke. 

A diving board and stairs leading straight into the sea water!

Sami was right - lots of Norwegians spoke to us at pool and in sauna!  They were downright chatty.

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We had happy coincidence while in the Bergen harbour - Canadian visitors.  Kelly and her husband, Greg, had planned a bicycle trip to Norway and the timing of our two visits happened to line up.  They drove up (with their friends Deirdre and Rob) from Stavanger and came aboard for a look around the boat and a visit.

eight in the saloon aboard Chinook

The afternoon ran into the evening with good conversation and so Kate magically whipped up spaghetti bolonaise for eight as we traded stories.  How fun!

Ed and Jo will be staying on board for a few more anchorages as we head south along the Norwegian coast.

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