Norway — Bergen

We’ve arrived in Bergen, Norway! 

This is Chad’s mission so we let him do all the talking and navigating. 

Although, everyone here speaks English so it’s pretty easy to get around. 

(In fact everyone spoke English in Amsterdam and Stockholm too.)

Our town‘s famous person is Edvard Grieg and our hotel is named after a famous piece—Opus XVI.

My last piano piece I memorized and performed was Wedding Day at Troldhaugen by Grieg so it’s only fitting this tribute was outside our hotel room door. 

As soon as we put our bags in the room, we took the funicular up a mountain for great views of the city and discovered a fun mountaintop park. Definitely going to model our "Spartan" obstacle course in Pagosa after this one. 

Had to capture a pic of this old wheel used to hoist the funicular in past years. 

The sign welcomes people to climb and play on it just encouraging caution.

(A refreshing stance vs. the "don't climb/touch" notices we so often have in the states for fear of being sued if someone gets hurt.)

Afterward we walked around town and had dinner at a local restaurant that unfortunately was out of traditional meatballs which was the main reason Chad made reservations there. 

I had fish pie and in spite of the name was super delicious. 

We wandered through streets after dinner,

again enjoying the architecture, narrow cobbled streets, and charming multi-colored homes.

You know one thing all these older homes have? 

Nice windows. What a difference good windows make.

We did a little Dale shopping (traditional Norwegian sweaters) and I found a super cute green one but I balked at the price and didn’t buy it and now I regret it. 

After dinner we sat in the lobby swapping stories from way, way back, laughing and cringing. 

Good bonding and one of the funnest part of traveling with friends.

The last two nights we’ve woken at 2:30 am and been wide awake for two hours. 

Wondering what tonight will bring. Hoping to start sleeping through the night because tomorrow we have a relatively early start and an all-day excursion called "Norway in a Nutshell."