NORWAY

Arrived in Bergen, Norway on Sunday after a week in Paris. Flight time around 1 1/2 hours on Norwegian Airlines which we have not flown with before. Bergen has a small fishing village feel about it - somewhat like a mixture between Hobart and Wellington. The weather was a little colder than Paris at around 14 degrees. Also a little rainy.

Bergen is a gateway to the fjords of Norway so we had planned a 2 day stay in Bergen, picking up a car and driving to firstly Alesund and then onto Molde before staying overnight in Kristiansund before flyning out to Sweden.

So...a bit about our stay in Bergen.

Stayed at a very nice hotel on the wharf and a room with a harbour view. It so happened on Sunday when we arrived that there was a food festival on at the wharf. A number of stalls were giving away free samples so decided to try some. The first thing I tried which I thought was beef in teriyaki sauce was in fact whale! Yes.. whale in teriyaki sauce in fact tasted like rare beef. Kim was horrified that I had eaten it but it was already dead and cooked. Whale in fact is still caught in Norway so it is served at a number if restaurants. Saw a lot of Japanese at the Bergen fish markets going crazy over it.

Later in the afternoon a large cruise ship arrived up to the wharf and were offering free visit over the ship for the afternoon. Went on board and had a good look around before having a drink in one of the bars.

No need to eat out as included in the hotel deal was breakfast and dinner. Which was a saving grace and reminds me to tell you how expensive things are in Norway. A few examples converted into Australian $

2 chicken sandwiches, a bottle of red wine and a cup of tea on the plane.... $50

A 12 min taxi ride from the airport....... $70

1 plate of seafood from the fish markets for lunch consisting of 4 small prawns, 2 oysters, 1 crab claw, and 2 thin slices of salmon... $45

1 beer and 1 scotch on ice at a bar..... $40

You can see why we didn't knock back the free dinner!

Anyway... Day 2 in Bergen was spent wandering the small streets of the old town. The town is full of very narrow streets with small wooden houses bumped up against each other. One street we found is no more than 1 meter wide. Another street is only 3 meters long.

The following day we set off on the drive up the coast in our red Alfa Romeo from europcar. Actually hired a VW polo but you know what it is like with car hire companies - it never seems to be exactly as ordered.

We tried to find out how many klms and how long it would take for us to get to Alesund. We had many differing views ranging from 6 to 8 hours.

In fact it was just over 370 klms and took us 8 hours. You may ask why does it take 8 hours to drive 370 klms..... Well it is primarily because we had catch 4 ferries scores the fjords as part of the journey which is about waiting time for them to arrive and then the sailing time across the fjord.

The roads are in sort quite narrow (though not as narrow as Italy - though don't think anything is) and the maximum driving speed is 90 kims. There are also numerous tunnels through the mountains with one being over 4 klms long.

Along the way though saw some spectacular scenery of the high mountains, the fjords, ferry crossings, and in one area part of a glacier.

Unfortunately most of the way it was raining so not as pretty as perhaps it would be in sunshine.

Arrived in Alesund at the hotel at around 7pm and as usual still very light.

Thank goodness for the GPS as I am sure Kim and I would be at alternate ends of Norway if there was any map navigation involved. It was interesting to hear the GPS state .... " in 250 meters drive on ferry"