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| Late night view of the first snows, through room porthole |
When the good ship Richard With headed south, back to Bergen, snow began to fall. It snowed all afternoon, and on into the evening. I was scheduled for an excursion for an underground boat excursion into a Bergtatt marble mine, but the snows cancelled out the trip. The trip was to take place all evening, with a special late night 'feed' upon the tour occupants return, but honestly - one look at the snow out the window and you knew cancelation was the only sane option.
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| Cormorants on a bouy |
The final afternoon onboard ship, I was pretty bummed that the wonder cruise was almost at an end. Spent most the day attempting to bird as snow covered islands and other interesting landmarks appeared to float by.
The lump on the islet below to the left is the 2nd of two White-tailed Eagles which were either too fast, or too far off for me to get a decent photos.
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| The 'lump' is a majestic White-tailed Eagle - take my word for it. |
In the late afternoon the ship docked in Bergan. While we waited for the announcement for our ship level 3 to leave the ship, I spotted a pair of Swans flying in to the little harbor. The uncooperative birds didn't come close enough for me to ID them.
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| Uncooperative Waterfowl |
The ship decks (levels) disembarked one by one. Soon deck 3's time to leave ship was announced and soon I was on shore, pulling my luggage off the baggage carousel. The plan was to visit in Bergen for a couple of days before heading back to the states. And rather than a cab to our hotel, we took a Hurtigruten tour bus that would drop us off at our chosen hotel. It was still daylight when we got on board the tour bus, and it was dark by the time we got to our hotel.
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| Beautiful downtown Bergen |
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| Many buildings date back to the 1600s |
Outside of the National Theater is a statue of Henrik Ibsen, famous author of The Doll's House, which my Colorado cousins saw a couple of years ago on Broadway.
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| Snow dusted statue of Norsk playwright Henrik Ibsen |
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| Christmas Fair, which we WILL return to visit |
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| St. John's Church in the distance |
'The Academic Quarter' (below) is student run housing, that hosts lots of cultural events throughout the year.
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| The Academic Quarter |
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| Plenty of Jule lights along the route |
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| Can you see the glowing school of fishies? |
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Just a block from our hotel, the Thon stands the historic
Rosenkranz Tower, the oldest castle in all of Norway |
All comfy in our room, we headed out on a hike to find someplace to have dinner. That was more of a chore than expected, it being the holiday season. We found most restaurants were pre-booked. We finally settled on a bar/cafe where we feasted on traditional Norwegian Nacho Supremes. Yeah, I know, but the tortilla chips crunched with a Norge accent. Tomorrow we tour Bergen.
