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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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August 2012 |
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BERGEN, NORWAY Bergen was our first taste of Norway -- it was July 5th, 2012 -- and if first impressions mean anything, which they do, it was love at first sight. Homes built one above the other on steep mountainsides next to our fjord reminded me of many places including cities throughout Italy. In that same vein, Bergen is billed as the "City of Seven Mountains" while Rome is well known as the "City of Seven Hills." Our hotel was a block off the harbor and less than two blocks from the Fish Market where vendors lined the square with their fresh catches of the day -- salmon, shrimp, herring, mussels, lobsters, crab, and other varieties smoked, skewered, or sauced. Cans of caviar were stacked for sale like cans of tuna. On the other side of the Fish Market was the funicular, which we rode to the top of Floyan Mountain 1,040 feet above sea level. Views of the harbor, the ships, and mountainside homes were breathtaking. It was an 80-degree day with barely a cloud in the sky. Locals marveled at their unusually beautiful weather this time of year. Later we climbed aboard the White Lady for a two-hour harbor cruise. Allan and I sat in the very front of the open bow and remarked on viewing the same things from water versus land perspective. It's like getting new eyes.
DRIVING NORTH When we woke on Saturday, July 7th, it was raining like crazy so we picked up our rental car and left Bergen for the mountains and fjords north of us. This is one of the reasons we prefer the independence of doing our own thing rather than following the mandatory schedule of a tour. By ourselves we can adapt at a moment's notice. We drove through mountain tunnels, one after the other, marveled at the engineering required to build them, and at 2 p.m. steered our new Peugeot onto a ferry run by Oppedal Services. If Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Norway is the Land of 10,000 Fjords. Man's ingenuity seems to have accepted and conquered all challenges to navigation. We began to see bright red barns and homes of farms nestled into the steep mountainsides. Very little land is tilled because very little land is flat. The most common crop seems to be tractor eggs -- big round bales of hay wrapped in white plastic and dropped like Easter eggs in small clearings of hay fields. A light rain kept our windshield wipers on low speed but nothing obstructed our views because the clouds were very very high above us. At 6 p.m. we pulled into a large hotel on a rushing mountain river at Stryn where we enjoyed a delicious buffet supper of baked chicken, baked ham, seasoned sauerkraut, and lettuce salad -- in addition to the usual cold cuts, cheese, fruit -- with chocolate mousse for dessert. This little overnight cost us 2,280 krona. Six krona is equal to about $1 USA. We both said, "Oofda." As we continued north to find Allan's family in the Old Country, picturesque scenery was always before us. I had never seen so many WOW landscapes in my life. Said Allan, "It certainly is worth the drive."
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