Neptun Hotel Rica Partner Bergen

... did not apply. <br><br>I remember these stories from my youth as I set foot on Norwegian soil. The Scandinavian fall is just making its impact as I land is Bergen. This city is quite simply a wonderful place to use as a staging area for seeing Norway. With a population of 250,000, Bergen was the capital of the medieval kingdom of Norway until the 14th century. It became a major commercial centre for Hanseatic merchants ...

... area with the odd snake and lizard thrown in....<br>We had a wonderful meal of burgers and fries for the kids and some wonderful scampi for me at a quayside restaurant. Grace has discovered the restorative wonders of Lattes....and we had fun just people watching. As before in Stavanger....the outdoor table area had heaters and nice lap blankets so the weather doesn`t hamper the experience. Nice touch.<br><br>We opted out of the local museums due to sore feet and a ...

... manage to drop off, it was time to get up again. A decent breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and toast with tea was finished-off in relative silence after a quick shower and change into our hiking gear. Frank had wisely prepared sandwiches the night before and these were loaded into our back-packs along with other provisions we hoped would sustain us throughout the day. All set to go we left an hour later hoping the brisk walk into Sentrum would give an ...

... bit of a walk around the town before heading back to our hostel and onto Sams uni. Met some lovely people also studying fish nutrition and got to check out the lab before heading out to see the rest of Bergen via car. We went for quite a drive - all the way out to the end of the sea. We then went to pick Aina up from work which proved to be more trouble than we intended as Sam had only been there once and he got very confused with a completely different ...

... in the languages and cultures of the places I was visiting instead of speaking English with fellow travelers or depending on the biased opinions of the tour guides. It also forced me to be open with the customs and the standards of living of the foreign countries. And in this adventure, I learned a lot about human understanding. Even when the Russian or Japanese tourists could not communicate well in Norwegian or English, I found that ...

Unsurprisingly, it has been pretty cold while out at Sea considering we're traveling to Norway in the upper half of the globe. Life at sea still involves meeting new people every day, some that will become friends, and others that will be forgotten within the hour. I've kept to my promise of hitting up the gym at least everyday, and have even started to frequent at least twice a day to keep up with cardio in the morning and weight lifting in the evening. 6-27-08 Norway is ...

... but their uniformity seems to blend seamlessly with the mountains and Fjords. At 10:00 am the captain announces that all the people on the tours should get off at the next stop. About 50 people get off at the next stop which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. We stand on the dock for about 3 minutes and then the other Sea cat arrives. This boat takes ups up the Sognefjord(The longest Fjord in the world") to the village of Balestrand. Here about 20 ...

the train up to Bergen from Oslo was absolutely beautiful... we were able to jump off at a few stops to get some photos... clear blue skies and gorgeous scenery... at one of the stops (i think it was 1222 m above sea level) there was a glacier and little patches of snow and ice... Bergen itself was great... the hostel was awesome and everything is fairly close together.. the fish market, same kind of deal as the one in ...

... rains so much here, that it is nicknamed the "Seattle of Europe". There used to be umbrella vending machines here. In 1990 it rained at least some every day for 83 days in a row, and just earlier this year (January) it had rained for at least 80 days in a row. A joke is told here about a tourist asking a local boy if it ever stops raining. "I don't know," replies the boy, "I'm only twelve". I guess I was quite lucky to get a sunbreak for half a day.