The day started out mellow and ended kinda crazy! We didn’t dock in Bergen until 1 PM so we had a leisurely breakfast and watched the beautiful scenery go by from our balcony on the back of the boat with a 180 degree panoramic view. Very cool!
And the weather was great! That is for Bergen, since it gets an average of 80 inches of rain annually! It didn’t rain at all and was sunny with clouds in the afternoon and a high of 56. We went on an excursion with all our British friends that took us thru the old town area along the wharf they call Bryggen. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site that has burned down many times over the years but has been rebuilt to resemble the buildings from the 14th to 16th century when it was the hub of the Hanseatic League’s Trading Empire.
We then took a bus all around the “suburbs” of Bergen thru the hillsides to see the beautiful scenery. Then we boarded a boat to take us down thru the fjords surrounding Bergen. They were beautiful but I don’t believe they’re as tall as the ones we’ll see later on the cruise.
We then docked near the ship where most people walked back but Kathy and I decided to walk into town to look for some decent wifi. Thank you McDonald’s free wifi! Lol. The town of Bergen (different than the wharf area of Bryggen we saw earlier) is really cute and has lots of narrow HILLY! streets. We got our steps in for sure (who needs a Stair Master!). We got lost finding the town center and with directions from the friendly Norwegians, we found the McDonald’s. Kathy wanted to make a few WhatsApp calls and I did some email and posted my blog pics!
We then started to head back towards the ship but wasn’t sure where it was! And the trouble was there were two cruise ports and no one we asked directions of new which one the Celebrity ship was docked at (nor did we!). By now, we only have less than 30 minutes to get back to the ship so we hailed a cab and asked them to take us. The cab driver first takes us to the wrong port! Then she takes us to the right port but we can’t figure out where to find the spot where cruise passengers can board. By now we’re down to 10 mins before they pull up the gangway! Finally we see the sign and go running to catch the ship before it pulls out! Crazy and a wee bit stressful!!
We then came in and got ready to head to a late dinner and caught the late show. All in all a very fun day but next time I’d leave off that stressful part at the end! Gotta love a good adventure! On to Alesund!
The Wandering Italian 