The Best of Bergen and Mt. Fløyen

Well, it is a new day and we have an excursion to see Bergen. We only got about four hours of sleep since we needed to be up early to get ready, have breakfast and make it to our excursion at 8:15am. We got up at 6:00am, took showers, dressed and got our things ready for the day. Then we went to the World Café for breakfast and coffee. After eating we made our way to the Star Theater to get with our group for the excursion. We were in group 5 and when they called our number (which we only had to wait for 10 minutes) we made our way to the bus to meet our tour guide.

The morning was cloudy and rainy. But we were excited to see Bergen so the weather didn't matter. We had coats, gloves, hats and rain gear so we were ready to go. For the first thirty minutes of the excursion we drove around Bergen while the tour guide gave us some history of the area. Then we made our first stop of the morning at St. Mary's Church and Bryggen. The tour guide talked a little about St. Mary's Church and then we walked around Bryggen while she gave us the history of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. We spent about an hour wandering the passageways of the area before heading back to St. Mary's Church. Our next place to visit was The Hanseatic Museum and Schøtstuene. Here we got a history lesson on the trade merchants and on music. A young woman played us some traditional music on the recorder. It was a wonderful little concert. After the music we spent a little time looking around the museum and then headed back to the bus. We drove to a couple of spots for some photo ops of Bergen and then went to the National Theater for a quick look. Then our last stop was at the funicular that would take us to the top of Mt. Fløyen. We spent about 40 minutes at the top of the mountain and had time to take pictures, walk around and visit the gift shop. Then we took the funicular back down the mountain and then made our way to the bus and then back to the ship. Even though we had rain pretty much all morning I really enjoyed seeing and learning about Bergen.

Once back on the ship Thomas and I had to do an immigration check which took about 15 minutes. Then we went back to our cabin and met our steward (Wayan). He gave us a tour of the cabin and showed us all the bells and whistles. Then at 1:00pm we had to go to an emegency drill which lasted about 25 minutes. While at the drill we met up with friends (Michael and Marina) we had met on our cruise this summer from Amsterdam to Budapest. We spent a little time after the drill talking to them and then we needed to get some lunch. We ended up having burgers at the World Cafe. While we were eating lunch the ship pulled out from the dock and we began our cruise leaving Bergen behind. By this time we were tired. We didn't get too much sleep last night and then the day had been busy since we got up. So we ended up taking a nap.

At 5:00pm we woke up and got dressed so we could go to dinner. We had reservations at Manfredi's for 6:00pm. We arrived at the restaurant and were seated at a table for 6. Soon after we were seated we were joined by two other couples - Steve and Cindy from Gillette, WY and Dick and Carol from Athens, GA. We had a great meal and the company was wonderful. We had some nice conversations and it turned out to be a fantastic evening. After eating we decided to call it a night and we returned to our cabin. I ended up watching a couple of movies and editing pictures. I also did a little blogging until I got tired and headed to bed. Tomorrow is a day at sea so we don't have to be up at any particular time. Looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow.