July 5-7
There is a very magnificent Stave Church very close to our farmhouse. So the handful of us that could get moving a little faster the next morning jumped in the fiesta bus and headed down to grab the ferry.
This ferry…
…that we missed.
So instead we grabbed a coffee and waffle at this super cute cafe…
…and Katie got a picture with the framed photo of the stave church instead.
Getting ready to leave the farmhouse:
The good news is that it didn’t take us long to need another ferry once we had the rest of the crew with us.
And we got some more pancakes with sweet cream! These were a great find a few ferries ago. A huge hit among everyone, except Michael.
Some more beautiful scenery on our drive:
And this beautiful shot at a gas station, because Norway:
And we got to drive through the Laerdal Tunnel which is 15.25 miles long. It is the longest tunnel for cars in Europe. (There is one in Switzerland for trains that is longer). It took 5 years to build and opened in 2000. It was really long. It took us around 20 minutes to get through it. And it had these cool colored lights in certain areas.
The last stop on the great fjord adventure of 2018 was the city of Bergen. Bergen use to be the capital of Norway from the 13th until the late 18th century. The city was founded in 1070 as the sole trading post between Northern Norway and other countries. To this day, Bergen Port is Norway’s busiest in terms of both freight and passengers.
Bergen is on the southwestern coast, surrounded by mountains and fjords, including Norway’s longest and deepest fjord, Sognefjord.
We arrived at our Airbnb late afternoon, dropped our stuff and headed out to grab some dinner at the fish market. We figured out pretty fast how cool this city is.
First we got to hang out with Edvard Grieg – renowned composer. Of course, I had never heard of him, but Katie remembers her Grandpa playing Grieg when they were growing up.
Then it was off to the fish market for dinner. We wandered around for awhile and found Bergen to be a pretty diverse community. This made stopping at each food stall fun for our bilingual family. I will say that bringing Katie and crew around gives Michael and I a little travel street cred. We are constantly dealing with people who know 2,3,4 languages while we are speaking English and stumbling through some Spanish. It is cool to not be the dumb kids on the block when it comes to languages for once.
Some reindeer sausages – Sofia was sad to eat it, but thought it was delicious:
Checking out the largest raspberries we’ve ever seen:
Ordering some fish from our favorite food stall:
King crab!!!
After dinner, we made it to another lego store. We owed the kids some prizes for a range of bets Michael made with them and what better way to pay them off than with legos! Also, how cool is this huge Harry Potter lego man?
Cosmic bowling styled bathroom – Sofia was too freaked out to use it. I, however, have used toilets on the Inca trail, so I was just fine with it.
The next morning, Katie, Michael and I went for a run around the closest park before starting our day.
Then it was back to that same park to grab some photos with the kids.
And, of course, the weird angry baby fountain:
Then we met up with Michael at the harbor and tried to find a boat that would drive us around for an hour or so.
We found this one that would drop us off a bit down the harbor at the Norwegian Fisheries Museum. This did not seem to me like what we were looking for, but when Michael heard the guy talking about it, he jumped right on board (literally and figuratively). OK – we’re doing it.
The boat ride left something to be desired. It was hard to see outside and it wasn’t a very long ride. But then it dropped us off at this fish museum which turned out to be AWESOME! I never would have expected it. We ended up spending a few hours there. Every room had activities for the kids (and the adults). Many of them gave scores which of course Michael and I can’t help but make into incredibly competitive games.
Some information about Geiranger Fjord that we visited a few days prior:
We’re not sure why Liam’s fish face went missing, but here are the rest of us!
There was also a treasure hunt for the kids that was actually a bit tough and required them to really pay attention to some of the educational stuff in each room. Good thinking fishery museum. Of course, the kids dominated and were rewarded with T-shirt’s and some other trinkets.
After finishing at the museum we were dragging a bit and super hungry. On our trek back to the harbor, we walked through Bryggen. This is the Old Town which has colorful wooden houses on the old wharf and is a World Heritage Site.
And then finally we made it to lunch. We found a great sushi place and we just demolished. I love watching kids eat (and enjoy) sushi.
On our walk back we saw a random BB8:
And some hilarious Star Wars conspiracy theory street art:
The next morning it was another drive back to Oslo. We made our first stop just outside of Bergen at a Stave Church that Katie wanted to visit. Fantoft Stave Church was originally built around 1150 in the eastern end of Sognefjord. It was to be torn down in the late 1800s but instead was moved outside Bergen. In 1992, the church was destroyed by arson. Wikipedia tells me that there was a string of church burnings by members of an early Norwegian metal scene. Very strange story. It has since been rebuilt.
Some more beautiful scenery with more grass covered roofs. Can you even see the houses back there?
We had a great lunch at Gretteberg Kafe, at the top of a mountain, overlooking a beautiful lake.
The best part of lunch was definitely how excited Liam was about this piece of hot dog.
“Hey! Will someone take a picture of this!” Yes, I will.
That night, we checked into the first hotel of their trip. We were staying at the hotel that is right in the Oslo airport since Katie and crew had a very early flight. We hung out in the restaurant and watched some more World Cup – Croatia v Russia. Croatia won in shoot outs. Another crazy, exciting game!
The next morning, Michael and I woke up a bit before 6am to say goodbye to Katie, Oscar, Sofia and Liam. It was hard saying goodbye, but we are so grateful that we had so much time and so much fun with them! We have been missing family a lot lately, so we’re really lucky to have had so many of you come out to travel with us. We could not have made it this long without these visits. Thank you!