Bergen, Norway

            Thursday, 28 Jun 2018 – Since we visited Bergen twice in September 2015, we didn’t consider signing up for a ship’s excursion this time.  The Caribbean Princess had stopped there after sailing around the British Isles near the end of an August-September cruise; the same ship stopped at Bergen again at the start of another cruise in which we left London to sail to Iceland en route to New York City.

World Heritage Site Marker

Bergenhus Fortress

This time, we chose to walk in Bergen, and were off the ship for about two hours.  People with walking difficulties found the distance from the ship to the end of the pier to be quite long, and many other people (like us) didn’t walk too much further beyond the pier.  Although the necessary walking distance had been announced (and Jesse translated the distance to equal the length of about 2 football fields), others agreed with us afterward that the walk to anything of significance was much farther than that.  At any rate, this was one of Sally’s “tired days” (as she kept reminding Jesse), and so we walked rather slowly.  The sun shone brightly, for the second day in a row.

On our previous visits to Bergen, a shuttle bus from the Princess cruise ship took us to what we thought was the city center.  Jesse remembers a shopping mall being there; Sally remembers a museum and also a large, grassy park, with a Hop on/Hop off bus stop nearby.  (We took that bus on our second visit there.)  Jesse also remembers Sally taking a face-forward tumble over one of the foot-high circular concrete stools in the mall!

This time, we never reached that point; indeed, it was like we had ported in a different city.  The buildings near the coast are of various colors and very picturesque.  We walked right by the outside of the Bergenhus Fortress and the castle, with Renaissance architecture, where royalty lived for 750 years.  On the inside was a museum which required paid admission, and we weren’t interested in spending that much time there.  However, on our way back, we turned into a walking path that went inside the wall that lined the street.  With its large stone structure, old pavement and stone surrounding walls, Sally imagined that it might have been in the 1500’s – a thrilling experience.

We walked as far as a large souvenir shop, and then turned back.  Several larger ships were sitting at port in Bergen.  First, we saw Star Pride, a ship of the Windstar cruise line.  Then we saw Azura (of P&O Cruises).  At about 12:45 PM, the Albatross pulled up in dock beside the Prinsendam.  This cruise ship is operated by the Germany-based travel agency Phoenix Reisen, which was also printed on the side of the ship.

Back on board, Sally went online and Jesse soon went off to Mass.  At dinner, we sat with Dale & Carlotta again.  When comparing ideas on today’s stop at Bergen, the Viking Museum, and even politics at home, we found ourselves in almost total agreement with this San Francisco couple.