Norway Day 1

After a rather early start from London and a smooth checkin at Heathrow T3, we were on our way to Norway. Despite the warning that there would be no refreshments served we got coffee on the flight. Quite nice it was too!

We had a brief stop in Oslo where we had to change planes. Despite a small scare about our luggage possibly having lost its tags it arrived on the carousel and we quickly made our way to our connecting flight, picking up a couple of baguettes at Upper Crust for lunch.

Another quick flight where we again didn’t get to see anything due to clouds we touched down in Bergen.  Eventually finding our shuttle bus, we got driven into town where we first dropped off the other passengers at the Hurtigruten terminal before being chauffeured to our hotel. 2 people in a huge bus going through tiny cobbled streets!

The hotel made a very good first impression on us and our room is very cute. After quickly refreshing ourselves we wandered out into town.  Bergen is quite nice and definitely worth a stop!

We wandered along the old harbourfront to a small fortress. Walking through an archway we were surprised by a photographer, a red carpet, and a group of people dressed in period costume fighting in a courtyard.  It turns out this is part of the entertainment for an evening gala ball hosted for the commandant. As we were unfortunately not quite dressed up enough for the occasion we left again.

For dinner we went to a very nice restaurant called Bryggeloftet & Stuene where we had a rather lovely meal indeed. The decor was very maritime, with lots of models of old-fashioned sailing ships in cabinets. For main course we had reindeer steak which was incredibly tender and very delicious indeed.

Afterwards we wandered through town a bit more before heading back to the hotel. Unfortunately the sauna was out of order, so after a brief play in the gym it was time for bed.

Great start to the holidays, good-night! 🙂

 

(PS. I’ll update this post later with some pics)