We got up fairly early considering that we had had a busy day the day before but we were anxious to explore what looked from the sea to be a charming town. We also had tickets to go on the Floibanen Funicular and we wanted to get there and hopefully see the city before the clouds rolled in. The temperatures for the day were supposed to be great and no rain so we were optimistic we could get to see a lot from the mountain top.
We started out again with a wonderful Scandinavian breakfast. Scrambled eggs, porridge ( oatmeal) , meats, fish, vegetables, yogurt and toppings, etc.
Very pleasant eating area.
And wonderful breads!
Now that we were armed with plenty of food and coffee ( still no decaf) we were excited to get to the Funicular and begin our exploration of Bergen.
We had to walk through the famous fish market to get to the Main Street of Bergen where the funicular entrance is located.
Even Sharon who hates fish was intrigued. There is absolutey no "fishy" smell as she calls it. Everything was displayed beautifully and looked and smelled wonderful. Vegetables and fish were cooking on grills throughout the market.
There were also some local specialities which you'd expect to see in this area.
Sharon even tasted whale meat when I told her it didn't taste like fish at all. She liked it! We decided after our trip up the mountain we'd come back to the market and have lunch. Got to the main stsreet.
Oh dear! A line! After talking with someone in line we found it only to be about a 45 minute wait to get to the front. Sharon stood in line preserving our place and I took a walk around.
I climbed a few steps.
Just one of the streets I explored. Your everyday name.
Since we were rather socked in with fog we decided to sit and have a cup of coffee at the lovely hotel on the top.
" I mean what are you to do when the fog rolls in"
Someone came along and volunteered to take a picture of us together.
A monument and this handsome fellow insisted on having his picture taken with me. How could I resist. We could even be relatives. I see a little family resemblance - I think it's the nose.
After walking around the top for awhile we started our trek down and ran into some more interesting looking people hiding out in the forest.
And then we noticed these signs - we spotted them periodically along the trail.
Pretty scary! I am happy to report we did not run into any witches but we were very careful to stay on the path.
Somewhere along way the trail split and Sharon insisted we go her way. I gave in because I'm basically a very nice person. We startd down the path and I realized we were taking the nature trail down. I just knew in my heart that it was the long way down and my path would have been much shorter and I'm sure far less steep but we were committed. Down, down , down we went.
Along the way we found these llittle monuments all over. Of curse Sharon and I had to build some also and I forgot to take pictures of ours. Believe me they were very artistically done. Probably the very best out of thousands.
The bottom was finally in sight.
At this point our feet, back and knees were killing us. We still had a few ssteps to go to down.
I was certainly regretting those few extra steps I had taken this morning before we got on the funicular and also not insisting we take my path down. I'm just sure it was shorter and not as steep and lot fewer steps.
We finally made it all the way down in one piece and headed to the fish matket for lunch. A little Caviar perchance?
How about a blue lobster?
Grilled vegetables?
We finally decided on shrimp on a skewer, that came with a little salad and grilled vegetables. We sat down and enjoyed our $30.00 plate. It was expensive but it was good!
Yup! just 4 shrimp - $30.00.
We finished lunch and just decided to walk around Bergen.
This is looking at the fish market.
The manhole covers.
Everybody was out enjoying the sunshine.
Interesting statue of Henrik Ibsen.
And notice also the cute young men who were obviously taken with us :-).
And notice also the cute young men who were obviously taken with us :-).
The Opera House.
Sharon found a red hat to try on as we browsed around the Bryggen Hanseativc Wharf. 
That evening we went to eat and again enjoyed paying high prices for ,in this case, less than stellar food. The wine was also $15.00 a glass and wasn't too good either. Oh well, we should have researched a little bit more because I' m sure there is some delicious food in the area.
I hope you're noticing our new sweaters bought prior to the trip. We decided we wanteed another glass of wine, since decaf coffee is nonexistent in this area, so we wandered over to our hotel. It had a cute litle bar and we found out it had been selected as the best bar to take your date.
So here we are in the bar - no dates, but the wine was great!
This was the wood work on one of the doors in the litte room we were originally sitting in. They moved us out of there because there was a private dinner party being held in the room in a short period of time.That's when we were brought into "the award winning bar".
I know why it got the award. It was lit only by candles and everyone looks good in candle light if you can see them at all.
It did have neat little nooks and crannies.Well, it was time to retire. We were being picked up by taxi at 10:00 am for transport to the Bergen Airport and our flight to Stockholm.
I almost forgot. This is for all you Norwegians who , like me, ate Lutefisk at Christmas. It's made out of dried cod and we were told it would keep for up to 30 years.
Here it is:
Many magical pictures. Are these being taken with an IPad, phone, camera?
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