Waking at Th e Thief to their Sunday brunch, we collected our stuff and headed over to the train station where we hopped on the 7 hour train through the mountains to Bergen.
Traveling by rail is a relaxing and beautiful way to enjoy the scenery, which is reminiscent of Switzerland, the high climbing in Peru, and Germany.
Our arrival in Bergen was late afternoon. We checked into the Admiral Hotel and made a walking tour around the central town in order to find a dinner spot. The area is geared to tourists and cruise line passengers. Uncharacteristically, we ended up choosing Thai food.
Monday, the weather forecast correctly predicted rain and wind. We were not disappointed. After a not-so-interesting breakfast, we geared up in our rain suits and made it to Starbucks for our first real coffee. Half the town was crowed in the shop trying to avoid the rain. Fortified we took up our walk up the hill to the funicular . Similar to Hong Kong’s Peak ride, we made it to the top in less than 10 minutes. The wind drove the rain into us and the fog moved to open up views of the city. We watched the Hurtigerten boat come into dock for its preparation of our arrival.
Lunch was right on the dock area with a great selection of seafood/fish. The yellowfin tuna was a tenderloin of fish cooked rare inside. Peel and Eat shrimp were the best starter for such a nice meal. We walked a little more around town and then camped out at the hotel until our bus came to take us to the ship.
Although Bergen is the 2nd largest city in Norway, it does not compare to Oslo’s design and urban planning, hospitality scene, cleanliness, and diversity.
The MS Finnmarken was docked waiting for our check in and safety talk around 5 PM. We had an hour on the ship to poke around before our cabin was ready. The 6th floor suite is comfortable for our needs. Dinner was a buffet; however, we found our appetites were limited due to our amazing lunch earlier. Although we were scheduled to depart at 8 pm, maintenance issues with the car ramp pushed it back until 10PM. We had a brief, briefing at 9 and then headed off to our cabin to wait for cruising. In the rain, we left Bergen heading north.
