{"id":1477,"date":"2017-11-11T19:56:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T19:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1477"},"modified":"2017-11-11T19:56:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-11T19:56:36","slug":"bergen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/bergen\/","title":{"rendered":"Bergen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we arrived in Bergen, after one wild rollercoaster ride of a night.<\/p>\n

‘Interesting'(yesterday’s blog post) turned out to be a bit of an understatement. From about 11pm onwards, the rocking and rolling steadily increased, and by the time we went to bed, it was clear that the Captain’s forecast was accurate.<\/p>\n

There were times when I swear I felt that I was about to be hurled out of bed to the floor. Occasionally things would fly off the table, and distant bumps and crashes reminded us that elsewhere on the ship, everyone was, collectively, experiencing the same thing (except, perhaps for those folks on the higher decks… for them, it would be much worse… the more you pay, the more you sway…).<\/p>\n

Breakfast was the usual game of ‘hunt the table’. It’s busy every morning, but after the bad night, it wouldn’t be rocket science to expect the majority of passengers emerging (probably a bit worse for wear) a little later than normal. We always eat breakfast in the bistro, although the Waldorf Restaurant does it too… but they finish at 9pm… so the Bistro was, unsurprisingly, bursting at the seams. We joined the ‘cruisers’… those who enter the bistro for the first time and cruise around, looking for a free table. Once, we thought we’d bagged one… only to find that someone else had pipped us to the post, by only the narrowest of margins. I told Tracey we should up our game…<\/p>\n

Eventually, of course, we managed to find a free table. We weren’t in any hurry, though. Bergen is our last stop on this cruise, and we’d specifically requested not to be given any escort duties, because we had plans of our own. We were also not in any hurry because it was raining cats and dogs outside (apparently, Bergen only has, on average, 10 rain-free days in a year).<\/p>\n

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When we finallly emerged onto the quayside it was still raining, but noticeably milder than some of the ports we’ve enjoyed on this trip. We paused to photograph the historic Bryggen before making our way towards the Funicular Railway that would take us to the top of the hill.<\/p>\n

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Our trip up the hill cost the equivalent of about 9 euros each, for a return journey. Our plan was to follow some of the trails that we know are up there; when we arrived, however, we immediately began to revise our plan. The weather at the top of the hill wasnt good. Views across the town of Bergen below, were fleeting, between bursts of rain and sleet, and we realised that the 4 or 5 miles of pre-planned walking through the woods were probably a little too ambitious.<\/p>\n

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Instead, after checking out the souvenir shop and photographing the view, we took a shorter walk, as far as a small lake. The snow was soft and slushy, but the trees and their reflections were worth the effort. We walked around the perimeter of the lake, rejecting the path that would lead to higher ground on this occasion (but took note of it for future reference), and followed the shorter route back to the railway that would take us back down to the town.<\/p>\n

Back in Bergen, we bought hot drinks and cakes in Starbucks, and then gorged ourselves on burgers in Macdonalds (cruising can have that effect on you), before taking a short walk through the town (buying some smaller, lightweight spikes for our boots in the process), and finally making our way back towards the ship.<\/p>\n

And that’s that…<\/p>\n

Bergen was our final port stop on this ‘Land of the Northern Lights’ tour. I have classes tomorrow, then we will be arriving back home in Tilbury on monday morning (all being well). It’s possible there won’t be another blog post before I get home (unless something very exciting happens); there won’t even be time for an exhibition, which is something I like to do on longer cruises. Speaking of longer cruises; I’ve been invited to join the Magellan again in January, when we will be heading back to Brazil and the Amazon. I’m looking forward to it… the weather will be warmer, that’s for sure…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we arrived in Bergen, after one wild rollercoaster ride of a night. ‘Interesting'(yesterday’s blog post) turned out to be a bit of an understatement. From about 11pm onwards, the rocking and rolling steadily increased, and by the time we went to bed, it was clear that the Captain’s forecast was accurate. There were times when I swear I felt...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}