Bergen, Norway

Friday, June 17th we docked at Bergen, Norway. The dock is about a half mile walk along the waterfront to the Bryggen wharf area. The ship passed some impressive bridges and zigzagged through open waters passing a lot of beautiful inlets and islands. 

Bergen is a cute town with some fun architecture. It has a population of about 286,000 and is situated amid seven mountains and faces the lovely Byfjorden (fjord). The city boasts many historic landmarks. 

Bergen has experienced a number of fires throughout its long history. The most recent during the German occupation during WWII. On 20 April 1944 a  Dutch cargo ship Voorbode, loaded with over 120 tons of explosives, blew up, killing at least 150 people and damaging historic buildings and destroyed much of the bay. It was fully investigated and found that it was not intentional due to the war, but was an accident. The city was subject to some Allied bombing raids during the war, aimed at German naval installations in the harbor. Some of these caused Norwegian civilian casualties numbering about 100.

We went on a 3-hour excursion: “Mount Floyen Funicular and City Drive”. We got soaked just walking from the ship to the bus. Then we got wet again after we took the Funicular up to the top of the mountain and walked to the souvenir shop and then again to a little restaurant, where John got a local beer.

Although we got some pictures, the view wasn’t that great because it was raining so hard. That is too bad because it would have been a beautiful view if it had not been raining. Mount Floyen has a 1,050 foot summit. 

After that we traveled by bus throughout the city. There were three stops to get out and take pictures, but because it was raining so hard we chose to stay on the bus instead and many of our pictures were taken through wet rainy bus windows. During a non-rainy day it would have been a fantastic excursion.  In the whole 43 day cruise this was the only one where the weather was bad enough to limit our experience.  I guess we were pretty lucky over all.

John attended the evening show: “80s Pop to the Max”.

The following photo was retrieved from Wikimedia: A nice view of the Fløibanen car Rødhette (Funicular) and Bay from the Summit 1
Note: Rødhette translates to “Little Red Riding Hood”. There is also a Blue Funicular. called the Blåmann, translating to “Blue Man”.  I am not sure which one we rode on, perhaps both one coming up and the other going down.  

Map of Bergen, Norway
Map showing Bergen, Norway. Purple Balloons: the cruise port and Fløibanen Summit where the Funicular took us.
Bergen, Norway: Fløibanen car climbs above the city, as seen from the summit.
Bergen, Norway: Fløibanen car "Rødhette" climbs above the city, as seen from the summit. 2

Bergen, Norway Photos

Sea Day

Saturday, June 18th was a Sea Day.  We saw blue sky for the first time in many days. We spent the day cruising the North Sea.

We had a relaxing day, played some Scrabble, took naps, Played Bingo, etc. We got our free drinks before dinner.  This is the last day of our 3rd of 4 cruises.

The weather was cool and breezy with beautiful blue skies.

The North Sea
The North Sea on a Sunny Day

Sea Day Photos

Click on a photo to get easy pop up to scroll through photos.

  1. A nice view of the Fløibanen car Rødhette (Funicular) and Bay from the Summit (Attribute: By JoachimKohlerBremen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43239154).
  2. A nice view of the Fløibanen car Rødhette (Funicular) and Bay from the Summit (Attribute: By JoachimKohlerBremen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43239154). 

Disclosure:
The family Information was retrieved from a variety of family trees, webgens and family stories. I will note citations as appropriate and hope the information assists you in your research, but please do not use this as proven evidence. Feedback is welcome!

Pat Burns. Copyright © 2024. All Rights Reserved.
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