Scenery In Bergen

We arrived in Bergen September 26. After checking into our hotel, we went for a walk around city center.

 Next we walked around the docks.

September 27 we went back to the dock area to get more pictures.

Behind the historic old buildings in the picture above were little shops and side streets.

Then we walked around the fortress of Bergen. The grounds were beautiful, but it didn't compare to the view of the city from on top one of the walls surrounding the fortress.

The view.

The wall we sat on.

The train ride from Oslo to Bergen (7 hours) was so beautiful that we decided to day trip to some areas 'near' Bergen. September 28 we went to Voss and sat by the lake. The lake was like glass... until we started skipping rocks, which we discovered we suck at.

Next, we got on a train to Finse. The scenery was so beautiful, even from the train.

Here is a picture of the glacier, which Finse is known for.

Unfortunately we aren't the best hikers and instead of hiking around we walked for about 30 minutes, found a nice place to sit and have lunch, and enjoyed the scenery for quite a while. Here is a picture of me on the bench Andrew made for us.

The view.

We are going back to Oslo for a night, then back to the Netherlands.

Parks In Oslo

We had an unanticipated stop in Karlstad, Sweden before making it to Oslo September 22. Karlstad was a small city, but beautiful. We enjoyed our couple of hours here and spent them in a city park, and then in a Subway (because it was too cold out and because they had hot food free wifi).

September 23 we spent the day in the Vigeland Sculpture Park. Totally beautiful.

Here are our favourite statues in the park:

 Another view from the park.

The rest of the afternoon we spent in the off leash dog park area. We saw 10 dogs to 4 owners and it was great to watch all the dogs interacting. 

September 24 we went for a walk in Bygdoy Park.

It was really rainy so we didn't spend too long outside.

To get some shelter we went into the Viking Boat Museum. Andrew went walking around in the museum, but I had a seat instead. Here are some Viking ships.

Since it has been cold out and because we were staying in a beautiful apartment we had some lazy mornings. Andrew started to affectionately call me Pat in the morning, because I was curled up on the couch in my pjs with the laptop in front of me and watching TV, reminiscent of mom on a weekend morning.

So finally we made it into city center and as in all European cities there was a large pedestrian area in the middle of city center, which we walked.

It was cold out... really cold out.

 This is how I describe my outfit: Incognito, blending in with local fashion. Maybe I'm delusional.

Next we went to the opera house, a very modern building on the waterfront.

Walking on the roof.

Inside.

The opera house was so beautiful, it almost made us want to go to an opera. Almost.

  Then we went to the harbour.

We had a great time in Oslo, but are now off to Bergen for a few days.

Fun In Gothenburg

We arrived in Gothenburg September 15. Accommodations in Sweden are expensive so we opted to stay in a hostel. This meant it was back to bunk beds, and yes this was the entire room. Think of a prison cell designed by Ikea.

Even though the quarters were tight we stayed in the hostel the entire evening because I was booking the last of the accommodations for our trip.

September 16 we went on a canal cruise. The water level was so high that for part of the tour we had to sit on the floor, otherwise we would hit our heads on the bridges. Kind of looks like the hostel, doesn't it?

The tour was very informative and a good way to see the city. Here is a picture of the 'fish church'. It was built to be a fish market, but the only experience the architect had was with building churches.

A pretty picture from the cruise.

Since we went to the amusement park in Copenhagen we thought that one amusement park was enough. We were wrong. When we were looking at things to do in Gothenburg we discovered that the amusement park had 3 rollercoasters, one of which was wooden, so we had to go.

Here is the wooden rollercoaster, 'Balder', the best rollercoaster I have ever been on.

The park from above.

This rollercoaster was really cool because it shot you out of the gate (0 to 75 km/h in 2 seconds) and the momentum carries you through the whole ride.

This is the other half of the park where the 3rd rollercoaster is, as well as a ride that shoots you up really fast, one that shoots you down really fast, and a giant 'big kid swing'.

The amusement park was AMAZING! It was the best park we have been to and it was especially good because there were no line-ups the entire time we were there. Plus neither of us felt sick from the rides!

September 17 we went to 'Universeum', which was similar to our science center. We had so much fun, but once again it seemed that we didn't quite fit in. For some reason there were a bunch of kids!!

Here is Andrew and his 'new friends' making bubbles.

I WAS making bubbles, but some stupid kid (the one across from Andrew in the green) kept popping my bubbles so I left. Where are the parents of these savages?

Then we found puzzles!

Puzzles done... except the one I'm working on. I'm sure it was the hardest puzzle.

Finally done!

Then Andrew found the neatest thing. It was a room with a bunch of lasers running from wall to wall.  The objective was for you to go from one side of the room to the other without touching them (like in the movie Entrapment). Here I am going across the room.

Andrew's turn. He 'danced' through it. Unfortunately the video didn't turn out. Here he is about to jump over a few lasers.

We had so much fun in Gothenburg. Hopefully we will have as much fun in Stockholm.