Bergen Norway

The alarm went off at 6:30AM. I was awake for once, but Emily wasn’t this morning. We got ready, packed up and was out the door of the AirBnB apartment by 7:15. We made it to the ferry terminal about 10 minutes later and got in line to board which started at 7:30. We got a window seat on the right side of the boat pretty close to the front. The ferry was people only and had a spot for bags though we only had our backpacks. They even had outlets at the seats which was nice as well as a snack bar. The boat was pretty full and I kept going between my seat with Em to the back platform viewing area which was cold but worth it! That area had a nice wind block set up so only the very back edge was actually that bad. The ferry was powered by water jets and was a catamaran style and could really move! We started chatting with a family across the aisle from us that was from Denver. Their son was going to go to some camp in Oslo in the upcoming week. We also talked with a man who was from Denmark but now lives in Silicon Valley in California. They were visiting his parents and grandparents in Denmark and took an overnight ferry over to Bergen as a side trip (16hr ferry). He struck up a conversation with us because his daughter needed a charge for her iPhone. We gave her one of our chargers but were only about 30 minutes from Balestrand at that point. We zigzagged through the fjords stopping three times before Balestrand which we arrived at 11:50 pretty much on schedule. Once at Balestrand, we found our hotel and only had to wait 10 - 15 min for our room to be ready. The receptionist was very nice and helpful, she had a son who now lived in Cedar Park near Austin. We got settled in and headed down to the doc area of Balestrand to pick up a quick lunch. We ate at the Aquarium and each had a square of pizza.

Now about 1:30, We decided ventured up the city streets to find the hiking trails that climbed the mountain behind the town. Neither of us was really prepared for the amount of climbing we had to do but we did it! The trail started as a nature style trail that looked to be used by the school nearby but then we turned off of that onto the Balastølen trail which lead us up to the Orrabenken viewpoint. Here we rested for a bit on the benches and took in the view! Emily stopped here which was about 1200 feet of climbing. The Fjerestadstølen trail started here and I took it first to the Klukkshaug viewpoint and then top of the ridge of Buråsi at about 1800 ft. After taking in the view a bit, I continued down to Emily via the Grauthaug viewpoint then back on the Balastølen trail back to Emily. We headed back down from there and got back to the hotel at about 5:30.

We showered and then enjoyed a glass of wine (Em) and a beer (me) in front of our hotel. We went to Gekkens for dinner at around 7 which was traditional Norwegian food made by a Philippino family. We naturally got spring rolls as an appetizer which were really good. Emily had pork snitzel and I had meatballs. All were very good. We also split a pear cider from the local cider company in Balestrand which was also tasty. After dinner we walked back to the aquarium and split a slice of a raspberry / chocolate / Bavarian cream cake thing which was a nice treat. We got back to our hotel a little before 9 and lounged outside a little more before calling it a night at about 10.

Safe Travels,
B&E

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