Bergen and boarding the Hurtigruten. We woke up to pouring rain! Our plan had been to visit Grieg’s Troldhaugen (his former home) but we decided to skip it since a lot of it is visiting the scenic grounds. Marc was kinda disappointed since he’s a big Grieg fan. We decided to go to the aquarium and the Bergen museum since they are inside. I woke up at 4:00 AM again but fell asleep shortly after and got a decent night’s sleep. The “hot plate” in our hostel room came with a sign saying not to use it as it can trigger the hostel’s fire alarms! So we cooked and ate our breakfast in the hostel’s communal kitchen. We had eggs and I had yogurt and granola and Marc had OJ and a clif bar too. I had some of the instant coffee that I had brought with us.

It was a 5 minute walk to the visitor center near the fish market where we purchased our hop on/hop off bus tickets. Marc said “At least it’s covered,” but then we realized it had open sides! Each side of the bus had 2 seats, but people were sitting in the aisle seats to avoid getting wet so we did the same. We decided to do a full loop since the aquarium stop was near the beginning. It took an hour to do a loop, and by then the rain had lessened so we decided to get off where we take the funicular to Mt. Floiven. We took pics of the view and found a cute troll statue.

We decided to eat at the restaurant which even though it was over-priced, it had amazing ambiance and a great view of Bergen. A toasty fire greeted us. They made a special shrimp and mayo sandwich without butter for Marc, and I got the same thing, with butter. I had coffee and Marc had a coke and it was 360 krone, almost $50!! The desserts looked tempting but were too expensive.

We went back outside and the rain had stopped completely and the sun was trying to come out! More photos of the view, then back down to “town.”

We walked quickly through the fish market, you can choose any seafood/shellfish and they will cook it up for you. We decided to eat here for dinner.

Then we went to the Bryggen museum. It had old stuff excavated from Bergen/Bryggen. I thought the museum was kind of a snorefest… They had a temporary exhibit by an artist who makes elaborate paper art with intricate cuttings. They were really gorgeous.

We got back on the HOHO bus by the visitor center and took it to the aquarium. They had penguins, sea lions, Hawaiian and local fish and they also had weird stuff like marmosets, snakes, reptiles, and spiders. The aquarium was small but interesting.

We decided to walk back to the fish market. We strolled down some quiet back alleyways and walkways through some residential areas and saw lots of local kitties (and local peeps). We saw the cutest Siamese, orange tabby and an orange and white kitty. We saw some families too. Everyday people. Walking this way reminded me of our past trips where we’ve just walked and walked and walked through places where tourists don’t usually go. Our walk was short, but I enjoyed it very much since it felt like how we used to travel before my foot problems.

It took 30 minutes to get back to the fish market. All of the outdoor vendors were packing up, so we went inside where there were more vendors and a restaurant. We sat in the restaurant but in the outdoor seating area as it was covered and had space heaters. Marc ordered a seafood platter with smoked salmon, crab claws, whole shrimp and a salad. I ordered the seafood stew and was expecting a cream-based chowder but it ended up being spicy (curry?) and irritated my sore throat a bit. We could hear music coming from the outdoor concert stage we had seen the day before. We heard Ylvis’s “What does the fox say?” but didn’t know if it was a recording or him playing…?

Dinner was expensive, Marc’s was like 350 krone (about $40) and my soup was 110 krone. His seafood didn’t seem worth the price but he enjoyed it. We picked up our bags from the hostel and decided to walk to the Hurtigruten terminal. This was a mistake, we should’ve taken a cab as my feet were already pretty sore and it was a 20 minute walk. Plus when we got there, it was a lot of walking to get checked in and of course I wanted to explore the gorgeous ship!

The MS Trollfjord would be our home for the next 3 days! The ship had a sundeck with two hot tubs and a dry sauna and exercise room with amazing views. Our room was a small interior room but would be perfectly adequate. They had a “welcome” buffet but it was 450 krone per person so we skipped it. We also skipped the welcome onboard talk so that I could go in the hot tub and soak my sore feet and legs. I was the only one in the hot tub! Marc fell asleep early but I went up to journal in the library and at 10:30 “everyone” gathered on deck 9 (the sundeck) to bid farewell to Bergen. It had started raining again. I managed to stay up until 11:00, enjoying the library, it was almost dark as I went to bed.

Since we took so many pics of the really cool MS Trollfjord, go here to check them all out!