Day 5 - Bergen and a Norwegian Farm

Today we concluded the land part of the tour and started the six-day cruise along Norway’s long coastline on board a Hurtiburten ship.

On our way to Bergen, we stopped at a lovely farm. The farm had just a few horses, about 20 sheep and some chickens. They had two beautiful horses: the cream colored one had the mane with black strip in the middle and white on the sides. The other dark horse had long hair on her legs and mane, the owner braided the hair and it was very cute. The main product of the farm is sheep meat and milk.

The lunch started with fresh juice made from the fruits of the farm - apple, pear and cranberry. The main course (buffet style) had some cured meat and cheese and a traditional Norwegian dish - a bowl of sour cream porridge with brown sugar and raisins.

The owner of the farm was an old gentleman who called the lunch into order with a huge cow bell and talked solemnly for a seemingly long while. The lunch place was beautifully decorated like a wedding chapel with a triangle shaped ceiling, fake vine, and Xmas lights hanging around and a piano at the center. The owner talked a lot about the farming in Norwegian, the challenge and the obstacles they are facing. At the end, a girl dressed in traditional costume came out to perform a violin piece, and the owner who also changed into traditional costume played a piano solo, both pieces composed by Norwegian musicians. At last, another girl in costume came out and the owner introduced the exquisite costumes and how they are made and used for.

It was a very pleasant experience. The fact that the farmer could not sustain a living by the farm work alone and had to generate additional income by running a wedding venue and entertaining tourists made us feel and understand the difficulty and frustration of an old farmer.

Bergen used to be the capital of Norway, it is a pretty busy port city. Today happened to be their festival of transportation. There were old steam boats lining up alongside the harbor and many antique cars on the streets. An old airplane was flipping and turning in the sky making aerobatics maneuvers. A lot of people were on the streets and it was very lively and festive! There was also a fish market lining up under the red tents along the harbor.

We ran into a young Chinese girl who was working behind the counter of a fish stand. Her Chinese Mandarin was very Taiwanese, and she was apparently very far away from home, but she told us that she came to Norway every year to work, and to enjoy life (seemingly quite a philosophical statement :-). A handsome young man popped up on the other end of the fish counter and solved the puzzle. He told us whale meat was supposed to be dark-colored because whale was mammal.

We had a bus tour followed by a walking tour around the city led by a local guide, who was a newly arrived French girl. Her accent was so French it was very hard to make out what she was saying. She talked in length about the Hanseatic League in the 17th century that came to Norway and dominated the trades, but no one seemed to know what she was saying until later on at dinner time it dawned on us what it was.

Bergen’s buildings were made of wood, the city had been burned four times because the area was very windy and the houses were cluttered. We walked by alleys with some 300+ year old wood buildings.

We then have two hours of free time to wander around the city. We took a slanted cable car (a funicular) to the top of a mountain to get a bird’s-eye-view of the harbor and the city. We saw our cruise ship docked in the harbor. It looked so tiny! At 5:30pm, we got back to the bus to get to the cruise terminal to embark the Hurtiburten coastal express line.