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The highlight of this day was the guided walking tour of Bryggen Wharf and its museums The best part of the Bergen hostel was the large buffet breakfast that is included with your lodging fee. I ate lots of food everywhere that a breakfast was provided in Norway, because all we had for lunches were Powerbars and granola bars that we had brought with us. Eating a giant breakfast meant that a small lunch was sufficient every day. I did have some apples for lunches that we purchased from the small market called Joker that is just a few steps from the hostel's entrance. Our plan for today was to see historic Bergen, especially the Bryggen Wharf area, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We saw four of the UNESCO sites on this trip - the Bryggen Wharf, the Urnes Stave Church, the Geiranger Fjord and the Nærøyfjord (Narrow Fjord). A bus ticket from the hostel to downtown Bergen is NOK 31 each way, while parking all day at the lot by the Bergen bus station is NOK 130 - in other words, its just as cheap for two people to drive into Bergen as it is to take the #12 bus. (I neglected to include the NOK 25 toll for driving into the city when I made this calculation. However, it seemed that driving was the most convenient option. (You have to purchase the bus tickets from a kiosk somewhere before boarding the bus - because if you try to pay the bus driver when you get on the bus, you will charged NOK 41 instead of NOK 31.) But to drive into Bergen requires that you correctly read the road signs, and I did not. I mistakenly turned into the Åsaneveien Fløyfjellstunnelen, and of course, once you are inside the long tunnel there is no way to turn around until you get all the way to the other end. Eventually, we made our way to the Bergen parking lot. The entry to the parking lot was a bit mystifying - it showed three Plans, with a number after each one. Were there three different parking plans, with a different pay rate for each one? Melanie figured out that by "Plan" they meant "Level" - there were three levels in the parking lot, and the number after each Plan was the number of available parking spaces. You are supposed to push a button indicating which level you will park on so that the machine can keep track of how many open spaces are available on each level. We walked into Bergen. There are some nice green spaces in the city center, with statues and flowers and fountains. The first thing we did was walk to the Bryggen Museum and sign up for the guided tour of Bergen. The English version of the tour was offered at 11:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. The 11 o'clock tour was already sold out, so it was a good thing we signed up for the noon tour when we did. Then we walked over to the Bergen Castle, officially called the Bergenhus Fortress. We did not go inside, but instead walked around on the grounds outside, and looked out over the harbor. There were some big cruise ships docked there. We ate lunch and got back to the Bryggen Museum in time for the start of the tour. I am glad we signed up for the tour. Not only did it include admission to the Bryggen Museum and the Hanseatic Museum, but the tour guide led as through these museums and gave us a good overview of what we were looking at. He also walked us through the famous Bryggen Wharf itself. We learned a lot about the Hanseatic League (a very early example of trade globalization) and the importance of cod fishing. The guide also briefly showed us a wine cellar and the foundation of the old town hall, which is now beneath a modern building. The guide did mention that he moved to Norway in 2006, and it rained for the first 60 days that he was in the country. Welcome to Norway! Bergen is officially credited as being the rainiest city in Europe. We did see some rain again on this day, but it was brief and not disruptive. After our guided tour of the wharf, we rode the funicular up Mount Fløyen (one of the seven mountains that surround Bergen) for a fine view of the city and its surrounding fjords. It was an overcast day, but the clouds were high in the sky so we had a good view. We got back to the hostel relatively early, and cooked our dinner before the big dinner rush in the kitchen. The Bergen hostel hands out free coffee and cookies from 5:30 to 6:30, so I grabbed a few cookies. We went to sleep early, trying to adjust to Norwegian time, which is nine hours ahead of Seattle. Today we drove 23 kilometers. Panorama Photos
MapsI drew up this little route map to show our path as we walked through Bergen's City Center. 
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Click on any thumbnail to begin the slide show at that photograph Bergen Photos
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