Unbelievably spectacular weather – again! The locals say this never happens. In fact, it is said that Bergen is one of the rainiest places in Europe, getting on average 250 days a year of rain! Today not a cloud, light wind and low 60s.
Our excursion took us on a bus/walking tour of the center city. The highlight was a ride up to the top of Mount Floyen on the funicular! The views are incredible and there's a wonderful park up there with lots of hiking trails. This is Norway's top tourist attraction. But most interesting was the engineering of the funicular! There had been such a device here since 1918 but the city fathers decided to invest in tourism and spend a ton of money to rebuild and modernize the experience. Its like a subway. There's a terminal at the bottom where you purchase tickets and pass through an electronic turnstyle. The cars are like subway cars but each section of seating/standing was designed to be level, even the car was at a serious angle. It took only a few minutes to zip up the hill to the upper terminal. Power to the cable is electric with help from gravity with the car going down pulling the car going up on a pulley system.
From the funicular we had a long walk back to the ship. First stop was the famous Fish Market, where we stopped for fish & chips and local beer.
Back on board by around 4:00. Time to put our feet up and have our second “Specialty Dining Experience” at The Pinnacle Grill featuring steak and seafood. Fabulous meal and great service!
Once out in the fjord there were lots of small rocky islands, many with nice looking summer homes. We also passed by a facility building oil drilling rigs for the North Sea oil fields.
Our evening entertainment on the World Stage was a classical pianist/comedian going by the name of The Pianist With Hair!
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