Day 9-Bergen Bryggenn Walking Tour

We got to sleep in a bit today. We had breakfast in the apartment and headed out around 10:15 to sign up for the 11:00 Bryggen Walking Tour. The tour was highly recommended in the guide book and it said that sometimes the 11:00 tour sells out so we wanted to sign up early. We didn't need to get there as early as we did, but better to be early than late.

We signed up and got little stickers to indicate we were on the tour. We had about 30 minutes before the tour started so we wandered around the nearby buildings. We found a bakery and decided to have a snack before the tour. I took the opportunity to try a skillingsbolle. A skillingsbolle is like a cinnamon roll but not quite as gooey. I really enjoyed the treat especially since I'd skipped breakfast!

Skillingsbolle

The tour started promptly at 11:00 am. There are two Engligh tours a day, one at 11:00 and one at 12:00, it is a 90 minute guided tour of two musuems and historic Bryggen. The tour is approximately $20 for adults and the kids are free, it includes admission to the Bryggen Museum and the Hanseatic Museum. The tour was excellent! It was well worth what we paid, our guide was excellent and we learned far more than we would have without his explanations.

The tour started at the Bryggen museum where we learned about the early years of Bergen. They have uncovered remains of some of the earliest buildings along the wharf. We also learned that the wharf has had many fires during the last 900 years and has been rebuilt many times.

We walked through the old buildings in Bryggen and our guide told us about some of the buildings. We learned about the history of the area. The buildings mostly house shops and art galleries but the buildings are still very interesting!

We had a little "surprise" on the tour, we were able to see the remains of the first city hall in Bergen. It is inside a parking garage! The remains were found and the parking garage was built around them. The tour we were on is the only tour allowed to visit them and they just started allowing visitors last month.

Ruins from the original Bergen city hall

Our final stop was the Hanseatic Museum. This building has original interiors from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Hanseatic League was a group of German merchants who basically controlled the wharf in Bergen from 1360 to 1754. The Hanseatics were all men and they had to be single. The Hanseatic museum is an example of what one of the trade houses would have looked like.

Hanseatic Merchant Office

After the tour we headed back up the hill to the apartment and had lunch. My parents headed out to do a little shopping and my family just stayed at the apartment. Dan and I napped and the kids spent some time reading. Later Dan, Ali, and I went out to do a bit of shopping. Ali had seen a few things she wanted to get from the souvenir shops.

We had dinner at the apartment and had a quite night. I started packing up stuff in anticipation of heading home soon. Tomorrow will be our last full day. We are hoping for good weather!

 

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Day 8- Moving day to Bergen

Today was moving day so we were up early again! We needed to catch the 7:50 boat to Bergen. We went to breakfast right when it opened at 7:15 and ate a bit before heading to the boat dock. Our friend that we'd met at the hostel was also on the boat so we chatted with her while we waited, she was heading to Vik so she'd be getting off at the first stop. We were all a bit sad to be leaving Balestrand, it was so relaxing and beautiful. If we return there we'd like to spend more time hiking and maybe rent bikes to do some exploring.

It was a beautiful morning so we had great views on our 4 hour boat ride. The boat was more crowded than the boat we took to Balestrand, I guess Monday morning is a popular time. About 3 stops into our ride we had to switch to a different boat, there wasn't anything wrong with the boat but apparently this was standard procedure. The kid tried some yummy waffles on the boat, they were happy with the snack!

Hanging out on the boat

Lovely scenery

We arrived in Bergen at 11:50. We had a problem getting a taxi big enough for 6 people so we ended up taking two smaller taxis. I had rented an apartment in Bergen through airbnb, the apartment was only a 15 minute walk from the boat dock but it was 15 minutes up hill and we didn't want to do that with all our luggage. Monica (the owner of the house) had sent us great instructions for how to find the house. We followed her instructions and got dropped off about 1 minute from the house on a larger street. I had to laugh because the place we asked to be dropped off at is called the Witchy Bitchy Beauty Spot, it is a tatoo and piercings place. I wonder if the cab driver thought we were crazy! We quickly found the apartment, it is located in the old part of town above Bryggen. Monica had told us that even though the apartment wouldn't be ready when we arrived we could store our luggage until it was ready.

The Witchy Bitchy

The cleaning lady was there to meet us at the apartment, she was very nice and showed us where to put our luggage. The apartment looked great! It was small but quite a bit bigger than the apartment we rented in Paris two years ago! Renting apartments in Europe is a great option for families as it is difficult to find hotel rooms for 4 people. This was the first time we used airbnb for a rental but it definitely won't be the last. It was a very easy process. We were so happy with the neighborhood the apartment was in, it was a 3 minute walk to Bryggen and the harbor, less than a 5 minute walk to the Floibanen funicular, and close to grocery stores and restaurants.

Our cute apartment rental

Little alley that leads to the apartment

Looking up the hill to our street

After dropping our bags we went to get lunch, we actually split up for lunch. My parents ate a restaurant near the Fish Market and my family ate at Subway. We try not to go to American restaurant chains when we travel abroad but eveyone was hungry and Subway sounded good. After our lunch we wandered around the shops near the harbour. It was a beautiful sunny day so we sat and had ice cream by the water. We met up with my parents at about 3:00 and did some grocery shopping. We had a full kitchen at the apartment so we planned to eat meals there. It was not too fun carrying the groceries up the hill and we later discovered that there were much closer grocery stores!

We got settled in the apartment and I did a few loads of laundry. We made pasta for dinner and Dan and I took another quick trip to the grocery store. The apartment had a Playstation 3 and Connor was thrilled to get some video game time! He's read two books on this trip so we didn't feel bad about letting him play.

Happy boy!

The apartment has two bedrooms with the third bed in a room off the hallway. Dan and I took that bed, it was pretty small! It was bigger than a twin bed but smaller than a double. We tried squeezing in but it was really hot and after about an hour Dan moved to the couch. We later figured out that we'd accidently turned on the infloor heating, we definitely didn't need that on with 70 degree temps!

 

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Day 7-Our Glacier Adventure

We were up early again for our trip to the glacier. We had cars rented and one part of the trip required a ferry crossing. We had decided we wanted to be on the 8:10 ferry which meant we needed to leave around 7:45. We had a quick breakfast and then we were on our way.

We arrived in Dragsvik where we would take the ferry. It was a quick ferry ride across to Hella and the kids thought it was great fun to be on a car ferry! The drive to the glacier was spectacular, the scenery was beautiful, it seemed every little town we drove through was more beautiful than the last! The drive took about 2 1/2 hours. It went quickly because there was so much to look at along the way. There were multiple tunnels to drive through, the kids thought that was very cool because we really don't have tunnels near where we live.

We arrived at the glacier information center and signed up for our glacier walk. There are 4 family glacier walks a day, you can not sign up ahead of time. My parents were with us but they were not doing the glacier walk, they waited for us at the glacier information center and explored the museum there.

After buying the tickets for our glacier walk we drove on a two mile toll road to a parking lot that is near a lake at the foot of the glacier. It is a 45 minute walk from the parking lot to the edge of the ice. We could see the glacier clearly from the parking lot, it was so cool! We have seen glaciers before but this one was so blue. We decided to take a small boat across the lake to make our walk to the glacier a little shorter. It was 120 krone for the 4 of us and well worth it. The water in the lake was super cold and there were floating chunks of ice in it! After we got off the boat it was time to make the 25 minute trek to the edge of the ice. It was quite a hike, you are hiking on stone and there are lots of rocks to step and climb over. I'd only suggest this trek for people who are quite sure footed. I was so happy that my parents didn't attempt it! It was definitely a beautiful setting with the lake, the sounds from the waterfalls, and the imposing glacier ice!

View from the parking lot

Walking to the starting point

Fun bridge

We arrived at the meeting point for the family glacier hike. There were already a few other families waiting there. You are asked to meet the guides 30 minutes before the hike. We were the only people in the group wearing running shoes, everyone else had on hiking boots except for one couple from Italy who had on dress shoes. In retrospect hiking shoes would have been a good idea but we don't own any! The guides got us outfitted with crampons and we got roped in. As we waited it started to rain, it was raining and windy!

Connor in his crampons

Drinking glacier water

There were about 20 people in our group, mostly families with children. Children 6 and up are allowed on the hike. In my opinion your 6 year old would need to be pretty fearless or used to challenging hikes to manage the walk! After everyone was settled and roped in we started on the ice. It is hard to tell in the pictures but there were quite a few parts of the walk that were kind of steep. It is hard to explain but trust me when I say the hike was amazing, challenging, exhilarating, and scary! It was defintiely "the real deal" we signed a waiver at the beginning of the walk and part way through I was really understanding why! We've done other "adventure" travel things like zip lining but this definitely made those look like a cake walk. Ali shed a few tears and she wasn't the only kid to do so, the little girl a few people ahead of me on the rope was crying quite a bit. The younger kids, like Ali's age and younger got small crampons that just went in the middle of their feet. Connor has big enough feet that he got real crampons, I think the full crampons were easier to walk wtih.

It was amazing to be on the glacier, there were deep crevasses and holes in the ice. There was one place that was like a cave in the ice with a roof over the top, I joked to Ali that maybe Elsa from Frozen made it. As we were walking next to an especially deep crevasse Dan noted that "If you fall in there you aren't coming back." That was so not a good thing to say when our daughter was already scared!! I reminded him that he really needs to keep working on his "filter."

Happy hikers

We were on the ice for about an hour. After we got out of the rope and our crampons it was time to head back to the car. The walk down on the rocks was more challenging than the walk up. The rocks were wet and slippery from the rain! I fell on my butt when I slipped down a big rock! It was lovely and very graceful I'm sure, I have a few bruises from the fall but nothing serious. We were happy to get back to the boat and then the car. We were definitely a sight by the time we made it back, we were soaking wet and Ali and I were filthy from falling! I put my hands down on the ice a few times and they got super dirty. Ali did the same when she slipped and her sweatshirt was filthy!

We were cold and wet!

My silly boys

Just a little dirty!!

All in all it was an awesome adventure and I'm very glad we did it! I would only suggest this trek for people in good shape. It is advertised for kids 6 and up but you definitely have to know your kid. My kids are generally pretty adventurous and brave and Ali had a hard time with the walk. You are close to crevasses and big holes in the ice, you also have to step over some spots that you don't want to fall into.

We met my parents back at the glacier information center and my dad got ice cream for the kids. We decided to skip the museum portion and head back to Balestrand. We were all wet and tired! The drive back didn't go quite as quickly as the morning one. We were all happy to take hot showers when we got back to the hostel. We had dinner at the hostel and the American woman we met the day before joined us for dinner again. I spent time after dinner repacking our stuff because tomorrow we move to Bergen!

 

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Day 6-Vik and the Hopperstad Stave Church

We woke up early to be on the 7:50 Express boat, today we wouldn't be going all the way back to Bergen but instead getting off at the first stop in Vik. You can get to Vik from Balestrand by taking the 7:50 express boat and returning on the 11:30 express boat. That gives you enough time to see the church and to still have some time to explore the small town. My kids were kind of grumpy about waking up early today, Connor tried to convince me that seeing a replica stave church at EPCOT was just as good as seeing the real thing. I explained that we would be seeing the real thing like it or not and that he needed to get out of bed!

We ate breakfast quickly and headed to the boat dock, luckily it is only a 4 minute walk from the hostel to the dock. The ride to Vik was a quick 15 minutes. We bought our tickets the day before at the Tourist Information office but you can also buy your tickets on the boat.

Waiting for the boat

The church is a 15 or 20 minute walk out of town, you walk through town and then past some farms. It was a lovely walk and a few of the houses in town had plaques on them telling about their historical significance. We arrived at the church at about 8:30 and it didn't open until 9:00. We spent some time taking pictures out side and just sitting and relaxing. There was a cat that followed us up from a farm and the the kids were happy to play with him. The church was beautiful on the outside, and it was in a lovely setting near farms on a hillside.

Sign for the church

Such a lovely setting

The kitty that joined us from the farm

Promptly at 9:00 am two attendants arrived to open the church. We paid a small fee at the ticket booth. One of the attendants took the key out to open the door to the church. The key was huge! Dan asked about it and she told him it was the original key. We went inside the church and spent some time looking around. There were only two other couples there so it wasn't crowded and it was quiet. The Hopperstad Stave Church was built around 1140 making it one of the oldest stave churches in Norway. The stave churches were built between 1130 and 1350, it is estimated that there were around 1000 of them and now 28 original stave churches remain. It was very cool being in a building that was nearly 900 years old! One of the attendants at the church gave a short but very informative tour, he pointed out and explained a lot of things that we would have missed otherwise. Everyone (kids included) throughly enjoyed the visit to the church and ranked it as one of the highlights of our trip!

The huge key!

Canopy covering side altar from the 1300s

Isn't the ceiling cool

Kind of a funny story from our church visit...Ali spotted some drawings on the wall (we learned that these were medieval graffiti) and she asked me to use the flashlight on my phone so she could see them better. I turned on the flashlight and we looked at the drawings. Then when I tried to turn the flashlight back off, my phone starting playing music!! The music was definitely not appropriate church music. I quickly tried to shut it off but failed, I then hurried outside and figured it out! Oh my was it embarrassing!!

Medieval graffiti

Happy family.

After leaving the church we headed back into town. Vik had two grocery stores and they were bigger than the stores in Balestrand, we stopped in both stores and picked up a few things. We also stopped in a few shops. Finally, we stopped and got ice cream for the kids and then sat at the harbor waiting for our 11:30 boat.

Upon returning to Balestrand we stopped at the store to pick up a few more things for lunch. The store was packed and lots of things seemed to be selling out, the loaves of bread were almost gone! We knew we'd be packing a lunch the next day and we needed some food for dinner. We later learned that the grocery stores in Norway are closed on Sunday, I think this is why there seemed to be a mad rush at the store on Saturday. Outside the grocery stores we met a young American woman who was traveling alone, she had just got off the boat from Bergen and asked if we knew where the hostel was. We told her she could walk with us because we were heading that way.

We made lunch back at the hostel and then the kids spent some time playing down in the game room. By this point I was so happy to be staying at the hostel, it was so nice to be able to use the kitchens and the kids loved having the freedom to roam around and spend time down in the game room.

After we rested for a bit we decided to go the small aquarium in Balestrand. It is very small but it was interesting, it had tanks with different types of fish that are in the water in the fjords. I wouldn't say the aquarium is a "must do" but if you are in Balestrand and have time then it is a nice way to spend some time. There is a small bakery attached to the aquarium and we got donuts for the kids, they were happy with their snack! We saw that there was a small cruise ship anchored in the harbor, they were ferrying their passengers to shore. The town was pretty full with the extra people from the ship. We walked up to the local church and found it full with people off the cruise ship. We decided to head back to the hostel as we didn't want to join the crowd.

We were renting cars to go to the glacier the next day and the cars were delivered to the hostel around 4:00. We just filled out the paperwork with the car rental guy in the lobby, I'm pretty sure it was the simplest rental agreement that we've ever done! When I asked him where we should return the car the next day he said to just leave the keys at the front desk of the hostel.

We had dinner at the hostel. The American woman we'd met earlier in the day joined us at our table for dinner, we also met some guys from DC in the kitchen. After dinner, Dan and the kids spent some time downstairs in the game room playing chinese checkers while I figured out what we needed to take to the glacier the next day. We tried to get to bed early because we knew tomorrow would be a long day!

 

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Day 5-Exploring Balestrand

After a lot of early mornings in a row we decided not to set an alarm. Ali and I slept until 7:30 or so and the Dan and Connor slept even later than that. I think everyone was in need of some sleep! We headed to breakfast after we got up, breakfast is included at the hostel. The breakfast buffet was simple with all cold items, there was bread, cereal, hard-boiled eggs, sandwich meat, and cheese. I think there was fish too but I'm not sure as I don't eat fish. It definitely wasn't an "American" breakfast but that is OK, it would be boring if everything was the same as at home!

My parents were down at breakfast and we discussed our plans for the day. We also learned at breakfast that my parents had a normal shower with an enclosure in their room so Ali decided she'd be showering there. We decided to spend the day in Balestrand because everyone needed a laid back day.

We headed out midmorning and checked out the waterfront. We stopped in the Tourist Information office to ask a few questions. They were very helpful and quickly answered our questions and gave us a hiking map with some suggestions. We wandered around a bit and then stopped at the grocery store to buy food for lunch. We bought things to make sandwiches. Buying bread was fun, it comes unsliced and there is a bread slicer in the bread section. I looked at the pictures on the machine and figured out how to get the bread sliced, I was pretty proud of myself! After our grocery shopping adventure we headed back to the hostel and made lunch. Everyone was very happy with our simple lunch, honestly the kids were happier than they would have been had we gone out.

The hostel

Kitchen

Our lunch

Dan and the kids spent some time in the game room in the hostel. The kids loved playing ping pong and I think they might have spent some time playing Chinese Checkers. I was definitely warming up to the idea of staying at a hostel.

Hanging out in the game room

My family decided to head out for a hike. I had the map from the tourism office but apparently we are idiots. We couldn't figure out which way to head out of town to the trails. We ended up having to go back to the office and ask. When we finally were headed the right way we figured out that the sign to the nature trails is right under the sign to our hostel. We'd looked at the sign but obviously we only paid attention to the top arrow!

The hiking sign that we walked by multiple times!

It is about a 15 minute walk uphill to where the trails start. It was interesting walking by the houses and there were some nice views down to the water. At the trail head there is a nice map with a description of the different hikes. There is an Elementary School at the trail head, I can only imagine having a school in such a beautiful setting. We decided to do the short nature walk. It was a short hike with signs describing different things along the trail. It was beautiful and so peaceful along the trail.

 

Cool Swing at the School

Reading signs on the nature trail

Selfie on the trail

When we got back to town we checked in with my parents and talked about what our plan was for dinner. My dad and I headed back to the store (luckily it is a 3 minute walk). I decided to get hot dogs for my family and my dad got a frozen lasagna for he and my mom. It was a simple dinner but everyone was happy. There was another family eating at the hostel, there are two kitchens so they were using the other one. They had 3 children with them. My kids met their kids down in the game room, they were from Belgium. My kids had fun playing ping pong and pool with them. Meeting other travellers is definitely a huge positive for staying in a hostel.

We had a laid back night, we had to catch a 7:50 boat to Vik in the morning so we laid out all our stuff for the next day. It was a good day. I think we all needed some time to relax after being so busy in Stockholm!

 

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