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!

 

Posted with Blogsy