WC Map 2015

WC Map 2015
O̶c̶e̶a̶n̶i̶a̶ ̶I̶n̶s̶i̶g̶n̶i̶a̶'̶s̶ ̶A̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶W̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ ̶C̶r̶u̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶M̶a̶p̶ ̶2̶0̶1̶5̶ Or not...

Monday, June 22, 2015

A bus and a train to Bergen

Monday, June 22, 2015


Stalheim Hotel. Dinner last night was another Norwegian buffet. It was mostly fish but also had a deer stew. Where would they find a deer here? We have been amazed at the lack of wildlife other than birds in all this remoteness. Anyway… They had chicken in gravy so I thought I was covered as I ate my beef noodle soup. Clay came back and told me that the entire pan was filled with nothing but drumsticks. I ate gravy and white rice along with a side of the vegetarian option of quinoa in tomato sauce. Desserts were not a strong suit so we ate double portions trying to get it right! Both restaurants had a trilogy of sauces which must be a local thing. Vanilla, chocolate and a burnt sugar style caramel. We were told that coffee and tea were included and would be brought round to the tables when we got to dessert, but none appeared. You would think that coffee and tea would be included here or complimentary but they aren’t they are for sale at 30NOK in the lobby. There are no tea or coffee making facilities in the room, not even the European obligatory kettle for those who DIY. In a room this huge with all the extra furniture that just seems very odd.

We slept well. As Clay pointed out since there is no in-room Internet, no TV and only walking and dinner or breakfast and sleeping, you better hope you sleep well. Our room faces east so we had it a little darker than usual. It was overcast so the sun did not shine in this morning either. It may be the first time we’ve slept a solid 8 hours in one night in weeks.

Breakfast this morning was a raucous affair. The good news is that I guess because of our booking status or something, when we give our room number in the restaurant that we have a reserved 4-top by the window and it is all ours! The bad news is that last night 2 buses loaded with Asian tourists arrived just in time for dinner. The worse news is that this morning there were 7 visible buses and the restaurant was completely filled. We saw our table from last night sitting empty and hoped, yes it was still our reserved table. We had to fight the crowds though. Again, a lot of fish. There were only 4 hot dishes. What looked like strips of uncooked fat that I assume were bacon, beans, scrambled eggs and oatmeal. I had oatmeal, and I had yogurt with granola. I am on an all grain diet now! I went back and made an open face sandwich of whole grain bread, brown cheese, white cheese, ham and salami. Some protein. I don’t even know what all Clay ate. I had coffee finally. I needed have desired it. It was the worst coffee I have ever choked down. They may not be making it readily available out of embarrassment, though I assume profit is the actual motive.

Checkout is 11:30am which is rather good news because our bus won’t be by until 11:55am. Those who read yesterday’s post may have worked out what just occurred to us. That we’ll be skipping lunch again today due to the travel schedule and no lunch service here. I still think Try Norway should have made accommodations for this lapse in the schedule and availability. We should have about 45 minutes in Voss between the bus and the train and we’ll assume we can find something to buy for lunch there or on the train between 1 and 3. We will be on the same train we were on from Oslo the other day and will hope that the tracks between Voss and Bergen have reopened. But, we were in Comfort Class the other day and today we’ll be in 2nd class. It should be a much shorter ride so we’ll hope for the best. The last lapse we can find in the Try Norway itinerary is that it looks like it is over a mile from the train station to our Clarion hotel in Bergen and there is no transportation arranged or suggested. Not even a marked map! Just the note to find your way from the station to the hotel!  Tonight is our last hotel for a while. Tomorrow we board the Nordkapp for our northbound ferry ride through the fjords.

We checked out early and left our bags in the lobby while we wandered back up to Wilhelms Hoi. The marker stone in the historic buildings park. Then we just sat inside and out and enjoyed the views. The bus was a little late so we had a chance to worry. The bus ride was great today. Yesterday's driver barely spoke in reply but today's was making announcements about what we were seeing. He drove down the hairpins turn road that we walked a part of yesterday and stopped for photos. He told us about an extreme sports competition this week in Voss that explained all the skateboarders, bicyclists, kayakers, etc. we were seeing. He told us to look for the kite flyers. We saw them as we waited for the train. The train in Voss was late too, so we got to worry some more. I guess it worked out OK though since we are here in Bergen. We are at the Clarion Collection Hotel Havnekontoret. I have no idea how to say that and I hope I don’t ever have to! I used the hotel voucher to give the cab driver the hotel name and address and now I don’t have it anymore. I can’t find the hotel name on anything they gave us like a keycard. Tomorrow we have a transfer included to the ferry/ship so hopefully we really won’t need to get back here other than on our own. It is a nice waterfront location in an old looking building in a very old part of town. Unfortunately, our view room ended this morning. Tonight’s small room#209 has a view of a parking lot and the windows of 3 other buildings. We arrived after 4pm since the train was running late. We also had about a 20-minute wait for a taxi. That cost about $20. Not unreasonable since it was just too far to walk with luggage on cobblestones. We checked right in and our room was ready with no wait. We were informed that waffles were being served in the dining room until 6pm. That the evening meal would be served from 6 to 9pm. Breakfast will be served from 6:30 to 9:30am. Checkout is 12:30pm. We will probably checkout after breakfast and go sightseeing and let them hold our luggage. Our transfer is at 4pm. Clay plans to come back for waffles before the pickup. I am not sure we’re entitled to waffles tomorrow, but Clay pointed out that no one was checking. We’ll see. They were weird thin waffles. I think maybe pizzelles. They had a 2 piece waffle iron and batter and it was DIY. We made one 2-piece batch and each ate one with fruit jam as topping. I had a cup of coffee too. Then we set out. Clay had it in mind to find Bergen Segways and take a tour. We walked up the harbor and visited the fish market. I noticed the first fishcakes of the trip and somehow Clay did not. We walked on around and down to C. Sundts gate 60 where Bergen Segway says they are located. It was a vacant building without any signage. We arrived minutes before their 5:15pm should have been departing. They are clearly not there anymore, but their website seems to still be taking online bookings. We’ll just avoid them now. They had their chance with the walk down there and back for nothing. It was well out of our way. We walked back more or less the same way to get to Floyen to take the funicular up to the top of the mountain. It was 85NOK pp for a return ticket. It was pretty amazing. We saw Silver Whisper sail out. Le Boreal is docked right in front of our hotel, not that we could tell from our parking lot window. We went back down and into a Starbucks. They had a mug but it had a bust of Edvard Grieg on it. That won’t mean anything to me even with the word Bergen on it, so I didn’t buy a mug. We stopped at a needlework shop on the way back through the line of colorful old wooden buildings. We found a cross-stitch pattern with a map of Norway, so we had to buy it for Mom to make us a souvenir of the trip! It was less expensive than the Great Glen map of Scotland. I know because it was about the price 445NOK of a meal in Oslo! We wandered some more old buildings and then found a bakery selling skillingsboller, Norwegian cinnamon buns. They didn’t look to good, but we bought one to go. (It wasn’t very good. It was light and yeasty but not very sweet or very cinnamon.) We got back for our included dinner. There were a large selection of cold dishes like various salads. In hot foods, there was a creamy vegetable soup that I liked. Clay tried the traditional Norwegian fish cakes when I told him they had been at all the fish market stalls, but he didn’t care for it. He mostly ate the cold foods. There was a weird vanilla pudding/jello thing that Clay tried and told me to avoid. That was the whole day. Clay is sleeping waiting for me to get off the Internet. Evidently, only one person at a time can be logged in!