Bergen!
Things here in the shoulder season don't open until 11 or 12, so we took a slow morning routine which was actually very nice after these past busy days. I felt like I was conscious all night, having intense lucid dreams that unfortunately I can't recall now, they seemed interesting and important. John's sounding more and more like he's coming down with something, and we're glad we'll be heading home in a couple of days. After brekkies of more smorbrod with brown cheese and salami (I never thought I could miss my boring oatmeal, but I do), we headed out through the former headmaster's garden to hang out down at the Bryggen, which is a stone's throw away from the To Sostre. We took loads of photos (I think we're at around 900 photos or so....digital is frightfully more easy to clip off than silver process film!), shopped a bit in some adorable, touristy shops and then took a cool tour of the Hakon's Hall and the exterior of the Rosenkrantz Tower.
We stopped for more polse at a little stand, John opted for the reindeer polse and I had regular, which I assume was pork, with a curious pairing of spices of nutmeg and juniper. They were delicious, and we ate them in the rain and I shared little bites of bread with some hungry wrens that twitched about our feet. We then went to the Bryggen's Museum to check out the cool-ass artifacts, trying to decipher as much Norwegian as we could since everything in the museum was in the local tongue, with a few exceptions. I love seeing the old remnants of clothing ancient peoples wore, and they had loads of leather shoes, jewelry, scraps of fabric and the like, and they also had tons of old rune amulets and amulet bags! Loved it!!
We then decided we were ready to head back to the apartment for a rest from the rain, my aching feet and John's increasingly runny nose. After some ironing and a short nap, we brewed more tea and started more ironing. I'm not sure I quite understand the absence of dryers in the Scandinavian household. It's so humid here that nothing is drying, so we've spent the better part of 2-3 hours ironing. There's enough space in there for a matching dryer, and for guests it would be much easier to wash and dry quickly because now we're worried our clothes will still be damp when we have to leave. On top of that was the discovery that my "dot" came several days early. I assumed I may need a few feminine items so I brought a few from home, but not nearly enough to get me through my second/heaviest day, plus a whole day of traveling on Wednesday when we have two freaking layovers, one in Copenhagen and one in DC. I keep reminding myself that traveling on the rag is still less torture than being knocked up, so it's a small price to pay. But still. I can't hide my annoyance at getting it early and now needing to fork out top kroner for disposables :( Sheeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Another trek out to enjoy a rainy walk around Bergen and then for a ride on the Floibanen! The Floibanen is a very, very, very steep train that goes straight up a hillside. It takes 6 minutes to reach the top, making a few stops along the way. I get a wee bit heights-wimpy, so as we came up on the tippy tops of the trees, I had to look away! John took all the pictures on this journey. At the top, you can get off and enjoy a wonderful view of the city, if it's clear. Since it's rainy and foggy, all we could see was whiteness. It almost looked like a whiteout blizzard, that's how thick the fog was! There was a cute troll at the top that looked like he was guarding the gates. There was also a souvenir shop where we got an 50 øre coin (like a penny) with an image of Bryggen smooshed into it by one of those crank machines. We try to get those wherever we go :) The trip down went much easier for me, plus we got distracted by my iPhone crashing every time I tried taking a photo. Then it was back home to make a simple dinner of pasta, pesto, tuna, fresh garlic, salt & pepper and some Solo, a popular orange drink here. We watched a little more FOTC and are now getting into bed to read and crash. Poor John sounds really crappy :( Since it's going to be rainy again tomorrow, we're planning on seeing the new Pixar movie, Brave, and taking it easy. We'll probably have to do some more ironing before we pack up. I can't believe how damp our clothes are still! We maybe should have just paid Unni Marie at the Balestrand Hotel and had her run them. Sigh.
G'night all! We'll be home Wednesday evening to see our kitties!!!!!! <3
Love & hugs, R&J
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