Bergen, for real this time.

Kes and I went to Bergen this weekend. Of course, the destination was picked by the rugby schedule - I didn't have a refereeing appointment this weekend, and the Trondheim club was short of players, so I jumped in with them and played a game. We won't discuss the score, but it was good to get out on the field in contact a bit.

It was our first real trip to Bergen (not counting my flying trip to have supper with Tricia.) Both Kes and I really liked Bergen. It's a great city, really, with many buildings several hundreds of years old, and lots of beautiful spaces in the downtown.

We drove down (about 6 and a half hours) on Friday night. We stayed with a member of the Bergen Rugby Club who happens to have a house only a few blocks from the waterfront downtown. The house seems like a bit of a "fixer-upper", but it's over 100 years old, so it's still really neat. With the game at 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, we wandered around town in the morning. First up was a trip up the "Fløibanen" cable car, which brings you from almost sea level up to near the top of Fløyfjellet (Fløy mountain) at 320m (a little over 1,000 feet). The view over Bergen is fantastic. Bergen has a great natural harbour, which was the reason why the Hanseatic League made it the primary trading city in Norway starting in about the 1300s. However, it is surrounded by steep hills and mountains, that form a bowl that the city sits in. Thus, the views are fantastic.

After coming back down, we wandered around Bryggen, the UNESCO world site that preserves the old market centre of Bergen. There was a food festival on, so we checked that out. There were all sorts of different items on display, with a heavy emphasis on ecological products from local farms. Then there was the game, and the post-game celebrations, but we explored again a bit on Sunday with the aquarium our primary destination. The aquarium turned out to be fantastic, almost a zoo in their tropical exhibits, including crocodiles and monkeys. We had a great time - Kes especially (easy way to make points with your marine biologist wife - take her to an aquarium).

Anyway, off to bed.

Cheers.