June 22-23, 2017 – Trip to Bergen, Norway

The day of our 45th anniversary trip is finally here. I am so excited for this trip. It should be relaxing, interesting, and fun. Sarah drives us to the airport for our civilized 2PM flight. In 14+ hours we will be in Bergen, Norway!

After a breezy sail-through security we are ensconced in the KLM lounge. It’s not a great lounge but we have a chance to sit comfortably and have a lunch snack.

John at the airport lounge

The plane is a 747-400 and we are on the lower floor in the nose of the plane. It is a small business section so we won’t have to battle for bathrooms. After we take off the crew waits just long enough to serve lunch that we eat trying to keep our food from flying off our trays due to a lot of turbulence. The first course, cauliflower soup, is quite good and comes with adorable Dutch clogs salt and pepper. The main course, beef curry, is very sweet and really not edible in my book.

Nuts in cute delft bowls and wine on the plane
Cauliflower soup, a saucer of olive oil (?), salad, and adorable red salt and pepper shakers

The flight is around 10 hours and I sleep a little. John seems not to sleep at all. Our layover in Amsterdam is about 2 1/2 hours which we spend waiting in line for our passports to be checked, hiking to the B terminal where short flights depart from and is very far away from where we have landed, and sitting in uncomfortable chairs waiting for the next flight.

Taking off from cloudy Amsterdam

I am not a fan of this little plane. The seats are tiny even in business class and we are wedged in like sardines. For comic relief we are served club sandwiches on popsicle sticks for lunch. I should have taken a picture but it was too difficult to maneuver to get my camera. We are really tired now and I keep dropping in and out of sleep. But it is only an interminable hour and a half and we are in Bergen!

Approaching landing in cloudy and rainy Bergen

Riding in the taxi, Bergen seems much bigger than I thought. It has over 200,000 people and is half city with apartment buildings and commercial establishments and half charming houses perched on hillsides. We get to the Radisson Blu where we will spend two nights before the cruise. We nap and shower. We are really tired out.

Dinner is at the hotel restaurant, 26 North, and has gotten good reviews. Our first courses, pictured below, are very good. The main course, a sampler of first courses called a board is less so.

Delicous bread and butter at 26 North
John’s first course is mussel soup which he rates among the finest/
My beautiful beet salad
We both have the sampler “Board” consisting of crab spring rolls, fried cod, and ham on waffles. Wish it had been better.

Finally it is time to sleep again. It does not matter whether the sky is still light out at 10 PM we are exhausted from our trip and go to sleep immediately. (Only to wake up at 2 AM giving me a chance to type this.)

Bright, cloudy sky at 10 PM

 

 

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