Here There and Everywhere

British Isles: Sunny Bergen and a Delightful End

Bergen was a treat. We docked earlier than expected, and I wasn’t even awake. We ate a leisurely breakfast, a light breakfast because we were meeting up with friends at an old Bergen restaurant where we had reservations for lunch.

The trip is ending, and we are not ready. We decide to forego packing and head into Bergen (we are docked in the city) to explore a little before lunch. It is a bright sunny day, and a warm day in Bergen. It is still early, so not yet crowded as we walk into the downtown area to explore the fish market and surrounds, and take some documentary photos.

Strange experience with Starbucks restroom. Had coffee, saw signs for restrooms – through the next door empty bar, and up two flights of stairs. A man coming out held the door for me, and I found the restroom flooded and needing repair. Back downstairs, AdventureMan asked how I had gotten in when I didn’t have “the code” and I said I hadn’t needed one, and then remembered the man who had held the door open a I headed up. I had not realized there was a code, and I hadn’t needed it. Others were flummoxed at having climbed all those stairs only to realize they needed to ask for the code before heading up.

Our friends caught up with us at Starbucks and we headed over to the restaurant. There was a long line! All Chinese! They were shown upstairs. We said we had reservations and they showed us upstairs, too, where we were seated next to the large group.

We think this might be the best trip ever because of all the conversations with our good friends:

We ordered drinks and appetizers, and the group next to us was served soup, and lavish shrimp open-faced sandwiches, and then dessert, and we never saw our original waitress again. Finally we had waited politely long enough, AdventureMan stopped another waitress and asked where the rest of our meals were – it had been about 40 minutes. Evidently there had been a communication problem among the staff, but once it was brought to their attention that were waiting for the rest of our order, it showed up almost immediately.


AdventureMan had the fish soup and a huge platter of crab claws, and I had the venison in wine sauce. There was so much I needed the others to help me out. They didn’t mind – it was really delicious.

We walked slowly back to the ship. It was time to pack and we didn’t want to pack. Our suitcases had to be organized, packed, and outside in the hall for pick-up to get us to the airport early the next morning. They warn us to clean out our safes, keep aside medications, and pack travel clothes separately in our carryon bags. We laughed, but we also imagined that these are things that have caused problems in the past. Packing wasn’t that hard, and we head for one last visit to the spa.

Meeting up with our friends for dinner, we work some on the problems of the world, and then on our more immediate problems – family, travel plans, things we have to deal with in the real world.  It’s still light outside after our long (also light) dinner, so AdventureMan and I take a last walk into downtown Bergen and back to settle ourselves. We actually sleep well.

Sun setting over Bergen:

January 1, 2026 Posted by intlxpatr | British Isles Viking Jupiter, Travel | Bergen, Bryggenloft, europe, Norway, Oslo, Travel | Leave a comment