Monday June 6, 2016

The I woke up to the sun shining right on me. Not much darkness here at this time of year but I imagine December may be rough with not much daylight. I think the sun set officially at 10:30 and rose at 4am but it sure wasn't so dark in the middle.

Leila picked up supplies for us to have breakfast at our hostel this morning but we had a little surprise as sometimes things aren't what you think. 

We thought this was strawberry yogurt. It was in fact rice pudding with strawberry jam. It was tasty though I may start eating rice pudding for breakfast,

Although we had a full  kitchen we didn't think to check for coffee filters for the coffee pot but we were creative! We walked back into Flam as it was fairly flat road and not so tough with our suitcases.  I had a little time to shop before we loaded onto the ferry..

We sailed between Flam and Gudvangen through some amazing scenery. Past the beautiful village of Undredal and onto the Naeroyford  this arm of the Sognefjord is one of the narrowest and dramatic in Europe. The whole fjord landscape is a conservation area and is included on the UNESCO s World Heritage List. 

The next part of our journey was by bus.  This took us down the "old" highway to Voss.

STalheimskleeiva is the name of the 1.5 km stretch of road that winds its way down the mountainside from the top of STalheimskleeiva to the end of the Naeroydalen valley. Mit is one of Northern Europes steepest roads and offers incredible views if you can handle keeping your eyes open!  The steepest gradient is 1 to 5'and winds through 13 sharp hairpin bends.  We passed between two incredible waterfalls Sivlefossen waterfall and Stalheimsfossen waterfall

They have put in a new road as this one used to be part of the main route between Oslo and Bergen

We had a short wait in Voss and then caught the train into Bergen. 

Our hotel was a short walk and then another puzzle for us.  

Another unstaffed hotel. They email you a code which will unlock your lock box that contains your room key. But we hadn't received the email. There was a number to call which we eventually got through to to we believe a message manager. Luckily they called back fairly quickly and gave us our code and room number so we could get in. Another very functional room with small fridge and kettle and very comfy beds. 

We set off to explore. We were In a great location very close to the harbour, fish market and Bryggens the very old part of the harbour front in Bergen. 

We stopped for a beer and I was fascinated to see this up closer. They were renovating two of these old buildings but had a plastic cover over the front so that it didn't spoil the look from a distance.

Fish market. 

We decided this would be a good place to have a supper of fresh fish on a skewer