Welcome to Bergen, Norway

Are we in Bergen? Yes, we are. Though it was funny to see the ‘big letters’ near the airport with a question mark following the name of the city!

Following our uneventful flight, LH874 was on the ground by 4:30p. Again, being a Schengen-to-Schengen flight, there were no formalities required to enter Norway … even for us as US-passport holders.

There are three ways to get to the city from BGO … light rail, flybussen, or Uber/taxi … from the least expensive to the most expensive … from the longest ride time to the shortest.

We opted for the light rail … the trains leave from the airport … there are easy-to-follow signs directing arriving passengers to the station.

Mui had already downloaded and set up the Skyss app, but we had not pre-purchased our tickets since we weren’t sure of our timing. Thus, we skipped the train that was already at the station when we stepped off the escalators, and used the 8 minutes between trains to buy our tickets for the 5:00p departure … using ApplePay to complete the purchase.

The ride was smooth … easy peasy. Mui said that we’d be getting off at the 24th station … 52 minutes later at the Nonneseter stop … not far from the apartment we booked for our four-night stay in Bergen.

AI had suggested that the 5-minute walk from the light rail stop to the apartment was flat. It was … except for a tiny bit of incline at one point at the start of the walk … nothing that we could not manage, even with luggage in tow. What AI did not mention, however, was that the street was cobblestone. No worries … it was just a ‘noisy’ walk as the wheels bumpity-bumped over the pavement.

We’re in a modern apartment building in what is mostly a cute, older neighborhood. At least that was our impression during the short walk. We’ll verify that when we go out to explore.

The apartment is on the 6th (top) floor with an amazing terrace … with city views. Lots of floor-to-ceiling windows and doors makes the place feel light and airy … even on an overcast, rainy evening. The decor is streamlined Scandinavian … think IKEA. Oh wait, the furnishings are from IKEA 😄. And the cleaning crew did their job well. No complaints.

After checking out the kitchen amenities, we went out to shop for groceries for our self-catered meals. There is a Coop within 2-minutes of the apartment … very convenient and had pretty much everything we were looking for.

The rain, forecasted to start around 6:00p, held off until we were back at the apartment. The light drizzle that was falling on the walk back from Coop is now coming down in earnest. I am enjoying the pitter patter of the rain on the terrace.

The forecast for Bergen this week is rain, rain, and more rain … we don’t really mind, though I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the wet stuff will give us enough of a break to enjoy the terrace for at least a couple of hours over the next few days.

Oh, by the way. It was 61F (16C) when we arrived in Bergen. That compares to 91F (33C) in Bologna at about the same time yesterday. So, for now at least, we’ve found the cooler temps that brought us up north.Read more