Fløyen

The YMCA proved to have been a good choice, the room was compact but pleasantly furnished with IKEA products (much the same as my own). We also fortunate enough to have a large Velux window. This provided us our first encounter with the early sun rises and thick curtains that my friend Ann had warned me about. As we cracked open the blind the jump from near total darkness to intense morning rays that streamed in caused me to feel a sudden kinship with Dracula. The shower was unfortunately a little temperamental; trust us, you don’t want to be showering in unheated water in a town whose water flows directly down from the snow-capped hills that surround it.

By far the best aspect of the place though was the pleasing beep-boop that the electronic locks made whenever a card was inserted. (video link to follow). We grabbed a quick breakfast, of the food we had purchased the previous evening and then headed out.

We decided first to climb the hills that surround the older part of town. As we got higher and higher, towards the last of the buildings, we speculated as to where the funicular rail station; as it seemed to us that it would have been positioned further down. It later turned out that we had walked straight past it (not recognising it because the line begins in a long tunnel bored through the rock). As we made our further way up, we passed locals orienteering, running and briskly walking up the steep gradients; one could definitely get fit living in a place like this. The air was cool and clear; any hint of urban air pollution banished to the bottom of the valley, now quite a way below us.

The streams that flow down supply the town with water; signs warn travellers not to do anything to pollute the source, which is only lightly treated. We speculated as to whether the watercourses were steep streams or waterfalls; we concluded that it was probably a series of waterfalls interconnected by short streams, but that we should refer the matter to Ordinance Survey upon our return home.

A 90degree bend on steep set of steps had us reminiscing over past misadventures; we re-enacted the infamous “don’t follow my line” warning and the crash that immediately followed it. Chris observed that my performance lacked a certain authenticity because I didn’t smash my camera as I went; I pointed out that if I were to go for authenticity I should have to smash /his/ camera. Further up we encountered a man riding a hard tailed mountain bikes; clearly a gentleman with much faith in his brakes.

The views over the town as we climbed were lovely, though they didn’t blow us away. Though the way the path had been hewn from rock, and was edged with weathered railings was fairly impressive in its self (though worryingly the occasional iron stub protruding from the ground suggested that some of the barriers had failed). At the top of the climb we saw a man, somewhat advanced in years, storming up the hill with two lekki poles. As he crested the hill he looked at his watch, from his reaction it didn’t seem to be a personal best, and he carried briskly on down the hill with barely a break in step; it seems that life in Bergen can be quite kind to a person.

At the top of the hill, some 320 meters above the harbour, is a large viewing plafrom. It is well architected, with the ramps that provide accessibility also creating pleasing lines down the steps and tiers of seating. We sat for a while and ate nature valley bars whilst we took in the view.

With no small sense of irony, having walked up the what is by definition a mountain to get here, we decided to take the Fløibanen Funicular back down to the city centre. The station was equipped with modern self service ticket machines, matrix displays indicating the time of the next departures (including whether they would stop at intermediate stations) and very modern automatic ticket barriers (using barcodes, which seems to be the prevalent ticket reading technology here in Norway as opposed to the magnetic ink favoured in Britain). The railway cars themselves were also extremely modern. This all seemed somewhat out of place at what is principally a tourist attraction (as we had seen the locals seem quite happy to run up the mountain). The cool efficiency, and concrete and metal of the station evoked commuter travel, more than tourist hot-spot.Read more