Bergen, Norway

On Saturday, we arrived at the city of Bergen, Norway. Bergen is Norway's second largest city with a population of 270,000. It is Norway's second most important oil city after Stavanger. We were told that it rains a lot in Bergen, and that, in fact, it is the rainiest European city, with rain occurring on 260 days a year. However, we were in luck today, with total sunshine.

We were originally scheduled to tour the city, but the World Bicycling Championships are taking place currently in Bergen, so many roads were closed off. The World Bicycling Championship are held in different places around the world; they've been held in Australia, and in Qatar. Next year they will be in Copenhagen. But this year, it is in Bergen - at the same time that we're here. So Viking changed the itinerary to a "Bergen by Boat" excursion, so we started the day by boarding a boat and traveling up and down the waterways of Bergen. It's always interesting to get a view from the water of any city.

In addition to seeing the sights of Bergen from the water, we also learned a little about the culture and history of Norway. Norway used to be part of Sweden and also used to be part of Denmark. When Norway gained its independence in 1905, the people decided that they wanted a constitutional monarchy type of government. There was just one problem - they did not have a royal family. So who, then, would be king? The head of government was given the task of finding a king for Norway, so he asked one of the Danish princes (not the one in line of succession for the Danish crown, of course) if he would become King of Norway. He gladly accepted, and so Norway's first king was actually Danish. His name was Haakon VII. His son Olav V succeeded him, and Olav's son Harald V is the Norwegian king today. With only the third generation, Norway's monarchy is the youngest in Europe.

The people of Norway love to ski in the winter and hike in the summer. They particularly like mountain hiking, and the mountains here that surround the fjords are very tall. Our tour guide, Christina, who is actually from Germany, said that she struggles to keep up with the locals. They hike up the mountains very easily, and one man even made it to the top so fast, that his time was better than that of mountain goats. Our guide told us that after women give birth, they are back climbing the mountains with strollers shortly after, and families climb together with the small children not being carried, but hiking right along side their parents. Christina told us that Norway has one of the longest life expectancies in the world, possibly because of all the mountain hiking that they engage in.

After the boat tour was over, we walked around the town of Bergen. We walked to the city center, spent some time around the harbor, and did some shopping. It is a very beautiful city, and was bustling this morning, with the bicycling event taking place. The race wasn't actually taking place today, but the course was being used for the bicyclists to practice and familiarize themselves with the course. So we watched as groups of bicyclists from different countries sped by on the course, preparing for tomorrow's race.

Tomorrow starts our grueling 21 hour trip home. We are mostly dreading having to go through the Reykjavik airport again. We'll let you know how that goes!