Bryggen (almost) without tourists

Waking through the old hanseatic part of Bergen, Bryggen is very atmospheric with lots of old houses all packed together (the area burnt down multiple times so most of this actually was reconstructed after the latest fire in the 1950s).

I've visited Bergen a lot and I think this is the quietest I've ever seen it- there are very few tourists and most of them are Danish (or from southern Norway). It's maybe one of those things that we need to learn from COVID19, how pleasant our cities are without thousands of tourists, learning how to manage them better without taking the economic hit is of course another question!


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A super early start but a beautiful blue sky morning to take the ferry. A was fine in the bus and we were on the boat very smoothly. A quick breakfast in brown bags from the hotel on deck and then we found a cosy spot inside to watch the passing scenery - it really is a spectacular coastline. Islands, small towns, forest and rock with sandy beaches occasionally visible. The ferry passed surprisingly close to shore in some places, the water must deepen very suddenly along the way. The ferry itself ran on LNG - and was probably the fastest non-hydrofoil I've ever taken. Very impressive, and when power to X becomes a reality it should be a quick and easy conversion to sustainable hydrogen. Maybe the clean, green future is already here?

A wander around Bergen after settling in to our friends house and some spectacularly good fish (Norwegian lobster and monkfish) courtesy the local fish market and prepared by our kind host (who also supplied some very good wine, given we had forgotten to visit vinmonopolet the day before..) and warm conversation long into the light light night.
It's the kind of life-affirming day that holidays are all about...