Bergen to Balestrand

Definitely feels like the second leg of my journey now. The west coast of Norway is absolutely stunning so far. It was an 8am train, but was delayed about 40min. as I stood in the middle of the platform amongst a sea of Japanese tourists. The train journey was stunning during the last 2-3 hours before arriving in Bergen early afternoon. Sun came out, very unusual. Booked into the YMCA which is conveniently located around the corner from the tourist information centre.
Asked a 30-something man behind the desk where he goes to eat. Pointed me in the direction of the student area, a place called Cafe Opera. Nice and comfy place to get familiar with the pace of life in Bergen. Food was pretty good and not too expensive. Ended up sitting alone at a small table reading my rough guide and was joined by an American woman and another woman from New Zealand. It was nice to have their company and share travel stories.

I met Solveg on my second day in Bergen to pass a bag of long green beans from Linda's vegetable garden in Oslo. We ended up having a lovely lunch at a local organic cafe which was perfect as it started to rain quite heavily and didn't stop until the next morning. Solveg insisted on taking me on a car sightseeing journey to see a Stave church that they recently built just outside of the city centre. An arsenist had burned down the building a few years ago and the authorities decided to rebuild it from scratch using old survey drawings. The construction and details are true to the original design but they have added a new feature - a sprinkler system, cleverly hidden so as not to compromise the interior aesthetics.

For the size of Bergen. 250,000 population, there are an abundance of museums. The contemporary art scene is quite vibrant. I met a couchsurfer contact at the cafe of a gallery/arts venue called Landmark near the small "lake" with park that situated in the middle of the city. Annette brought her friend Camilla and they were a wealth of information. They walked up to the top of Mount Fløyen, a great vantage point with views across Bergen and it's surroundings. I was exhausted after a day of walking the city, so took the funicular railway and waited for them at the top while I took in the views and had an ice cream! When we met on the plateau-summit they give me the whistle stop tour of Bergen by pointing out different landmarks - very clever, less time and less walking! We ended up walking back down the hill to Annette's place where she made dinner for Camilla and I. Lovely conversation and we listened to some of their favourite Norwegian rock bands. Note to self, check out bands called Data Rock, Kings of Convenience, Casio Kids and Jon Olav Nilsen & Gjengen.

Got up early this morning and took an 8am, very scenic ferry journey to Balestrand in the middle of the Sognefjord. The sun was out and managed to take some amazing shots of the fjords. I was picked up at the ferry dock by the hotel manager of the Balestrand Hotel in her green Volvo station wagon and driven to the hotel. My room has a small balcony and the photo shows the view I had. The high season just ended here in Balestrand which means there are two grocery stores, a gift shop and a tourist information centre open today in the "town". I've been advised to dine at the posh hotel restaurant this evening and the buffet has been highly recommended.

Tomorrow I will do an excursion to see the Glacier Museum designed by Sverre Fehn, then on to Alesund by bus.