Visit of Bergen

Nice visit of Bergen, although it rains a lot in Bergen! We were able to walk all the way to the top of the funicular area. Meandered through streets with nice old houses. Love the different color paints. The view from up there was great. Visited Bryggen along the water, which is a Unesco Heritage site. Beautiful old houses. Were able to do it in absence of tourists relatively late at night. It was worth it. Museums were closed on Monday, so we could not see them. Will do when we pass by Bergen before flying to Bodo to go to the Lofoten Islands (July 21).

One highlight in Bergen: the final of Euro soccer Portugal against France. It was projected on a large screen somewhere in the city. We went with a US student couple from Los Angeles. They were renting a room in the same apartment as us (Airbnb of course!). Nice apartment by the way, near the port and great host Daniel. Back to the soccer game. We were not the first to arrive there, so no more seats under the tents. We sat at a table "not rain proof". The game started…great actions from the French but no goals. Then suddenly it started to rain like cats and dogs. Really serious rain. We just had time to go towards the tents, had to stand in the back to not obstruct the view for others. Boy, Norwegians drink beer! It was Sunday evening but no one seemed to worry about tomorrow (work day). Of course, we did not either :)) The game was quite good, animated. Clearly there was the crowd cheering for Portugal and the crowd cheering for France, nicely separated. We ended up (by lack of awareness only) to be among the crowd cheering for Portugal. They instantly figured out I was routing for France and they were nice about it. A young guy shook my hand and told me he was from Italy and he did not mind if France would win. That was cute. The French lost and I shook hand at the end of the game with my Italian friend. Good game we both admitted. The French should have won….but they did not. Just like the Germans should have won the previous game….but they did not. Nice atmosphere, excellent behavior from everyone, we were really happy with our evening spent with Norwegians and a few other foreigners. 

It is actually worth noting that rain is not a real bother here. It is part of life. We look at weather reports…no rain or rain tomorrow. Well, the report changes all the time which makes Glenn really happy. He loves to check weather reports, so now he has a real reason to do it 5 times a day. In California, it is a little harder to justify :)) It rarely rains the whole day, so we just need to pay more attention to the weather predictions before getting out, especially when we go hiking for several hours. Moreover, we are not made of sugar, so we just open our umbrella and fun life continues.