We recently spent a long weekend in Norway. The main reason for our trip was to hike Trolltunga, but we also spent some time road-trippin’ around the Hardangerfjord region. To reach the fjord, we flew into Bergen – Norway’s second largest city. On the last day of our trip our flight home wasn’t until around 7pm, giving us a good few hours to explore Bergen. Perhaps the most iconic view in Bergen is of the old harbour known asn Bryggen. I had seen many-a-blog post or instagram snap featuring those adorable higgle-dy-piggle-dy wooden houses. I have to say, I was surprised to see that the houses didn’t stretch along the entire harbour, but rather were nestled between more modern buildings, meaning that photos required a bit of tactical framing.
We spent a bit of time exploring the Bryggen. The first house was home to a Christmas shop that’s open ALL YEAR. Obviously this was my first stop! We spent a while looking around, and I picked up some christmas decorations for me and my family – they made such cute souvenirs! We continued to walk along the harbour and were stopped in our tracks by the sweet cinnamon-ey smell wafting from Baker Brun…. I can confirm those cinnamon buns are delicious! After topping up our blood sugar, we headed behind the harbour-front houses into the Bryggen alleyways, where we meandered in and out of gift and art shops. This area was pretty crowded, but fun to explore nonetheless.
After a little wandering, we swapped the crowds of Bryggen for the endless queue of the Mount Floyen Funicular! The queue actually moved surprisingly quickly – I think we were only waiting for around 15-20 minutes. After a short ride up the mountainside, we were greeted with stunning views over the city. We also went for a short walk around the forest, which (like on the Buerbreen glacier hike) was the most gorgeous shade of green. The forests in Norway are truly fairytale-like, with green moss carpets and knarley tree roots trailing across the floor. Dreamy.
Having made the most of Mount Floyen’s forest, we took the funicular back down the mountain. After a quick meal at Anne Madam (where I would thoroughly recommend the fish and chips and the reindeer burger – although I did have to suppress the thought that I was eating Rudolph… thus cancelling out any remaining festive cheer from my earlier Christmas shopping), we made our way back to Bergen Airport.
You can watch my video diary of our Norway trip (including our hike to Trolltunga) here:
Other posts in my Norway blog series:
Where Kimmy Went 
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