Great day today - caught the cable car to the top of the hills surrounding Bergen and spent the morning walking through pristine Norwegian forests (with tarns). There were some interesting wooden structures which are available to camp in (FOC) for Bergen families so the children of the area can get an appreciation of nature. The town of Bergen is very appealing with old slanted wooden buildings on cobbled streets with tiny well hidden lanes. Even the local Maccas blends in, especially the drive through window! Behind the main tourist strip the weatherboard houses are very pretty and the town sits on a huge Fjord, which makes a very attractive harbour. Since I might need a jumper in the Arctic - hopefully - we visited the store of Susan Fosse in Bergens old part of town. Was lucky to meet Susan and have a chat (mainly about her labrador!). Susan takes inspiration for her designs from Norway's west coast (where we are going) and has been making hand knitted sweaters since 1990. The distinctive design is called the selburose which is based on a rose with 8 petals, but today it's a symbol of winter due to its similarity to a snowflake. (This could be a handy bit of trivia one day!). Just hoping that it gets cold enough to wear it. We worked out this morning that our trip will take us to 600 miles from the North Pole. Tomorrow will be the longest day of the year as we leave Bergen. Some more trivia is we are heading way further north then we were able to go south in Antarctica. Great to spend the day hiking in the hills with Alice & Angel and then caught up with Nick & Linda Swan for dinner - seafood of course.
Under my gallery today I have found some interesting facts about the last three countries I have visited - HOW TRUE....
What are the differences for foreigners between Sweden, Denmark, and Norway?
1. Norway is really expensive. Norwegians think Sweden is cheap, (no foreigner thinks that). Denmark is on most things slightly cheaper than Sweden.
2. Norwegians are smug about their nature and oil fund; Swedes are smug about their global companies and organised society; Danes don’t really care, they just enjoy themselves.
3. Denmark is tiny if you don’t count Greenland; Sweden is massive but no one lives in the north; Norway is in between but they’ve got the fjords, so they are happy anyway.
4. In Norway, you can buy alcohol at Vinmonopolet (wine monopoly, beer is available in regular stores); in Sweden, it’s called Systembolaget (the corporation of the system, for everything except pretty weak beer); in Denmark, you can buy it almost anywhere.
5. When Stockholm started calling itself capital of Scandinavia, Norwegians got annoyed while Danes generally ignored it.
6. Norwegians eat rotten trout; Swedes rotten herring; and Danes eat tiny sandwiches with fresh herring.
7. Norwegians buy their alcohol in Sweden; Swedes in Denmark; and Danes in Germany.
8. Norway celebrates its national day with pride; Swedes wish they did; and Danes were too drunk to remember what happened.
9. The Norwegian royal family is originally from Denmark; the Swedish is French; while the Danish is German.
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