Bergen

...or as Nikki has christened it, Brrrrrgen. So cold, it gave me the first chance to wear my snood since giving it a test run back in August.

10.30 saw us assembled on the dock, gathered around our tour (and Astronomy group) leader Eva for a walk through her home town to the Fløibanen Funicular to see the panoramic views of the city from the top of Mount Fløyen.

This is one of the alleged seven mountains of Bergen. Alleged because Eva informed us Bergen actually only has five mountains, but some ancient King visited Rome in the distant past and was so impressed with the idea of its seven hills, he decided Bergen should have seven mountains.

On his return, he decreed that two of the existing mountains should each be given a second name, making seven in all.  That's kings for you, I guess.

It was pretty cold and blowy atop Mount Fløyen, so we stuck around long enough to take a few shots of those views (if you look closely in this one you can just make out our ship moored right at the end of the pier) before abandoning our tour group and returning to the relative warmth of street level, where it was a cosy -1°C.

We made our way back to the ship via Bryggen, which has a famous row of shops that have remained unchanged since the 12th century. I say unchanged, they have actually burned down 12 times since they were first built, but each time they are rebuilt as exact replicas of the originals. How cool is that?

The first of the shops, Julehuset, is filled with Christmas gifts, decorations, and ornaments all year round.

Nikki was on a mission to find some Norwegian wool, but the cold (and the fact that by that time we'd had more than enough walking for one day thank you very much) conspired to curtail our ambulatory activities in a very short time.

But not before we had encountered this quirky example of how even the doors of the buildings have been constructed to match the originals. Such attention to detail is most impressive  :o)