Day Two In Bergen 1 July 2013

Despite the fact my room was very warm I had a reasonable nights sleep,  unfortunately the weather had changed and it was damp outside. Had a refreshing shower got dressed and went down for breakfast.  There was quite a variety of food so tried various combinations,  I wanted another piece of bread so left the table when I came back everything was gone, at first I thought I had gone to the wrong table but no, even the full cup of coffee was gone, so I had to start again, I did consider mentioning it but in the end decided just to finish my meal.

I had found the art museum yesterday but it was closed, I had also decided to look at the aquarium, because it was dull I felt looking at things indoors was a good idea. I read about the Bergen Card which for one payment gave free transport, plus discounts at various venues,  just then the hevens opened, just as well I had my new waterproof coat with me.

I went looking for the tourist office to buy the card then to go to the aquarium, I dont know if it was the rain or what but I just could not find it until I asked a kind local, for some reason I had decided it was an old building whereas it was ultra modern, no wonder I could not find it.

I explained what I was trying to do to the young woman who served me, she sold me the card and gave instructions how to find the bus stop I needed, I was pleased that this time I got it right, so patiently waited and waited, after over half hour the bus arrived, err umm no it was going the other direction,  so I crossed over only to find it was an hourly service and I would have to wait another three quarters of an hour. I decided instead to leave for now and go to the Kode art museum instead as I knew the way.

The museum was in four seperate modern buildings, the exhibits I wanted to see were in 3 and 4, I  went into number 3 first, I was unsure if I was allowed to use my camera so left in locker with my backpack,  I later noticed others using theirs, but did not wish to go back at this point, the main artist featured in this was Munch I did not understand much of his work, preferring that of Dahl and my new favourite Astrup but there were only a few exhibits of his.

I then moved on to number 4 this time remembering my camera,  which was just as well as there was much more of Astrups work, there were others whose paintings I also I enjoyed looking at but did not understand most of the more modern works.

It was whilst I was at the museum that I was reminded of the fact that this element of my holiday was the first when I fid not have regular company, to chat to and discuss what experiences I was having, in fact I felt a little lonely, maybe it will be a good idea in the future to find regular travelling companions to share future holidays with.

When left it was still raining quite hard and I was hungry, so looked for somewhere to eat, well when its like that, why not fall back on an old standby and there was McDonald's, but what a different sort of building to usual,

,  so had a meal and drink there, intending to go on to aquarium,  unfortunately the rest had not helped my motivation,  so went back to the hotel to dry off have a shower and a rest.

on the way came across the lake in the centre

Watched some tv then chatted to son on Skype for a while, isent it clever how we can do this, he told me grand daughter has a job, she has been trying for some considerable time so was very pleased for her, he is off to Sweden soon working, so gave advice about how to save money with cost of living being so much higher.

For my evening meal had a couple of sandwiches followed by another giant piece of carrot cake, because I could do, LOL,  went down to bar had a drink of coffee and wrote up blog for today in rough but also spent some time doing another post on here then off to bed watched tv for a while.

A more cultural day 28 June

Believe it or not this is my second attempt at what was quite a long blog, that suddenly disappeared when I went to save it, so as cannot sleep at 3 30 in the morning will try again.

Late start, first breakfast and conversation then as Jean was going out so Mykle and I went on a pleasant walk to look at the Nicolai Astrup museum not far away at Astruptunet,not being a great follower of art I had not come across this artist before

  It seems he is a famous Norwegian painter who moved to the area when quite young, married had children and used the setting of mountains lakes and the general scenery from his studio for inspiration,  as his income Improved so he moved from house to house next to each other, all now preserved. His homes were so basic compared to those today. We had a young guide explain about his life and paintings, that went from landscapes of the area to

portraits,  plus some more complex subjects, the guide also gave background to his home and family, I have never been that interested in any particular artist but, I found some of his paintings very attractive to look at, also to see the houses preserved and odd little things like the roof was covered in vegetation that turned out to be bark from trees which it seems is a very good strong resilient way to protect the roof of a house, also I found with my bad back that the doorways into the houses were quite low, my presumption was that this was because Norwegians were small, the guide explained in actual fact it was done this way so that anyone attempting to get in and attack had to bend down very low so then gave the owner a good chance of hitting them over the head with a weapon, it just goes to show there is a good reason for everything.

It had been raining unlike previous days so it was as well we had umbrellas to protect us on our walk back, when we arrived so had Jean so we had something to eat, whilst eating, there was another visitor to the bird feeder, namely Cyril the squirrel,  he was a red one, I had only ever seen one before, but it seems they are common in the area, he set to eating some of the food Jean had put out, so I took a series of photos of him.

As Mykles computer was still not working spent some time trying to resolve, but was unsuccessful even with the assistance of fivety plus forums kind assistance, and that of my computer expert back home via e mail.

During my time here I had not watched or missed the tv but tonight there was a programme 50 years of Richard Attenborough, the others wanted to watch so we did, it was funny to see how he had aged from a young man and how technology had progressed over the years to enable them to observe and record more detail of the life and environment of animals both during the day and night.

Mykle and Jean then showed me photos that charted their progress from the original plot to their present home, it must of taken so much desire, determination, planning, skill and physical effort to of achieved such a fantastic home in this sort of setting, where the elements conspired against them.

It was late so I went to bed but could not sleep, so decided to read a little of one of my e books, More William by Richmal Crompton,  whose books I had read when young, I had not realized until starting this book how long ago it had been written,  in fact it was 1922 a very differt world to the one we live in, the book though was still an enjoyable finish to the day.