Dashing Thru the Down Pour

Feeling refreshed after a restful night, we decided to take a stroll through town and figure out what to do along the way. Our hopes were to take the Floibanen Funicular (tram up a mountain side) to the top of the local mountain and have a nice view of Bergen's city center. However, Mother Nature had other plans for us as the rain was going strong and the clouds socked in any hopes for a good view of town. Later we learned that the rain is typical here in Bergen where it rains 300 days a year.

We decided the rain gave us a good reason to take the local tram and see the surrounding neighborhoods of the Bergen district. On the way to the tram we passed by this lovely park where Jennifer and Henry decided to pose for a picture but were obviously distracted by some of the locals passing by (oh... did we mention yet that nearly all the locals look like Henry with blue eyes and blonde hair?).

Once aboard the tram, we stumbled across the ideal spot for our next point of interest, the home of Norway's most famous composer, Edvard Grieg.

Once we reached the town of Hop, we hopped off the tram and walked about 20 minutes to Troldhaugen, Greig's summer home where he spent the last 22 years of his life.

As you can see from the following pictures, there was good reason for Grieg to retire in this picturesque "hill of trolls" (the literal translation of Troldhaugen).

After our wet and hilly walk to the estate, we stopped in a cafe for a quick drink and chance to dry off before bearing the elements once again. It seemed like wherever we went on the grounds, there was an incredible view of lush green hillsides running into the ocean with little islands scattering the sea.

Edvard's estate was built in 1885 and was nice but not overly extravagant. Our friendly Norwegian guide led us through the house sharing lots of stories and tid-bits about Edvard's life. One of the more interesting things about Mr. Grieg and his home is that all the furniture was custom made to suit his tiny stature of less than 5'.

Here Jennifer is posing in front of the massive fjord that the Grieg residence had a perfect view of from the home's windows.

Although Edvard's home was very quaint and provided plenty of peace and quiet for him to compose his music, the musician had a hut built along the waterfront where he preferred to escape and compose music in his later year's of life. I don't know about you, but with views like this I could also be inspired to write some incredible scores or on the flip side get nothing done due Mother Nature's disctractions.

After checking out the "hut" we decided we better race back to the tram as the rain really started coming down and we were getting quite wet and having a heck of a time trying to keep the three of us dry under a single umbrella.

On the way out we stopped to snap a quick shot of the fam with the great Edvard Grieg. According to our tour guide, Americans all say he looks like Mark Twain and the Germans say he looks like Albert Einstein... we couldn't agree more and actually thought the same before she told us about her observation.

While most of the mile walk back to the tram was a scurry trying to avoid puddles and keep dry, we couldn't pass up taking a picture along this picturesque creek where the weather slowed up for us for a minute or two.

Even as damp as he was, Henry was game for some play time with daddy during the 25 minute tram ride back to Bergen's City Centre.

After blow drying our clothes, rescuing some of the wet items in our backpack, and putting on a dry pair of socks, we headed back out to cram in a few more sights as we will be leaving Bergen early tomorrow morning. Stop one was Johanneskirken, translated to St. John's Church. Unfortunately the Bergen philharmonic was setting up for a concert, which limited us to only being able walk around the church and enjoy the nice views back toward the town center

We then strolled through town once again appreciating some of the sites from yesterday and discovering some new spots with beautiful architecture and fun local shops.

As you can see, Henry had seen enough of the town and was ready for a bite to eat and to find some more girls to continue flirting with.

We found the perfect spot to both fill our bellies and fulfill Henry's desire to talk to girls.

Here's Henry getting along quite well with a flight attendent from Holland who fell for his tactics and couldn't refuse the jibberish lines he was spouting off demanding that she give him a tight squeeze and kiss on the cheeks. Mom was happy for the relief as the two of us enjoyed a real nice last meal in Bergen.