Bergen, Norway

I'm going to try to write posts as soon as I can, after the scheduled port/day. However some days just don't work out that way. This was the way it was with our first full day at Bergen. so I may forget spomething but I'm really trying not to!
We started out with our first excursions. These are our fun-to-do activities we had signed up for to do at each port. This was a looong time ago that we figured out our excursions. I started right off the bat doing my own thing (sorry Jacky). I took the "A Taste of Norwegian Farm Life" while Jacky did the "Bergen Walking Tour". He said "Why should I go visit a farm when I live on one?" Well we both had a great time and learned a lot.
My farm tour was only 10 minutes from Bergen. It was on a small patch of land that had been in the same family for 5 generations.They only had sheep, chickens, rabbits and 4 horses and we only got to see the horses and the sheep. It poured down rain the entire time which made things not so fun. The wind mainly  caused umbrellas to bend backwards, and I thought a couple of the people on the tour were going to be blown down! Wind (and rain) are such a common occurrance there that they put grass on the roofs so the wind doesn't blow the roof down. It starts with bark, then soil and then grass. You see this everywhere! When the grass gets too high, they go up and cut it, or even better, let the goats and sheep up to graze. I don't see a problem with this method.I think our chicken barn needs this!

They had 2 beautiful Norwegian Fjord horses. The gray color I have never seen before. All 4 are work horses for the farm, but sometimes are used for horse back riding in the warmer months by guests. The sheep are another Norwegian breed called spal. They remind me of our Cassiopia, whose breed I can't remember for the life of me. We didn't get to see the chickens and rabbits.

The house was built in the 1600's. It has been restored to its original condition with red paint in the dining room and green paint in the hallway. Big timbers make up the walls. It was all fascinating. The owner put on his tradional Norwegian clothes. Upon confirmation girls and boys are given their own tradional clothes. These are beautiful in design and cost in the $1000's. The people of Norway wear these special clothes on Nationalist day on May 17.

I'm sorry but I think I'll go ahead and publish this. I planned on adding a lot more pictures but the internet/blog site is soooo slow, it has been taking over an hour to upload one picture! I'll try to do better with the other posts.

The Destination Cocktail is the "Fjord!". One destination cocktail per port. This is this first one and we're going to make a study of these and see which is our favorite. It's our duty :-) The Fjord was very good! Nice one to start with.