July 12, Bergen

My day started at 4:30am, darn time change, so I decided to go to the gym. Thank goodness today is an easy day with a 3 hour walking tour of Bergen, and then a Swedish massage, ahhhh. Bergen is a very scenic harbor that gets an average of 80 inches of rain annually. Luckily it didn't rain during our walk, it was pleasantly mild. In 1070 this Viking settlement dominated trade in the Baltic. A 5 minute walk from our ship is the historic Bryggen Wharf, with brightly colored wooden buildings and  local fisketorget (fish market). Bergen is protected from the open sea by a lone island making it a safe harbor for the giant working boats that serve the North Sea oil rigs. Today much of Norway's affluence is funded by the oil it drills offshore. Bergen is the gateway to the fjords. We start the journey at 6:00pm tonight.