bergen, norway

We spent a long weekend in Norway, using Bergen as a home base, and taking the train from there to explore the Norwegian fjords.

Bergen! Known as the Seattle / Pacific Northwest of Scandinavia. (← A sentence I just made up.) This was our first time to Norway or any Scandinavian country.  I have been a fan of the culture + design for quite a while.

We bused it from the airport and strolled our not-even-crawling-yet Simone (the good ol' days) to our Airbnb apartment. The strikingly handsome owner of the apartment was packing up for a water skiing weekend at the cabin with his brahs.  (It was going to be in the 70-80's F and sunny for the next several days, a rarity, so the locals were acting like it was Christmas morning.  We bonded with him over his American rock vinyl collection and pointed out a Wilco playbill on the wall - Wolftrap, Vienna, Virginia.  "Omg, were you at that show?!" "Uhhh, no, I like Wilco and bought it on the internet." We explained to him that we were at that very show, and are in fact from Virginia.  Handsome Norwegian was not as impressed with this coincidence as I was. He proceeded to tell us how to work the washing machine and to eat anything in the fridge while I was still obsessing over ... Wilco! Wolftrap! Huh ... what a small world.

That evening we wandered down to the port and then took the funicular up to see the vista views over the city and hang out before dinner.

Norway is a notoriously expensive country to visit.  For meals, we often picnicked with grocery store items and beer. Bergen has an amazing fish market - fresh smoked salmon, salmon rolls, fish soup, crab legs, clams. Everything we sampled was amazing.  We loved to grab take-away food from the market and head to a park with our grocery store brews in tow.

The first night there we decided to ($$$ against our original plan $$$) plant ourselves at a microbrew bar in the old town and enjoy multiple drinks while we people watched and watch the sun set.  We started noticing an abnormally high amount of metal t-shirts on almost every person around the old town. Come to find out Metallica were in town that night, playing an outdoor venue in the fort ruins, just several hundred yards down the hill from our flat.  We fell asleep to the sweet calming drums of Lars Ulrich that night.

Below is a round up of the few lazy days we spent in Bergen.  Overload of Simone photos, so little! Fjords post / photos up next.

amsterdam

Last spring, some Virginia Beach friends of ours, Nick and Tami, were taking their first Euro holiday with their new baby girl.  Simone is only a few months younger than their little one.  We had loved travelling with Nick and Tami PC (pre-children) so of course we were stoked to meet them on one of the legs of their Euro tour, AMSTERDAM.  We all knew this would not be the Amsterdam trips of thee ol' days of yore.  But with a 7 month old and 5 month old, we were getting pretty good at not letting the little rascals hold us back travel-wise.

We rented an Airbnb flat in the heart of the posh and busy Jordaan neighborhood.  Massive windows that looked out onto the canals where we could perch and still feel part of the nightlight even with babies down for the night.  Our Airbnb host owned the famous Café Papeneiland, a beautiful and cozy brown bar a few doors down from us.  He delivered their famous apple (pie) cake with fresh cream to us upon request - when tourists and locals schlepped across the city for it.

We didn't set lofty goals like wait hours in line for the Anne Frank house, or visit the Van Gogh Museum, or endure The Heineken experience (done it).  Instead, due to the four us of having a common love for good, strong (read: Belgium) beer, we had a few bars on our must see list.  Other than that we enjoyed walking the neighborhoods, taking in the culture, and dodging the bikes.

The Dutch and their bikes amaze me.  The cluster of littles riding in the front buckets of Mummy or Daddy's bikes being taken to school or nursery.  The sweet boyfriend holding an umbrella over his girlfriend's head as they fly down the cobblestone streets on their respective bikes, meanwhile she is dressed to the nines, heels and all.  I kept asking, "HOW do they do it? Ride with such grace and ease." Marco always followed with, "They have done it their whole life."  I put Amsterdam in a category with Paris and Rome.  To me, they are three of the best people watching cities in Europe.

It's not just a postcard city full of canals, pretty buildings, and "coffee shops."  A must must visit full of (tall) friendly people with refreshing outlooks on life.  Oh and they don't do curtains and leave their front doors wide open when they are home, a strange sight to see in city living - and a great way to see a snippet into their culture and daily life for a peeping Tom outsider like me.

Some photos.  Look at the babies!