Today was our last day in Bergen as we join the cruise tonight so after breakfast we packed up then checked out of the hotel, leaving them with our luggage before walking round to the fish market to get on our boat as we have booked a three hour cruise to Mostraumen. The first part of the journey was the same as yesterday passing under the floating bridge. Today they actually explained why it was built this way and that is because you can’t use piles if you need to go further than 500 metres and this section is actually 600 metres, originally there was a ferry that made this crossing and it was the busiest in Norway, looking at the amount of traffic that went over the bridge I am not surprised. We also passed a Stave Church made of wood that was built in 1620 then we continued into Osterfjord and the island of Osteroy which is the largest inland island in the world. It is home to 3500 people and has a multitude of businesses focusing on trades such as carpentry and textile making. There are lots of small villages many of which are not accessible by car which has meant that a lot of people are moving out and the homes are just used as summer houses, all the same there are two hotels so if you want to stay on the worlds largest inland island you can do so! This Fjord is much more like we expected to see yesterday as it quite narrow and the sides are really steep, there are a number of small villages and loads of waterfalls making the whole journey very impressive. Towards the end of the journey is the village of Mostraumen which was once at the end of the Fjord as there was only a little stream which wasn’t passable by any vessel. There is a small village with a school and the main entrance to the school faced the Fjord as most of the children traveled to the school by boat as they lived in the little villages we had passed. In 1870 there was a big flood which caused the stream to expand, that year a steamer tried to get through but went aground but by 1907 they had dredged the channel to the current depth of 3.6 metres which is deep enough for us to get through. We went to the village of Mo which is at the very end of the fjord. Before the flood it was a 12 hour journey to get to the village, I am not sure but I think they said that the town had a prison but I may have misheard that. Each side of the town was a massive waterfall and one of them we went right up to, it is obviously a vertical drop as we went so close we could almost reach the wall and they put a bucket out on a boat hook and filled it was water from the waterfall which everyone tried. As this was the end of the line we turned round and headed back, it had taken 2 hours to get to this point but as we didn’t call in and look at anything on the way back it only took 1 hour. We got back to Bergen just after 1pm so we went round to get some lunch then finished our sightseeing in Bergen. First stop was Hakon’s Hall which we hadn’t been able to go in the other day. This is in the fort complex where Rosenkrantz tower is and was built between 1247 and 1261. It was mostly destroyed by the German ship that exploded in 1944 but has subsequently been restored. The hall was the largest and most imposing building in the royal residence built for grand occasions but from the late Middle Ages onwards Norway didn’t have a resident monarchy so it was used for storage and at some time around 1680 it became the storehouse of Bergenhus Castle. When the hall was in use there had obviously been a grand stair case that took you up to the main hall but unfortunately this is no longer there so we entered via the stables and went down to the basement which was used for storage and wasn’t as ‘polished’ as the rest of the building, they had obviously had problems levelling the floor as bits of the bedrock encroached on the floor from here we walked up to the middle floor which is now at a new level after the rebuilt and they have only put in a galaxy so that you can see the impressive vaults below, finally you walk up a modern staircase that takes you in through the entrance that would have been the original entrance into a really impressive hall. Called the Great hall for obvious reasons, it is 33m long, 13m wide and 17m high and rebuilt to the original specifications. There is a mistrals gallery and they have reconstructed the high table at the end of the hall. We walked round it then left the building but I am glad we found the time to go back to it. Our final stop was the Church of St Mary, we didn’t actually go in but we did have a look round the outside, from the front it looks like a Norman fort but more like a church from the side. We didn’t go in but we did walk round the outside then walked up to look at the houses behind it, this is the area where a number of the houses in the museum yesterday came from and the old part still looks exactly like the Museum yesterday. We wondered around the streets looking at both the steep cobbled roads and the house details then headed back to the hotel. After collecting our bags we walked round to the Hurtigruten Terminal to checkin which was very easy to do then after a quick drink and our safety briefing then the cabins were actually available earlier than we had expected so we went and had a look at our home for the next 10 days. I am so glad we upgraded as the room is lovely, we have a lounge area and a bedroom, the only downside is that it is a really small bathroom but that is not the end of the world, we did some laundry then went to the observation deck for a drink. We don’t actually leave port until 9pm but we decided to stay on board as we have seen all we wanted to in Bergen and we need to get used to the ship.
