Bergen mountain hike

Setting out from Ulriskbanen - Bergen below

Bergen residents take to the mountains instead of the shops on a Saturday, as we discovered on our walk from the Ulriskbanen cable car across to Floyen and the Floibanen funicular.

Lonely Planet suggested this was a well worn trail and a relatively cruisy three hour walk. Not so much, more like a four and a half hour hike of rugged terrain, which we weren't that well kitted out for - in jeans and shorts, trainers and a sandwich and a chocolate bar between us.

The coltish Norwegians were decked out in their stylish and practical Berghaus and Craft outdoor gear, and were kindly and embarrassingly concerned about me after I took a tumble on a rock following my shock at the Wallabies loss to Ireland, and in the process exposing a fair bit of shin-skin and blood...

Small adventure aside it was a breathtaking hike and it was awesome.

I was amazed that people could mountain bike this terrain! It was also dotted with little overnight huts and it has a lit cross country ski trail for winter, and there were families and little kids doing at least a little bit of the hike. Every city should have a handy mountain up above it for a stimulating Saturday walk....

Norway in a Nutshell

Oslo to Bergen train via the historic Flam railway and a trip through the majestic fjords. Potentially one of the most beautiful one day journeys in the world...

The whole day was scenery on another level and there's no way my photos capture the purity and grand scale of some of these sights.

One of the teeny villages dotted throughout the fjords

Super cute village

Lashings of waterfall

Out and about in Oslo

The angry baby was one of the most popular statues at Vigeland Park - see his little bronze hand where people have rubbed him for luck

Oslo was the starting point for our Norway in a Nutshell trip. We had a fun night with Laura, Henning and their American guests and the next night Laura cooked us a yummy dinner at their apartment.

Yes people Norway is super expensive - 9GBP for a good beer and 20GBP for a burrito but you go there you just have to suck it up - and eat at bakeries a lot of the time. They do good bread in Scandinavia, great bread, in fact. With jam in little paper cups covered in hearts. Cute.

We just explored - Vigeland Park with its hundreds of statues capturing all the human emotions was fascinating. The viking museum was also interesting and as always just wandering the streets, catching public transport gives you a good feel for the people going about their day to day business.

The neighbourhoods were sweet, the city a bit gritty in parts - I won't labour the fact that I interrupted someone scoping out our hostel room. I've never flown off a bunk bed so fast in my life.

We saw some flowers and memorials left to commemorate the tragic events that Norway has recently suffered. It felt like a very multicultural, family oriented place and somewhere maybe where people spend their working week before they can escape to the great outdoors with their beautiful pines and mirrored lakes.

Vigeland Park

The Opera House - completed early, under budget and won the culture award at the World Architecture Festival.

Taking five minutes to finish reading Mister Pip in Vigeland Park.

More interesting people at Vigeland Park

Oslo streetscene

Weekend walking club

We got a crew together for a scenic ramble through Surrey - Bulli, Gareth, Lisa B, Jane, Lisa F and I assembled at CJ station and ventured out to Milford. We rambled 17kms through green Surrey hills and fields and forests. Did the mandatory pub lunch stop and continued on to Godalming. There was not so much energy over the post-ramble cider but we were all feeling very satisfied with ourselves that it was a day well spent.

Bulli on the ramble

Ben and Ara's

Great weekend in Loughton, Essex a couple of weeks ago staying with Ben and Ara and their super dog Manu. They're the most fabulous hosts and it was like being at a B&B except with your friends as hosts. Ara cooked an amazing meal inspired by their trip to Boston and the East Coast - I didn't know UK seafood could be so good : ) We had a great walk around Epping Forest with Ben and Manu and it was just all round relaxing and fun. And of course after 7.5 years of not having a dining room or kitchen table the simple pleasure of just sitting down to a home cooked meal rather than lap-balancing is wonderful.

Ara made a delicious berry pavlova in tribute to us antipodeans...