Ulriken via Oppstemten

The thing about Bergen is that it's usually rainy...or, at least the week we were there it was usually rainy. A quick search revealed that Bergen gets rain about two out of every three days. This is mainly due to the fact that it sits on the ocean and is surrounded by seven mountains:

"Ulriken is the highest of the Seven Mountains that surround the city of Bergen. It has a height of 2,110 ft above sea level. Ulriken has an aerial tramway, Ulriksbanen, that can bring people up and down the mountain. At the top there is a TV tower and a restaurant. There is a network of trails along Ulriken as well."

So, after I returned back from the airport on my bike via the tunnel in the morning, we had lunch in the Air Bnb and then debated whether or not we should make the walk and trip to the top of the highest of the Seven Mountains. It was raining on and off, and the summit was coming in and out of view from the clouds. In the end we decided to get outside, regardless of the weather, in typical Norwegian fashion.

The walk from our Air BnB to the foot of Ulriken was a round trip of just over four miles. It was a good way to see a part of Bergen on foot that I hadn't seen yet, and the walk was pretty easy. When we arrived at the cable car at the base, the girls rode up to the top while Jonathan and I took the Oppstemten (the stairs).

The steps are 750 meters long and consist of approximately 1,400 steps in total. The stone stairs and stone works were also built by sherpas. I would say that it's a comparable effort to walking up the Manitou Incline. Although it was raining on and off, the trails and the top of the mountain were packed with a bunch of people. The views of Bergen and the harbor from above were great when we could them clearly enough. Luckily, the clouds cleared while we were at the top for a few minutes so I could take some good pictures.

The restaurant at the top was packed! I got the impression that a hike and restaurant was something locals did for fun with their kids on a Sunday afternoon. Stacey and Julia had been waiting for a table for a little while and managed to grab one for all of us. We (the kids) enjoyed a delicious burger and fries with a view, and then we all took the cable car back to the base of the mountain for the walk home.

Fyllingsdalen Tunnel

This morning I threw my rental bike in the back of the rental car, drove to the airport and returned the car, and then rode my bike back to our Air BnB. Personally, I was quite pleased with how all the logistics worked out.

Bergen Bike Rent set me up with a heavy city commuter bike. The Bergen airport literally has a bike path from the terminal that connects to the rest of the bike paths around the city. There were so many ways and paths to get around town and not use the roads that they have placed street signs with path names and distances on them to help navigate. In today's world of GPS bike computers and cell phones it's still helpful, but I bet most people either know exactly where they are going or, if not, using technology.

I made sure that my one-way trip back from the airport included going through the new tunnel that had been opened only about a year earlier (in April 2023):

"The Fyllingsdalen tunnel, is a three-kilometer bike-pedestrian pathway that was bored through a mountain. Local officials proudly declared Fyllingsdalen tunnel to be the world’s longest purpose-built cycling tunnel. Inside, it offers art installations and creative lighting; at its exit, there are stunning mountain views. Constructing the new light rail line from Fyllingsdalen required boring both a path through Løvstakken and a parallel emergency tunnel. The city decided to spend an additional 300 million Norwegian kroner (around $28 million) to expand that evacuation route to do double duty as path for cyclists and pedestrians. The temperature inside is a steady 45 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. Overhead, colorful lights cycle through a rainbow of shades every few hundred meters. At its midpoint, the city has installed benches and an artificial sundial, along with a brightly colored sculpture that looks like a heart when approached from the east but a spiral from the west."

Steinsdalsfossen

We had one full day in Bergen with the rental car. Since it was the first day in country for Dad, Mom and Michelle, we decided to let them get settled while we drove around for the day. The main point was simply to explore the area outside of Bergen a little, see more of the country, but not make a huge day of it since we had so much planned in the next few weeks.

Steinsdalsfossen is about an hour and fifteen minutes away due east of Bergen. It's visited by an estimated 300,000 people a year (almost 1,000 a day), making it one of the more popular attractions in Norway. The waterfall is about 150 feet high and you can walk behind it without getting wet and take some pretty good pictures. 

Other than being a really cool waterfall, I think the popularity is partly due to the fact that it's close enough to Bergen to lure people like us out there. I also had a side quest in mind, and it was to drive a few miles farther east so I could see Hardangerfjord with my own two eyes. It's the 5th longest fjord in the world and the 2nd longest in Norway. Throw in some family history around the Hardanger Fiddle and the village of Botnen, and it was a really good option for an easy day out.

Bergen Transfer

After a week in Stavanger it was time to drive up to Bergen and meet the rest of the family. 

The drive to Bergen included two car ferries, which was a better way to see the western parts of Norway in between the cities rather than just catching a flight. The ferries are actually part of the highway, and although they cost a little bit, it was pretty easy and straightforward to use them. It really wasn't much different than the ferries I've used in Washington State. The kids enjoyed the experience and it was nice to break up the four and half hour trip into four sections, half of which we weren't doing much more than hanging out.

We purposely arrived in Bergen at our Air Bnb before the rest of the family that day. It worked out really well for me to pick them up at the airport and drive them straight to their Air BnB (across the street from ours) after the long overnight flight. Door to door service. 

My first impressions of Bergen from bike is that it reminded me a lot of Seattle. Always a little bit damp, gray stones and/or concrete, and patchy sea level clouds and a relatively hilly city between the ocean and hills (or mountains on the other side). It probably didn't help that it rained almost every day we were there. That said, with two wheels and endless route options, I was still able to see a more of the area than I would have otherwise.

Børaunen Bunker

Our last stop along the Stavanger Peninsula ended up being the highlight of the day. At least it was for Jonathan and me, and it was rather unexpected. On the map I had seen some walking trails along the coastline to an old historical boat house (with museum signs) and also an old WW2 bunker, but we didn't realize the extent of the WW2 history that was preserved there.

The road to get to the path was nondescript and you basically had to park on the side of the road. It was right next to a couple of houses that people lived in and the path between the houses, which turned out to be farms, felt like you were walking down their driveway and over their property. It felt a bit odd to be walking through fields that weren't marked, but we kept going anyway towards the sea despite also having to dodge a herd of cattle.

After we cut through the farms and pastures from the road, I felt better about walking along the rocky coastline to the old boathouse because it didn't feel like we were on their fields. But then we got over to what we thought was going to be a ruin of one building or bunker and quickly realized that the whole area was littered with dozens of old WW2 Nazi buildings, storehouses, and gun turrets looking out to sea.

It was quite bizarre to find an entire abandoned area just sitting in the back of farmer's fields along the coastline, with no paths, signs or anything blocking the way. We were equally as shocked to realize that the old bunker was wide open and able to be explored inside. No safety warnings, no ticket booths, you could just go wherever and do whatever you wanted.

Obviously, I went into the bunker first with my standard issue iPhone flashlight to make sure it was safe. Other than rubble and things like rusty old sharp metal sticking out of the floor here and there, it was relatively fine to go inside and explore. I never thought I'd be seeing the inside of a Nazi bunker on that day, and for the first time being in Norway.

There were several small rooms with the German name still painted on the walls. The was a map ("karten") room, a radio ("funk") room, and other rooms for storage (I assume things like ammunition) before we got to the main room and the main observation room of the ocean.

We climbed around inside the bunker and took some pictures. We also climbed on the top of it, as well as explored another smaller bunker and other ruins. I think most of the other buildings we saw were mostly storage built into the ground. Searching on the internet later yielded very little information other Thant the main bunker was built by Russian POWs and that possibly one of the buildings on one of the farms was used as officer and other housing while soldiers were stationed there.

As I mentioned, this whole thing was quite a surprise find. Jonathan definitely thought it was one of the better things we did while we were in Stavanger.

Randaberg Coastline

On a sunny afternoon we hopped in the rental car and drove north and west of Stavanger to the town of Randaberg to explore the outskirts of the Stavanger Peninsula. The town was small and quaint and it had a pretty nice coffee local coffee shop. However, most of the reason for the trip was simply because I had seen some potentially interesting looking things on the map along the coastline and I wanted to check them out.

My initial thoughts were that the old lighthouse and museum, Tungenes Fyr, would be the highlight of the afternoon. When we got there we found out that it was closed for renovation. We were able to see a few things, but that stop along the coastline turned into mostly hanging out with the cows and trying to feed them grass.

The next stop was at the local beach, Sandestranden, where many locals were hanging out and some of the kids were swimming. It was a really nice beach and the water was surprisingly pretty and clear. Excluding my ankles, Jonathan was the only one brave enough to swim. It wasn't exactly warm. But, he can now say that he went swimming in the North Sea, and no one else in the family can say that.

Preikestolen

This was one of the main reasons we decided to go to Stavanger a week before everyone else. Hiking Preikestolen is one of those bucket list kind of activities and I didn't want to miss out on hiking up to this world famous spot.

Wet and foggy weather can be a challenge, but we had a perfect day. The reality is I watched the weather forecasts leading up to the hike, and we were kind of keeping the exact date flexible based on the weather. It was the luxury of being in the area long enough combined with my own experiences in the Colorado mountains.

It was an easy 45 minute drive from downtown Stavanger to the parking lot and start of the trail. A lot of the drive was through a tunnel that went underneath the ocean, in order to get over to that part of the area. Side note: but there were so many tunnels in the western part of the country on our trip. There must be a reason it makes more sense that a bunch of bridges, but I digress. It was a great experience alone just driving down, down, down under the ocean and then up, up, up back onto land on the other side.

"Preikestolen (aka Pulpit Rock) is a steep cliff which rises 1,982 ft above Lysefjorden. Atop the cliff, there is an almost flat top of approximately 82 ft × 82 ft. Tourism at the site has been increasing in the early 21st century, with 300,000 visitors in 2024, making it one of the most-visited natural tourist attractions in Norway. BASE jumpers often leap from the cliff. Due to its increased popularity, the most used path to the site (2.4 mi long hike) was improved by Nepalese Sherpas in 2013."

Given how many people visit a year, the start of the hike and parking lots were well developed. There were many facilities, gift shops, and small cafes. As far as the actual hike went, it was pretty easy coming from 7,000 down to sea level and all of us being in pretty decent fitness. Round trip was about 2 hours and 15 minutes of hiking, but we spent just as long at the top and taking pictures. There were all ages and nationalities on the trail, and it wasn't technical but just a few places that were like the Incline. Given the large, panoramic views, it was difficult to tell just how far up we were until some boats came through on the water below. They looked tiny in comparison and gave you a good idea just how far almost a half a mile straight down was in reality.

At the top there were a lot of people, but it wasn't too crowded since we picked a weekday and left early in the morning to avoid too many crowds. The "money shot" picture required standing in a line and waiting for your turn to walk out to the edge while someone with camera was positioned back down the trail a little bit on their own smaller version of a cliff. It wasn't dangerous per se, but it was definitely exposed. It was actually refreshing to see no guardrails or fences anywhere and no one but hikers at the top.

Off to the side of the main area you could climb up a little higher and look back on Preikestolen from above. This vantage point provided the best views and places for pictures. I think this hike alone was worth going to the area, or at the very least, was probably the highlight of the week for this first leg of our trip.