We arrived in Bergen just in time to drop our bags and head out to dinner. We were close to the historic Bryggen area, a run of colourful historic wooden wharf buildings on the harbour. The receptionist recommended the Unicorn restaurant in one of those buildings so we set off to find it. The restaurant was on the first floor approached via a very old wooden staircase. At the top was a dark landing and a solid door, we had no idea what to expect. We opened the door and were greeted by a cozy, bustling restaurant furnished with mismatched antique furniture and lamps, like an old family dining room. The waiter led us to a table by the window and we had another great meal, we all had fish cooked to a variety of traditional Norwegian recipes.
Our journey to Copenhagen was uneventful and we were pleased to discover our hotel was just a few minutes walk from the station. We checked in and then headed for the bar for a beer and to make a plan for dinner.
…our journey to Hamburg was slightly disrupted. We had to change trains unexpectedly at the Dutch/German border (we think there was an engine issue), and our connection at Osnabruck was about 50 minutes late so we didn’t arrive in Hamburg until about 7pm.
The sleeper train was a great experience. It was comfortable enough for us both to get some sleep, breakfast arrived as promised with our wake-up call, the showers in the GWR lounge at Paddington were very welcome and soon after 7am we were on the tube on our way to St Pancras.
Terry and Jenny arrived bang on schedule and we had time to enjoy breakfast together while checking our mobile travel passes and making sure we’d all loaded the right journey’s in the app.
Most of the train journeys en route to Bergen are quite long so we have treated ourselves to 1st Class tickets. On Eurostar to Amsterdam that meant Standard Premier (?!), the seats were comfy and we were served a very acceptable light lunch with wine, and coffee/tea and cake later in the afternoon. The journey flew by as we caught up with 5 years of news from Australia.
It must be 30 years since we were last in Amsterdam and Terry and Jenny have never been to mainland Europe so the taxi ride from the station was a first glimpse of the beautiful canals and tall town houses. We were booked into the Hotel Notting Hill situated on the edge of the Singelgracht canal.
Terry and Jenny were interested to try Rijstafel, the Indonesian buffet meal popular in Amsterdam so that night we walked to a restaurant 10 minutes from the hotel and enjoyed a feast of spicey chicken, meat and vegetable dishes, salads and rice. After a walk back to the hotel we were all ready for an early-ish night.
We had one full day in Amsterdam so we took a city tour by boat and spent the afternoon at the Rijksmuseum which felt like a good introduction to the city. Dinner at a restaurant on the bank of the Amstel river rounded off the first of our mini city breaks.
We are now on the train heading for Hamburg, I’d better sign off so I don’t miss the change at Osnabruck. More soon.
We enjoyed our few days in Adelaide, it reminded us of Melbourne, the same friendly relaxed atmosphere, pretty parks, great shopping, free buses, and trams and plenty of nice cafés and restaurants. We have gotten in to a routine when we visit new cities, we walk a lot, it is a great way to get a feel for a place and to see some of the sights. One up shot of this has been Marks shoes wearing out!! We had to set aside a morning to visit Rundall Mall, a pedestrianised shopping street currently festooned with Christmas decorations and pop up Christmas shops, to buy a new pair. While out shopping we spotted a branch of Koko Black the lovely chocolate shop we visited in Melbourne, we couldn’t resist dropping in for a mug of their excellent hot chocolate but it still didn’t feel like Christmas. Continue reading Adelaide 1→
Mark And Kim's Adventures 