DAY 144 THURSDAY AUGUST 16 BACK TO OSLO

We spent the night on a ship called the Fjord Vision which acts as a hotel when moored at Bergen.  It had recently been up near the Arctic on a mission to make a series of TV programs and these had been shown on Norwegian TV recently.  The crown prince had been involved and slept aboard.  It was similar to the canal boat experience we had in Holland.  As we arrived in Bergen last night the Vingtor captain told us that Bergen was "the most beautifulest city in the world", using the Shakespearian superlative.  It is certainly located in a very beautiful environment but as Norway's second largest city, we found this morning that it was noisy, dirty and overloaded with traffic just like most other cities we have been to.

We left the ship in bright sunlight and climbed the hill behind the city centre up to the largest church.

Then we descende to the park with its lake in the centre of town.  We found this statue of a reluctant little boy being hosed in a fountain.

The gazebo in the park was beautiful, with flowers all around and on it.  It was a long way back to Oslo on the train and we again enjoyed the scenery.  We saw another glacier not too far away.

And more waterfalls.

We got back to our hotel in Oslo and had dinner in a nice Indian Restaurant then met up with Ken and Pam and reviewed our plans to meet up in Helsinki. They will be doing a week's cruise in the fjords in the meantime.