Mt. Ulriken at sunrise, stone stairs to Heaven, and the Swinging Death Trap. Bergen, Norway. Day 3: Part 1.

Our flight back to Copenhagen was at 2005 Sunday evening. So we had a full day to continue exploring Bergen. And after the wonderful hiking up to and past Mt. Floyen, on Friday, and after doing some reading, I really really wanted to hike to the top of Mt. Ulriken.

Mt. Ulriken is another highly recommended hike in Bergen and is considered the highest peak in the town.

And although I’ve already decided I’d be perfectly happy to retire to Bergen, I doubt we’ll be going back in the near future. So I wanted to make every effort to make the most of it.

The staff person at the Bergen Tourist Information center said ‘Oh, Ulriken, that’s a tough hike, real trails, not wide pavement.” She was clearly skeptical about my plans to get up and back in one morning.

So I became 100% committed right then and there.

The challenge was convincing the eldest and the youngest to also commit – and we were on a bit of a tight schedule Sunday morning:

Getting to the trail head would take about 25 minutes – walk to bus stop, bus ride, walk to trail head.

The hike would take anywhere from 1 – 3 hours.

I couldn’t be sure.

And we had to check out of our Airbnb by noon.

So we needed to be back by 1100 to shower and pack up.

So after pouring over the bus schedules – for some reason, google maps did not work with the public transportation system in Bergen.

So I had to take the olden-days approach:

1. download pdfs of the bus schedules
2. make sure the schedules I looked at were on Sunday and not M – F,
3. consult the light rail schedule,
4. understand the Mt. Ulriken cable car schedule (plan was to hike up and take the cable car down),
5. Repeat steps 1 – 4, approx. 10 x to get a full understanding of all the possibilities of timing and make contingency plans B, C, D, and F.

And after all this, I was still not sure that we could take the bus to the nearest bus stop, walk to the trail head, hike up Mt. Ulriken, take the cable car down, and then catch the bus back to the city center to get back to our Airbnb by 11am.

I knew we would need to leave quite early. Well, maybe we didn’t really need to, but that’s how I roll when I’m a traveler on a tight timeline.

It was not as hard to convince the girls we would need to get up at 6 and leave by 6:30am, to catch the 6:48am bus, so we could be sure to hike up and catch an early enough cable car down the mtn.

They were awesome sports about it.

Which I see as an indication of a) my persuasive abilities and b) (really just this) how much they like hiking.

I still cannot persuade them to go with me to the Louisiana Art Museum. “NO ART MUSEUMS THEY ARE BORING AND STUPID”

But hiking to the top of the highest peak in Bergen had appeal for sure.

I convinced the girls needed to get up by 6am and catch the 6:48 bus.

Well, the eldest actually said “Can you wake me up at 6am and I’ll decide then?”

I was 95% sure she’d get up and go with us. Even though she is very much a teenager when it comes to sleeping.

But I was counting on her FOMO overcoming her desire to sleep longer.

It wasn’t until I read that sunrise is actually at 0830 that I reconsidered the timing.

“Maaaaybe it’ll be better if we catch the 0748 bus.”

So we slept in until 0645

Left the apartment at 0730.

Even though the bus stop is only a 5 min walk, I had to stop on the way and buy the 24hr Bergen transportation card.

What if the machine on the way to the bus stop was broken?

And I had to find another machine to buy the card?

It was about this time that I got a text from our Airbnb host letting me know that because no one had booked the place for that night, we were welcome to stay there until 5pm.

That made our day so so much easier.

We wouldn’t have to worry about locking our bags at the train station.

We would also have enough time to visit the Aquarium.

And if we missed the 1034 bus we could just take the 1104 bus and have time for showers, etc.

Turns out the “off season” hours had started.

But this information hadn’t been posted anywhere.

And wasn’t on this door.

The mountain top staff arrived (by cable car of course) a few minutes later.

Thank goodness we didn’t leave at 6:30am and count on a 9am cable car ride.

It was cold and windy at the top and we would not have been able to wait until 10am for it.

We would have had to walk back down.

Which frankly I would have preferred to do but as the youngest rationalized:

“Walking back down will be tiring and terrifying.”

“Taking the swinging death trap will just be terrifying. So let’s do that.”

Ok. Fine.

My palms were so sweaty, my heart was racing.

I really really didn’t like being in that cable car.

None of us did.

Well, the two Norwegians standing at the front of the car were totally cool – opening the window, peering out the top, taking pictures, laughing and talking and enjoying themselves.

But 5 or 6 years ago, I learned my lesson of reassuring nervous children about things, the time we went to Niagara Falls and decided to take the Maid In the Mist boat trip underneath the falls.

The eldest (at that time maybe 8 yo) had developed a fear of boats (I only learned the reason for this later) and protested the whole way.

She kept saying “I don’t want to get on the boat. I want to see it first. I don’t like boats. I want to see it before I get on it.”

The way the Maid in the Mist on the American side is set up, it’s impossible to see the boat before you buy your ticket.

So like any loving and patient parent, I told her I’d already bought her ticket and she had to go with us.

Then I spent the next 10 minutes – as we made our way down the elevator, down the path, to the dock, saying “look, they’ve been doing the Maid in the Mist Tours for 60+ years, ~8 months a year, every 15 minutes, 10 hours a day. They know what they are doing. It’s going to be just fine. They know what they are doing.”

So we get on the the boat and the eldest proceeded to go crouch on the floor next to the life vest chest and stay there. Her telling me how scared she was, me telling her it would be ok. That the Maid in The Mist folks were experienced boat operators.

I will take those words to my grave.

The engines cranked up, and the boat started to pull away from the dock.

And suddenly, there was this horrific clanging grinding metal-tearing-sound, lots of shouting and yelling and gasping.

And of course everyone on the boat (maybe 100 or 150 people – off season – and it was a chilly October day) ran to one side of the boat.

And I thought “Oh shit, what just happened?”

Oh. They’d just forgotten to UNHOOK THE GANGPLANKS.

BOTH OF THEM.

One gangplank got pulled off the boat, dropped in the water and sank.

One passenger commented “Well somebody’s gonna get fired.”

And at that point I was thinking “Well damn, did a hole just get put in the side of this boat? Is this boat going to capsize and I’m going to have to swim for it with my oldest and youngest children?”

Nope. Thank goodness.

The tour continued. The eldest stayed crouched on the floor. But when we got back to the dock we only had one gangplank.

And this may be the reason the eldest has a few trust issues with me.

In any case, never again will I offer assurances of the skill and safety record and experience levels of tourist modes of transportation.

And all I could say last Sunday on the cable car was “I’m sure it will be fine.”

So we headed back.

To take showers, pack up, and head to the Bergen Aquarium.

Day 3, Part 2.

Stay tuned!