It’s almost midnight and it’s not really dark yet here in Bergen. The sun is behind the fort at the west end of downtown but you can still read a book on the sidewalk. We just got back in from a short walk to check out the late night Summer Solstice scene. There are lots of people walking around, taking photos of the sunset and the bars are mostly full. A few minutes ago one of the massive cruise ships in the harbor bellowed it horns and pulled away, no doubt with passengers lining the rails to watch the sun set.

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, but at 250K people, it’s a small town on the American scale. We were able to walk almost all of downtown in two separate outings. The highlight was riding the Fløibanen, a funicular, up to the top of Fløyen Mountain. It’s a fun, quick ride and the view at the top is spectacular.

The plateau on Fløyen is a total tourist trap. It was interesting to be thrown in with tourists from other countries. Bergen at the Summer Solstice brings in people from all over. The town is packed and you hear a wide variety of accents. We’ve all heard the term ugly-American to describe boorish tourists from our country. In general the Americans seem more polite and better behaved than people from some of the European countries. We won’t go into details…

Tomorrow we begin the trip back home. We have a short drive tomorrow to a town at the head of one of the larger fjords. From now on we average about 300 miles a day except for one extra (non-driving) day we have planned in Sweden.