Jetlag helped us wake up early in beautiful Bergen, Norway. Ada and I went on a walk exploring the empty streets before the city woke up.

The Bryggen from the other side of the harbor:

We met up with the rest of the family for a pastry and kanelboller (cinnamon roll) breakfast at Godt Brød, and then made our way to the Fløibanen funicular, which took us up to the top of Mount Fløyen for a view of the city.

After enjoying the view,

Floibanen, Bergen, Norway  and the goats grazing on Mount Floyen,  Mt Floyen, Bergen, Norway

and the troll at the top (the Norwegians love their trolls),

we went on a short hike around a small lake at the top of Mt Floyen,

...before heading back down the funicular into Bergen for lunch.

We ate at Trekronen, where we had the most delicious sausages/hot dogs, including their famous reindeer hot dog. (Four hot dogs because Ada held strong to her vegetarianism and would not eat bambi--she settled for a lunch pastry).

After lunch we took the bybanen (light rail) out to the other side of town where we rode a cable car to the top of Mount Ulriken.

The view of Bergen from the top was incredible

We spent an hour or two hiking and enjoying the scenery at Mt Ulriken.

Mt Ulriken

And the kids were patient as I played with my camera. Mt Ulriken Mt Ulriken Mt Ulriken, Bergen Mt Ulriken, Bergen

We made our way down the mountain, 

and headed by light rail to check out the nearest stave church on the outskirts of Bergen. A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church featuring a timber-frame structure (made of vertical posts called staves), and tongue-in-groove construction without nails. Dragon motifs on the roof gables remind you of the norse pagan heritage bleeding into the Christian symbolism. The Fantoft Stave church in Bergen was originally built in the 12th century, then reconstructed in the 19th century, and then rebuilt after it was destroyed by fire in the 90s. So yeah, not the original, but truly unique architecture and super interesting to learn about early Christian history in Norway.

Jetlag caught up with someone in the quiet of the church interior. 

The beautiful exterior:

We headed back to Bergen and rested a few minutes before changing and walking down to the Bryggen for a nice Norwegian dinner at Bryggeloftet, where we ate classic Norweigian dishes including fish, lamb, reinsdyrfilet (reindeer filet), & mussels, (and a beyond burger). It was all delicious. 

To round out a perfect first full day in Norway, we gathered our things and headed to the harbor to enjoy a couple hours on a private floating sauna. 

So nice to get a sweat on, then immediately cool off with a cold plunge in the harbor. 

We slept well that night!