Bergen, Norway

After our fjord cruise we made our way to Bergen on Norway's west coast. From the 14th to the 18th centuries, Bergen was a trading center controlled by German merchants. Today it is a city of almost a quarter million but the old center, Bryggen, still exists with a preserved old merchant house complete with dried fish, steep stairs and creaky wooden floors.

At the end of the harbor is Bergen's fish market — an open-air smorgasbord of everything you might (or might not) want from the sea including dried cod jerky and whale meat -- the open-faced sandwiches shown here, however, were delicious. If seafood is not to your liking you can also pick up a Norwegian handmade sweater (most likely imported from China) or a genuine Norwegian troll doll.

In the afternoon, we rode the funicular 1,000 feet to the top of Mt. Fløyen for a panoramic view of the city and nearby islands. For a city that gets an average of 80 inches of rain and only 60 days of sunshine each year, we were blessed with two sunny, dry days to complete our Scandinavian adventure.

On Friday we had our final group dinner and said goodbye to our fellow travellers. Many were returning home, some were travelling to other points in Europe and two other couples were continuing on to Tallinn, Estonia to begin the next Rick Steves tour as were we.