Bergen is a delightful city. Even though Rover was in a crowded, dumpy place, we felt comfortable leaving her for the whole day and going into the city. (We have rarely felt unsafe in any campground.)
Our own comfort is sometimes another matter entirely; witness this site’s ridiculous showers. There were two small shower stalls for men and two others for women, each with a door opening in and a second, hinged clear plastic door that took the place of a shower curtain. The arrangement would be impossible for anyone overweight. There was a hook for bags and towels, but one had to remove them before opening the door to put the token in the meter, cunningly located outside the stall (and costing $1.68 for 4 minutes of hot water). The water started running as soon as the token was inserted, so one had to shut the door, hang everything back up, and get behind the plastic shower door before actually beginning to take the shower. Although it was suitably clean and hot, it was, nevertheless, ridiculous . . . and not too refreshing. We skipped them the second night.
We had been warned that it would rain in Bergen, but we had three days of beautiful sunshine. The weather brought out all the locals and the tourists by the thousands (We counted five cruise ships in the harbor the first day). We bought 48-hour Bergen Cards and then did our best to get our money’s worth: museums, the funicular to the top of the mountain, a bus tour of the city, an organ concert at a church, a visit to an unadorned cathedral, stops at about 50 souvenir shops and markets. . . .
The city is a busy, bustling place. We especially enjoyed just walking through the old neighborhoods with their unique shops and houses.
On the day we left we were concerned about how we would be able to get Rover out of the camping “lot.” When we had arrived, the middle one of the lot’s three rows was empty, but we felt we were too big for the marked spots provided, so we maneuvered into an out-of-the-way spot in a corner . . . after which, of course, the place filled up around us. On the day we wanted to leave, we were happy to find that a few RVs directly in front of us had left, so we were able to move Rover into another slot, from which we could just drive her out. Having moved her, we went back into the city for a while (It was just too easy to do with the free bus passes that were part of the Bergen Card).
After a visit to one of the oldest homes in Bergen, we drove only 12 miles to a campground where we had very decent showers, did some laundry and had wifi access. Susan was hanging the washing out to dry in the sunlight when our son phoned us from Washington, D.C., about the health care decision. So we used our (very expensive) wifi connection to listen to Talk of the Nation on Minnesota Public Radio for a while that evening,
And then it poured rain.