One for the Record Books

Leikanger, Norway -- Day 2

Sunday was my birthday, and we had a great day planned for it.  As Dex mentioned, we had a nearly exclusive trip to Leikanger via two comfortable and modern buses.  We woke up in our little cabin and were greeted to a wonderful, bright rainbow in the middle of the fjord.  I took it as a personal birthday squeeze from all my friends and family that have passed on before me.

Once the rainbow show was over, we packed our things and made our way to the dock for our 11:10am ferry ride to Bergen.  Once again, we cut it kind of close to get to the dock.  Luckily we were nearby, and as we approached, I saw the ferry in the fjord.  It seemed far off, but there it was...and there it went.  It stayed on the opposite side of the fjord, never making its way to the Leikanger dock.  Checking the posted schedule again, we decided that that was indeed our ferry, but why hadn't it stopped on this side of the fjord?

Good bye, ferry

Dean went to the nearby hotel (where he and I had scored another dinner on our own the night before, -a Pre-birthday treat - as the kids didn't want to leave the cabin for something as nonessential as dinner.)

He found out that, apparently, the ferry didn't stop here at this time of the year, and the only Sunday ferry from Leikanger, was at 4:30pm.  For the record, this information would have been very helpful to know, and it was definitely not obvious looking at the schedule at the dock.

OK, well, lucky for us, we've got time and a lots of it.  We contacted our Bergen Air BnB host with our updated arrival time of 8:45pm and got on with the business of waiting.  We were able to while away the 5 plus hours in the small conference room of the same hotel we'd eaten at last night.  It was a lovely area with tables, chairs and sofa's, not to mention, it was indoors!  We enjoyed our lunch of PB or cheese sandwiches, chips and the big candy bar that Dean had gotten me for my birthday.  We spent time working on the blog and catching up on emails while the kids played with their KinderEgg toys (yes, same ones).  I may have even snoozed a bit, old lady that I am.

At 4pm we made our way to the dock again, and this time there seemed to be a bit more activity.  So, clearly, someone had gotten the information we missed.  We met a man, Helmar, and his teenage son who had biked their way to Leikanger from Sweden and we shared biking stories.  He had traveled around the world some 20 years earlier, so it was fun to talk to him about his experiences.  And, coincidentally, it was his birthday too!  We had promised to catch up with him once we were on board the ferry.

With the approach of the ferry, we got in line and I noticed that people all seemed to have their tickets.  No worries, we were told on numerous occasions, from different sources, that we could purchase the tickets on board.  As the crewman approached us, he asked for our tickets.  We enquired about purchasing them onboard.  He said the ferry was full and that if we didn't have tickets, we couldn't get on.  Excuse me?  I explained how we had been there since 11:10 -- following the schedule that was on the dock -- but he just explained there was nothing he could do.  Arrgh!

So, there it was.  We'd waited 5 hours for nothing AND we found out that tickets could (and should) be purchased on-line.  So, chalk this one up to inexperience, I suppose.  Just because you CAN get something later, may not mean you should plan on it.  We also never thought to check the schedule online since it was clearly posted and matched exactly what we expected.  Before leaving the dock, and only ten minutes after the ferry left, we had purchased our 7:30am tickets for the next day.  We sent an email to our AirBnB host in Bergen, again, explaining that we wouldn't make it to Bergen tonight but tomorrow instead.  Sigh.

It was now 5:00pm as we made our way back to our little cabin (hoping we could stay one more night). When the man behind the counter saw us, he was surprised to hear that the ferry was full, but, luckily, cabin 18 was available.  Off we went up the hill, one more time.

I have to say, I was disappointed, but the kids and Dean were wonderful.  We had gotten the latest Harry Potter book/play, so we decided we would start reading it, having finished "The Trumpeter of Karkow" that afternoon.  We all took out our Kindles, so we could each read different parts.  It was great fun.  Since we'd really not had a lot to eat all day, Dean volunteered to fix the last of the groceries -- a real hodgepodge.  He warmed up bread and cheese making open face cheese sandwiches, then got really fancy topping some "digestive" cookies with peanut butter and honey.  Voila! Birthday Dinner was served.  Just know that seconds were not an option.

The night was rounded out with a near-skunking of the Green Tandem by the Gold Tandem and a little more reading of Harry Potter.  All in all, this was a birthday I will relish always.