Saturday, September 17, 2022
For the first time in a couple years, Russ and I went on another hiking trip to Norway. We left on Friday evening from the US and arrived in Bergen, Norway on Saturday afternoon after connecting through Reykjavik, Iceland and Amsterdam, Netherlands. The only thing of note from the flight there was the awesome sandwich I had in the Amsterdam airport – a cheese sandwich with hummus, cheese, and arugula. So simple but so good.
After a long wait in the rental car line, we received our car (a Peugeot 5008 SUV) and drove into downtown Bergen to Hotel Oleana. I didn’t realize the connection to local history at the time but Hotel Oleana is located on a street named for Ole Bull, who was a famous Norwegian violinist in the 1800s. At one point in his life, Ole Bull attempted to set up a community of Norwegian immigrants in Pennsylvania. He named this town Oleana, PA. Unfortunately, the immigrants found it too difficult to live off the soil in this part of PA so the Oleana concept basically failed.
After walking around the nearby streets, we had dinner at the MM Cafe og Bar. I had a club sandwich with chicken and bacon with a side salad and steak fries with a garlic aioli dip. For a drink, I simply had my drink-of-choice while traveling in Europe – sparkling water. Really enjoyed the food. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and, after being awake for about 40 hours, fell quickly asleep.
Garret Bonnema 