Sunday 11 February
My actual birthday today and Lady P has managed
to secrete a present of a China egg cup and a book on the thoughts on life of
100 Chefs, in her suitcase for my presents. Now that will be perspicacious and
informative reading. I shall share some of the good ones with you.
We had a really good breakfast in the hotel’s
café, which is not always the case. The full monty! Then down to the dock to
get on our ferry ride on the fjord. The original intention was to take this to Gudvangen,
then bus to Vossenvagen then train into Bergen.
As the fjord was iced over in part, we cruised
up one arm then back to another village for a bus ride to a bus ride to the
train at Vos and hence to Bergen. Complicated, but it worked smoothly with
friendly Norse blokes with long blonde hair about the place. Wouldn’t call them pussies!
Saw the little tour guide telling all the rest
of the mob to go find another bus. Little prick.
On board the ferry, at precisely 10.01 am, we
share a bottle of Champagne with Thomas and Fabienne, to celebrate Flashy’s
actual birthday. Some strange looks from other passengers, but who cares? We have until 12 midnight tonight to celebrate.
We arrive in Bergen on the train and it’s much
warmer here -1c and heading they say, into positives. We have to strip off
layers in our 22c over-heated hotel room.
Again, Lady P has delivered a good restaurant
for the last of Flashy’s birthday treats tonight. It’s called Damsgard Stuene
and it is a bit out of the CBD, requiring a taxi ride and lots of research, as
it appears that the good folk of Bergen don’t open all their restaurants on a
Sunday. The building, over two floors, has been there since the 1860’s and has
been a local restaurant, serving local Bergen food, since 1985.
We were the only tourists in the place. Seriously, side glances and no English signs anywhere and
you could hear them thinking, who are these people? Are they lost?
In the winter, it opens on Sunday from 11.00 am
to 7.00 pm, which seems normal in this Nordic sphere, where the sun doesn’t
shine all that much. You know, have a long lunch after church, with the family,
then go home at 5.00 pm. Well, we turned
up at 5.00 pm, only to be placed at the VIP table by the window, with fresh
flowers and the Norwegian flag and greeted by Anita, the chef/owner.
The entire restaurant was a museum, with all
sorts of stuff, from tennis racquets, snow skis, pots, pans, photos, paintings,
numberplates, you name it – all on the ceiling and walls from decades gone by.
The menu was traditional, home style Bergen food. The menu was all in Norwegians of course. Luckily Flashy knew some words, so we were not in danger of ordering fried goat’s tongue or fermented dog balls. But Anita did recommend the best on the menu and Lady P had her trusted translator. Ah, so dahort file one nor means venison. And the scampi has garlic and chilli. Damn, how we have missed those ingredients in our Scandi adventure. Ordered that of course.
But first, Anita brings us a free taster of the
very traditional Bergen Raspebarller, home style ‘tonight’s special,’ plate of sausage, pork
knuckle, bacon, potato and dumpling. Now, you can imagine how good that was!
We then ordered scampi to share as a starter.
Exceptional. And we share very carefully, to make sure one does not get more
than the other.
After mopping up the oily dregs with good
bread, finishing the large GnT’s and sampling the Spanish Museum Reserva Red,
agreeing that it was more than acceptable, we settled in for the rest of the
meal.
Lady P had the cod. Even good with the red, she
said. Flashy had the venison, with potato, mushrooms, lingonberry jus and jam
and some green stuff on top. Best cooked wild deer ever. Could have eaten it
with a spoon!
So, having sampled another great and very local
menu, we talk to the chef. She is a lovely lady who loved our feed back and
stories of cooking in various places. Then as we were the only patrons in the
place at 7.00 pm, Anita gave us a tour of the restaurant, pointing out the history of the various bits and pieces on the walls and ceilings.
I don’t think you could engineer such an
amazing experience but ‘she indoors’ did. Full marks to Lady P and her
research.
A taxi home to our City Box Hotel and what do you
know, the bar attached to the hotel is open. A couple of Negronis is called for
before we adjourn to the room.
Now here’s an interesting fact. We have been in
seven countries (OK, Sweden twice) since arriving in Paris and not once have we
needed to speak anything other than English, nor pay for anything, including a
fifty cent note pad, in cash.
We took 200 euro with us when we left Australia
and tried to get rid of it in Amsterdam and at the Alki shop in Helsinki and
despite “Oh, you want to pay cash?” we did get rid of most of it. In Stockholm,
we booked a “free” walking tour of the old town. Well, you know as well as I do,
that they aren’t really free. They expect a tip. Braving the freezing cold, in
a mild panic, we managed to locate an ATM - and they’re as rare as hen’s teeth
- to take out some Swedish Krona. Not necessary as it turned out. The guide had
a Square reader and took card payments on his mobile phone. Still have 100 SEK
left.
The news stories say that Finland plans on
going completely cashless by 2025.
I thought that you might be interested in some news from Melbourne, I am sure that somewhere in Northern Norway there is an Eskimo sitting in his igloo who hasn't heard that Tay Tay is shortly visiting Melbourne. She has sold out three concerts at the MCG, so approximately 350,000 people will be attending, the majority of whom are 13 year old girls. Those who haven't got tickets have been reminded that there will be no Taylgate parties in the vicinity of the MCG. Apparently Taylgate parties are big at her concerts in the states.
ReplyDeleteA big thunderstorm just went through here, temperature has dropped from 37 to 27 in minutes and my street has flooded, again!
Cheers
I knew it... (think about it)
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