BERGEN...THE END OF THE TRIP!

Finally! I have a lot of pictures of the last week in Norway, which was SO beautiful...when I last wrote of our trip, we had gone up the mountain and were on our way down to Bergen, on the west coast of Norway.

Before we reached Bergen, we had a wonderful 2 ½ hour cruise on the Sognefjord...spectacular scenery and a thrilling experience.

Cool, misty, mysterious...

It's hard to imagine living in such a remote location...but there's always the
"mail boat" which makes daily stops and also takes travelers...

So, we arrived in Bergen, a city dating from the 11th century, always a significant port city and center for trading. It's also a stop for cruse ships...

so tourism is a very important element. There are many colorfully restored building on the old quay...

There is a daily fish market on the wharf

and lots of boats...

The seafood market had a restaurant which we really enjoyed.

We walked the streets of Bergen, seeing wonderful old buildings,

festive street decor...

and statues of famous native sons (this one is Edvard Grieg)

We were amused by the local adaptations for familiar food...

We took a funicular to the top of the mountain for the view...

took pictures of each other...

and had a treat before we left for the ride to the bottom.

I've got WAY too many pictures to include in this post...here is a link to my Picasa album for anyone who wants to see more!

On our last night, we had a farewell dinner with the group, and our charming leader Ylva and I modeled our outfits from Bitte Kai Rand

So...we were no sooner home than we drove north; I dropped Dave off to visit his brother in Santa Clara and I raced to Artistry in Fashion where I met up with
Shams from Communing with Fabric and many other textile-type friends.

This is the only picture I took all day, of Sharon with her distinctive handbag
she bought in Santa Fe 

.

but helpful friends, like Jane Foster, emailed us copies of their photos.

                       L-R: Jane, Sharon and moi...

Sharon and I discovered Marirose and her wonderful jewelry, so...

 I bought these earrings,

Sharon bought these,

and I bought 3 of these bracelets that have hardly been off my wrist since.
I was very grateful to the readers of my blog who came up to say hi at the event...

Well, that's the end of the travel posts; we HAVE chosen our next trip...to
North Eastern India, but it's not till October of 2015. I'm dying to get back into the studio and sew something, but we are redoing our bedroom, so I may have to take a detour into the realm of home decorating...

I'll head over to Patti's Visible Monday to see what the super visible women are up to...come look, too!

TTYL