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Norway (Bergen): Mount Fløyen to Rundemanen [+ some Fjords]

Norway (Bergen): Mount Fløyen to Rundemanen [+ some Fjords]


Postby HighlandSC » Wed May 25, 2011 11:08 pm

Date walked: 01/03/2011

Time taken: 3

Distance: 6.5 km

Ascent: 200m

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Date - Tue 01/03/2011
Title -
Norway (Bergen): Fløyen to Rundemanen
Hills - Fløyen (425m) & Rundemanen (568m)
Route - Fløibanen funicular up to Fløyen, then NE up trails toward Rundemanen. Retrace route to return.
Weather - Cloudy / a few short bursts of snow fall
People - Me / Michelle
Time - 3h
Distance - 6.5km
Ascent - 200m
Max Altitude - 525m

Route shown on google map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ptab=2&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=204010321367272200323.00049a9cc26a92ab3a8a7

Earlier this year we spent a few days in the city of Bergen, Norway. Surrounded by at least 7 mountains (read on…) it is also known as 'the city among the seven mountains'. It was the playwright Ludvig Holberg who felt so inspired by the seven hills of Rome, that he decided that his home town must be blessed with a corresponding seven mountains - and locals still argue which seven they are.

This place is steeped in history traced back to 1020 AD, and is mainly related to its importance as a fishing/trading port. Bergen's old quayside, Bryggen is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. We spent some time wandering around Bryggen. The old buildings are full of character and separated by tight and twisty alley ways and lanes.
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From the city we took the funicular up to Mount Fløyen. From there we walked up around the trails, taking a route toward Mount Rundemanen. This wasn’t intended to be a long or serious walk to any summits or anything. We were just wandering the waymarked trails. Eventually we were walking in cloud and through the odd snow shower. It was great fun but no views to be had. After walking off the edge of the tourist trail map we had we were at a mysterious looking impenetrable concrete building- looked like a bomb shelter or something. With the weather closing in we decided to turn around and head back down the mountain to the Floyen funicular station which then took us the easy way back into Bergen. I had my GPS running and back at home looked to see where we’d actually been (see google map link above). It turns out we were less than 1km from the summit of Rundemanen, one of the ‘seven’ mountains, but on the day we had it would have been pointless continuing only to visit the big transmitter on top of it and see nothing around us. Essentially the mountains surrounding Bergen form a huge plateau approx 500m high. There’s some good pics of the views we missed at the bottom of this webpage. From the city streets to the hill trails, it was evident that the Norwegians are big outdoors people- all kitted out in high quality gear with obesity nowhere to be seen. Even on a poor winter weekday like this there were still lots of families and a school party up on Floyen and around the trails. As we sheltered next to one of the mountain huts in a blizzard there were 3 well kitted out women each pushing all terrain prams taking it in their stride. There was another group of 3 guys wandering around who looked to be in their 80’s!- still going strong. Later on during our holiday we took a train as part of a trip to visit the Fjords- again full of families and people heading out to the hills for all kinds of activities. I don’t think many people here sit indoors during their spare time. Anyway, enough wittering on. We really enjoyed wandering around here.......

Bergen from Floyen
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Wandering...
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Mini crevaces at the side of the trail showed that it was covered in ice about 1-2ft thick
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Buried bench :lol:
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Mums out with the kids
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Danger!
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Everything was frozen up here. Icicles all along the side of the track
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And nice trees
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Crossing a small gorge
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Not sure what this place is (or was). Only had 1 door shown in the photo that wouldn't budge. It is close to Lake Store Tindevatnet.
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??????????
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From here we retraced our steps back to the start, cutting through the forest a bit to get a closer look at some of the massive trees
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Back at Floyen funicular station the cloud was down so much we were well downhill before we were under it.

This pic from later at night taken in Bergen looks up toward Floyen- you can see the lights of the funicular going up to the station at the top
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===================================================

The next day we did the popular "Norway in a Nutshell" tour. We'd been saving this for the best weather day- and we picked it spot on! The trip highlights are a boat trip through two fjords (Nærøyfjord & Aurlandsfjord) followed by a journey on The Flåm Railway (one of the steepest in the world: 20km, 865m ascent, 20 tunnels) including a stop at Kjosfossen Waterfall (93m freefall).

Fjords:
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Flam Railway
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Kjosfossen Waterfall - well frozen today!
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It normally looks like this
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8)

After Norway our next stop was Glencoe
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Re: Norway (Bergen): Mount Fløyen to Rundemanen [+ some Fjords]

Postby ChrisW » Wed May 25, 2011 11:42 pm

Great report HSC - have a soft spot for Norway as we have friends over there. Some beautiful pics on the last day with the classic calm fjord shots, and those twisting tight alleyways through the town, cracking :D
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Re: Norway (Bergen): Mount Fløyen to Rundemanen [+ some Fjords]

Postby susanmyatt » Thu May 26, 2011 7:19 am

Love the photos, agree on the street ones and the fjords, also the mums with the buggies :lol: my husband thinks the concrete bunkers are probably german as they are the same in Jersey, part of the Atlantic Wall he thinks, superb report, thanks Sue :D
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Re: Norway (Bergen): Mount Fløyen to Rundemanen [+ some Fjords]

Postby skuk007 » Thu May 26, 2011 6:21 pm

Good report HSC. We have relatives who live in Bergen so these pics just make us want to visit now.
Have wandered around the top of Floyen many a time and never get bored of it. Does it still have that big troll up there?

Did the same trip as yourself a few summers ago and can highly recommend it to all. Stunning scenery, looking even better with the snow. When we got to the waterfall bit we were allowed to get out for photos as long as we hurried back in at the sight of the "fairies". They try to lure you to your death apparently, and I thought they were wee creatures to. :)
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Re: Norway (Bergen): Mount Fløyen to Rundemanen [+ some Fjords]

Postby HighlandSC » Thu May 26, 2011 7:33 pm

susanmyatt wrote:my husband thinks the concrete bunkers are probably german as they are the same in Jersey, part of the Atlantic Wall he thinks, superb report, thanks Sue :D

Thanks Sue- I'd never heard of the Atlantic Wall. Just read about it on wikipedia, including this bit specifically about the Norwegian section. It confirms Bergen would have had such defences all around it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festung_Norwegen

skuk007 wrote:Does it still have that big troll up there?

Yep :lol:
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There's a lot more pics of Bergen and the hills in my flickr set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/highlandsc/sets/72157626759070308/

A vid I took at the fjords
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfv6wJybhKs[/youtube]

skuk007 wrote:Did the same trip as yourself a few summers ago and can highly recommend it to all. Stunning scenery, looking even better with the snow. When we got to the waterfall bit we were allowed to get out for photos as long as we hurried back in at the sight of the "fairies". They try to lure you to your death apparently, and I thought they were wee creatures to. :)

:lol:
I hadn't heard about this at the time- but read about it the other day. Something about a siren called Huldra that does as you say- tries to lure you to your death!! Here she is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhorsey/3870343899/
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