British Isles Explorer Ocean Cruise

Day 20: Sunday, April 26, 2026 - Bergen, and Oslo, Norway

The day's statistics:
⛅ Weather: upper 50s
👟 Steps: Linda 9,907; Steve 11,947

Though there was a hospitality strike, it was a staff reduction, not an elimination.
So things were still getting done, just not at the level a full staff would expectedly deliver.
Breakfast was impacted too. There were breakfast foods out, but not a full hot buffet that we would have otherwise expected. We were still able to find enough to sate our appetites such as cold cuts for a sandwich, some fruit, and pastries.

There was no scheduled excursion today, so we were on our own.
Admittedly, we're getting a little better at this "on our own" thing, and actually doing some planning and going out into the city where we're staying.
Today was such a day, as we planned for it and purchased our tickets last night for the Kode Museum.
We had a slow start, and casually made our way out as the museum didn't open until 11:00.
To the right outside the hotel was, again, the park with the gazebo. We walked past the gazebo, crossed the street, and proceeded around the pond to the right side (the fountains weren't working yet).







We were a few minutes early to the Rasmus Meyer House - a large white former house with an orange roof - that contained the third largest collection of Munch (pronounced "Munk") artwork in the world. Since we were early, we walked around to the other side, passing to the right to the roadway. These two traditionally dressed women seemed to be following us...

As we walked around, we emerging across from the building that looks like the grand piano from above - with a large spire in front. If you can picture a grand piano in your head, the second shot shows where the piano curves.


There was an interesting looking side entrance to the building.


When we arrived at the Rasmus Meyer House, without even checking, we knew the door would be locked until the museum opened. So we took a couple pictures while we were in front, including a selfie.





We were at the door, waiting patiently, until we heard the clerk on inside unlock it.
We entered and went straight for the register - the first visitors of the day. We showed our passes and were given entry. The clerk was having a problem with printing the receipt and had to reboot the system. She told us to stop by before leaving to get our receipt as it was needed to gain entry into the other museums. While we were in the first room, I saw that a visitor not far behind us had a receipt - so I returned to the clerk to get the receipt so we wouldn't forget about it later.
After dropping our extra things in a free locker, we began our tour of the museum, seeing a number of works, artifacts, and even some furniture that is more than 300 years old (older than the United States).
These are the works we thought were particularly interesting or important.
We did a clockwise loop around the first floor, then on the second floor.



































While in one of the other rooms, we sort of took a selfie (I put it here as to not break up the flow of the above).

We entered the Munch area.












And continuing on.




















After finishing up at the Rasmus Meyer House, we headed next door to the Kobe Museum - a structure specifically designed to be a museum (the Rasmus Meyer House retained its general structure of a house).
We passed between the two structures and headed to what we thought was the front of the museum. It wasn't. The door that was back there was locked. So we continued around the far side of building.

The entry wasn't over here either...
We kept walking around the building - and arrived at the entrance on the corner, about halfway down the building. Had we just walked straight from the Rasmus Meyer House to here, would could have saved five or ten minutes of walking (not that there's anything wrong with that).
We followed a young couple into the museum and headed to the ticket counter. While one clerk helped them acquire their tickets, we just had ours scanned and went inside.
This museum had modern art pieces, as opposed to the first that had more traditional works.
Here are what WE deem to be the "more interesting" pieces as some of them we just... don't get(?).
(I also didn't say these pieces were necessarily "good", just interesting...)













There was an installation called "Sunshine Raindrops". It was a darkened room with green-lit drops. It was rather interesting, and trying to walk around the room was a challenge until the eyes adjusted to the light.



Continuing on.

Two buildings down - past the Rasmus Meyer House - was the next... "museum". We again scanned our receipt and entered.
This museum was very different as there was a live component. We think... There were people about doing something. And they were in period costumes of some sort as well. There was also another immersive room with a video on loop. It wasn't a very large facility either. We weren't here too long.

It was time for a late lunch. We were trying to maximize our museum time, but we also did need to eat something.
The Kiwi we got dinner at last night - three blocks away from the museums - seemed like the best place for something. The route to get there took us around the pond, passing by our hotel (our room was on the right side looking at the hotel from this direction), and down the street a couple more blocks.


When we arrived at the Kiwi, we found that it was closed.
We decided to head toward the harbor waterfront.

We even entered a 7-11 - yes, 7-11 - and considered a bacon wrapped hot dog. But nope, we moved on.
We ultimately ended up at the fish market - the 60 year old fish market. It was [late] lunch time and it was a bit busy, with vendors preparing and offering food to potential patrons.


We viewed all the open booths, then stopped at this particular one - the first on the right. And ordered a half-salmon (not the lox, the grilled kind) and half-shrimp sandwich.

We took our sandwich and headed in the general direction of the hotel.

About a block and a half away, we came across a Burger King®. We went in to get a coffee. But we also found that there was an upstairs sitting area. We took our coffee and sandwich up there, and sat in the corner. As the coffee cooled a bit, we enjoyed the sandwich. It was a fantastic sandwich - one of the best we've ever had, especially as it was warm - both the bread and the filling - with a little lettuce and mayo. It cost 159 NOK, or $16.06.

The BK overlooked a large intersection with a hotel.

We still had to head in the direction of the hotel... so after our lunch, we continued on.
Supposedly 7-11s are popular in this neck of the woods.


There was a golden arches on the way, so I stepped in to get a Big Mac® price check. It was $8.58.

Outside the restaurant was this statue.

As we walked down a main street, of this decent sized city, on a Sunday afternoon, we notice... how quiet it was. Weirdly quiet. Some of that probably attributed to the EVs, where we were, the day of the week, and the time of day.




It was only a couple blocks and we were at the fourth and last museum of the collection. This one was the fancy looking one that was at one far end of the park with the gazebo - just to the left while looking at the hotel from the direction in the image a little above.
We scanned our receipt and were told the museum closes at 4:00 - a bit more than a half hour away. There was only one wing open, so the timing was likely doable without much chagrin.
We had to go up one flight, and the wing was on the right (rhyme not intended).
Once again, there were a fair number of pieces of art on display, and here are those that we thought were the more interesting pieces.



















The museum was unexpectedly impressive.
The sun was starting to dip behind the museum when we made our way into the park.


The funicular was running, and though it took a few minutes, I was able to capture both cars.

Remembering that this was late April, the sun was still fairly high in the sky at 8:44 PM.

In the morning we were leaving Bergen for Oslo, so we had to be packed and ready to go tonight. Luggage had to be out at 9:00 PM. We had our checked bags out on time as needed, but hung on to our carry-ons to deal with ourselves.
Our dinner was light due to the late lunch.
We relaxed and took it easy before going to bed.

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