Norway part 1: Bergen

And now for something completely different: Bergen, Norway. Bergen is the opposite of Cairo: it rains at least a bit every day. It's cold, clean, green, efficient and quiet. Some of this has to do with being in Norway, and some with having only about 2% as many people as Cairo. This is looking down on the city from a viewing platform at the top of the trolley. We walked up a public trail that was filled with locals getting some exercise, and then rode down the funicular.

Bergen has lots of bikes, despite the fact that nothing seems far enough to justify not walking, and parking is as artistic as it is practical.

This is the reason I was in Bergen: Rex Sean O'Fahey, the world foremost expert on Zubayr Pasha. At least for now. He is warm and amazingly helpful.


Bergen has great cobblestone sidewalks in interesting patterns, though this one takes the cake. The houses, especially at night when lit from within, look warm and inviting - almost fairy tale like.

Because of the huge amount of rain, the hills around the city are full of waterfalls. This was taken on our hike beyond the platform above.

pyramid picnic

On a rare clear day, the pyramids from our window beckoned, so we packed a picnic and caught a cab.



The Sphinx proudly greeted us, along with the throngs of tourists.



CUNY Graduate Center represent, yo.



We said our goodbyes along with the 50 busloads of international tourists, dressed entirely inappropriately for the streets of Cairo. Hell, they were dressed inappropriately for the streets of New York.

beach!

Last weekend we went with some of the teachers from Rachel's school to Ain Sukhna, the nearest beach on the Red Sea. The name means hot spring, though we could not confirm from anyone if there still exists a hot spring there. The good news is that the drive isn't very long. The bad news is that it's fairly close to Suez, so there were a lot of shipping boats passing by in the distance. That didn't prevent us from seeing a school of dolphins, though. Sadly we didn't get a chance to take any pictures of the dolphins.



The view from the beach chairs:


Swimmers at the hotel's private beach with cargo ship in the background:


Relaxation: