It has only been four short weeks since I came back from Norway but, with Christmas and New Year fast approaching, I delayed blogging about it until now!

I also struggled majorly deciding which photos to post - my first attempt at blogging them seemed set to exceed 100 images(!!!) which I knew absolutely no-one would have the patience to wade through. So, in order to get a few of my favourite photos blogged before too much time passes, I have been strict with myself and these are the images that remain!

Bergen is truly a very pretty town. Settled in amongst the mountains and surrounded by fjords, the best way to appreciate it is from one of the high vantage points. As we were visiting out of season, our best option was to ride the funicular railway to the top of Mount Floyen. The photos don't really do it justice - every few minutes the light would change and the view would look completely different.

In the end, we went up to Mount Floyen twice - once at the start of our time there, and again at the end. The views were immediately very different for one particular reason... SNOW! See if you can spot the difference!!!

One of the main reasons tourists choose to visit Bergen is to see the colourful wooden houses which form the UNESCO World heritage site of Bryggen. Having looked into their turbulent history, I was intrigued to see them but wasn't expecting much - after all, they were only wooden buildings! They were, however, very photogenic and I can see how they would be even prettier on a bright sunny day (we, unfortunately, had rain and mist for most of our time there). I was surprised, though, to see how many narrow alleyways were tucked in between the houses - you really could miss them completely if you didn't know they were there!

In fact, Bergen is known for its narrow alleyways so we made sure to venture off of the beaten track where we stumbled across lots of pretty houses. Much of Bergen is hilly which provided some amazing photographic opportunities across the rooftops, even if it did mean that we struggled getting up and down the cobbled streets in order to take them! One of my highlights of the trip was the self-guided "Norway in a Nutshell" tour that takes you way up into the mountains by way of train, bus and boat. Even though it was a bit of a grey, misty day, I still had an amazing time! It was just a shame that the weather was so gloomy as we missed out on some of the spectacular views along the Flåm railway. Definitely a trip to repeat at some point in the future!

Seeing as we were visiting the "Gateway to the Fjords" it seemed silly not to make the most of it... when in Rome (ok, when in Bergen!). We booked a second, shorter fjord tour the next day to visit Mostraumen. Unfortunately the day was even greyer and even mistier than the day before but it did make for some lovely, atmospheric photos! It really made all of the colourful, wooden houses stand out on the landscape!

On our final day we decided to tackle a relatively gentle 2 hour circular hike through the mountains! I was apprehensive at first, worried that my back (and my legs) wouldn't allow me to get that far! But I'm so glad we did it - It was absolutely stunning! Every twist and turn along the path brought us face to face with another amazing view and we stopped so often to take photographs that I needn't have worried about struggling to walk so far!

Want to see more? Well, guess what? You can! I took so many photos and you can view the entire set here (they are even available to purchase if you wish to do so). Thank you Norway - it has been ace! I will definitely be back!