2 years and 3 days since the start of the 1st lock down in March 2020
Today as forecast it was sunny and we had a plan. We headed to the Tourist Information place and booked tickets for Ulriken - the cable car up the tallest of the seven ‘mountains’ surrounding Bergen. In my book ‘mountains’ may be a tad of an exaggeration at around 647 meters!
We only had a short wait for the bus and were a short walk away from the cable car in under twenty minutes. The views were amazing as we sped up the mountainside. Once at the top there was snow - hooray! I got the camera out ready for snowy scenes and then disaster. An error sign kept coming up ‘Er 01’ - problem with the connection between the lens and camera. I took it apart, tried again but every third image the camera played up and stuck. I panicked as this is my workhorse lens and the one I am relying on to use for the Northern Lights in a couple of days (fingers crossed). We went in the mountaintop cafe and whilst Colin ordered coffees and honey waffles I tried again to clean it but to no avail. I thought quickly and decided I’d contact the chap who is taking us out on the trip as he is a photographer and could know where I could hire one and I Googled camera shops in Tromso as well.
Feeling pretty bad, I used my long lens to check it wasn’t the camera at fault and luckily as this appeared to be working I think the issue lies with the lens.
I decided that this should not ruin our trip so we pottered around and Gulliver Bear had a great photo session and I also managed to get the lens working long enough for some aerial views of Bergen - todays image.
When we’d had enough of the snow and views we took the cable car back down and a different bus and then walked down one of the prettiest streets in Bergen - Lille ???. It looked a lot better in the sunshine than it would have done yesterday in torrential rain! We headed back to the apartment for late lunch and a chance to write to the tour guide and research camera shops. The news was not great although he can lend me a Sigma lens for the night b it as he is off travelling it’ll be one night only. Also there are no camera hire places in Tromso!! I got my camera cleaning gear and blower out for another more thorough clean and amazingly the lens is working… for the moment.
After lunch we walked out to explore our little peninsula and I put the lens through its paces and so far it is working. I’m crossing everything that I can keep it going until we are home and then get it looked at.
We walked back, stopped at another branch of the Rema 1000 supermarkets that we now favour and by chance saw the local cadets practicing marching with drums… I think they need a lot more practice!
Tonight’s culinary delight was fried fish cakes, the remains of the peas and a Norwegian coleslaw. For dessert there was half a melon (found in the reduced section!) and cheese and biscuits with the remains of the Brie - classy!
