The Musings of a Fernicle: Bergen Dog Walks

It is now only three weeks until J and I pack all our things and head for Tromsø, so I thought it would be nice to blog my regular dog walks from home in Bergen. These are the walks, in various directions around our neighbourhood, that all take about 45mins. They are therefore the walk routes that the dogs get regularly. They can be walked in various parts and combinations depending on short cuts and roads taken, but I will try and present them in their original forms.
The first is what J and I call 'Around King's Lake'.

It starts of course at the top of our driveway, and today was a beautiful, warm, clear, late spring day.

On the way down to the lake we pass the local rubbish collection point, boring but useful :)

Then we pass a motorcycle store that keeps J tortured with the fact that he is, for the first time in god knows how long, living without the joy of a motorbike.

We then pass by the kindergarten that you assemble when you need one in a real hurry to meet campaign promises. It was put up in a couple of weeks and was functional within a month. No dogs allowed in that playground though.

Opposite the kindergarten is a newly built soccer ground, also for the kiddies.

Then Hoorah! We have made it to the lake! King's lake it not that popular a walk with most of the locals, so very often when we go there I can let the dogs free range, and they absolutely love it!

Lovely little ducks live on this lake and they are particularly popular with families with kids that come and feed them (with the dogs often being lucky enough to also find the odd bit of bread). There are 2 mother ducks there this year, one with seven babies and one with four. I hoped to get a snap of them today but they were out cruising the reeds on the far side, so I just got one of the dads.

After we've strolled down one side of the lake we walk up into a little stretch of forest on the south side. Here you can also go left up through the local church and home, or as we did today, turn right and complete a full loop around the lake. The dogs were very helpful in deciding which way to go.

At the end of the forest edge you are presented with another choice of walking routes.

If you turn left, you can take a stroll down to the King's weekender castle and through its gardens (which is why we call it king's lake walk). That is about an hour and a half round trip though, more if you want to amble and enjoy the views of the fjord, so it not one of the walks I do regularly before going to work. If you go over the bridge, you can stroll through the forests at the base of the mountain Lovstakken, very beautiful but also a longer round trip. So, today I went right and down the other side of lake.

Bergen has wonderful displays of rhododendrons (spelling?) in the spring, and although they are no longer in their prime, they still look absolutely beautiful.

Looking back over the lake from this side, you see some crazy glass business buildings and our house tucked away up the back, although it is only really visible in the winter when the trees lose their leaves...

From the lake we turn at the NRK building (Norwegian ABC) and head for home. Here we see the mountain Ulriken in the background and today a very lucky paraglider.