From Ulriken to Fløyen
Bergen, the city among the 7 mountains, offers as we know so very much. And there are probably few of us who have visited the city as a tourist without having taken either Fløybanen or Ulriksbanen up to see this beautiful city from above.
But did you know that it is also possible to hike the mountain path from lift to lift?
That trip is called 'Over Vidden'.
In July 2017 we tried our hand at this classic, and what a trip it was! We, meaning the undersigned with two daughters aged 9 and 11, drove over Hardangervidda to Bergen at the beginning of July, and lucky as we were we managed to hit the only sunny day the city had that month for our mountain hike! Hard to beat beautiful Bergen in glorious weather!
Hotels in Bergen
We stayed at the hotel Scandic Neptun right in the city center, with perfect distance to the fish market, Torgalmenningen, Fløybanen, cinema, restaurants etc. Highly recommended!
You can choose for yourself whether you want to take the trip from Fløyen to Ulriken or vice versa. We chose to go from Ulriken to Fløyen to avoid having to watch bus times etc. to get home from the trip. With the end station at Fløyen, it was just a matter of walking on foot from the funicular to the hotel – perfect for us.
Start in the city center
We started the trip by taking the Ulriken Bus (a double-decker bus, very fun for the kids to sit on the 2nd floor of the bus) from Torgalmenningen. The bus departs every hour from 09:00 – 18:00, we chose the 10:00 departure. PS! Be out in good time, our departure quickly filled up and several people had to wait an hour for the next bus.
Ticket price: 60,- NOK per adult, 40,- NOK per child. It is also possible to buy a combined bus / Ulriksbanen ticket from the bus driver. The trip from the city center to the cable car takes approx. 15 minutes.
You can of course also take a regular scheduled bus, in which case you will find bus no. 2, 3 or 12 from the city center heading south. Get off at Haukeland Hospital (before the tunnel). Cross the road over the bridge, and follow the sign up Haukelandsbakken.
Ulriken – Bruse or Perle
The pictures above show the view from the yellow gondola 'Perle', on the way up to Ulrikstoppen. And Bergen from the top of Ulriken.
Once at Ulriksbanen we bought tickets and lined up. Exciting to see if we got a spot in the red gondola 'Bruse' or the yellow gondola 'Perle' 😀 It was 'Perle'!! 😀
Ticket price: 110,- NOK for adults and 70,- NOK for children.
The ride up takes about 7 minutes, from the lower station in Haukelandsbakken to the end point at 607 m above sea level. The cable car has a length of 1120 m.
From cairn to cairn
Well up, the mountain world met us in all its lush splendor – in glorious sunshine. Then it was just a matter of setting off, from cairn to cairn. For the entire way from mountain to mountain, cairns were set up to mark where we should walk. Good for those who might want to wander a bit ahead of the group, easy to see where to go.
It can be a bit tricky to find the right path right at the beginning, the signage is not particularly good just there, so we (and several others) took an involuntary detour right at the start (which, however, gave us a fabulous view). But we quickly learned that at the beginning we should have kept to the right from the start, even where it might not seem logical that you should keep to the right... Once we tried this, we quickly got onto the cairn markings.
So we went slightly wrong at the start of the route, but what did that matter when we were rewarded with this wonderful view.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
And what a wonderful day it turned out to be! Wonderful nature, and lovely views in all directions.
The city of Bergen, the fjords around the city, and the archipelagos beyond – beautiful!! You could even see Folgefonna! The fact that we could see the destination, Fløyfjellet, the entire time was a motivator in itself.
The hike itself is about 15 kilometers. And about halfway there is a beautiful lake, Tarlebøvatnet, where you can refill your water bottles (drinking water, so swimming is prohibited). There we had our lunch in the brilliant sunshine and fantastic surroundings.
The last 1.5 kilometers are on a gravel road, where you walk over Rundemannen to Fløyen. Approx. 15 minutes before Fløyen is Brushytta, where you can buy a much-needed ice cream or soda. There is little to no queue there, which there almost always is in the kiosks at Fløyen...
The trip in brief
The trail between the two mountains is easy to walk, but in some places there was slightly rough terrain with an occasional steep hill to scale. We thought this was fun, but if you have some trouble with bumpy terrain, it is good to be prepared for this.
We spent a total of 6-7 hours on the trip, including a looooong lunch and a couple of breaks for snacks and drinks.
We stopped while on top
You can of course also walk down the nice way from Fløyen to the city, but we chose to stop while we (literally) were on top and took the funicular down. It is fun for both adults and children, you have to try Fløybanen when you are in Bergen anyway 😀
Back in Bergen City Center
Once down, you are right in the center of Bergen, fantastic that the city and mountain plateau are so close to each other!
Extremely nice with dinner at one of the many easily accessible restaurants (and indeed we spotted an EXPA cycling jersey on a gentleman at one of the venues too), before we walked the short way back to the hotel again.
What a day – what a wonderful experience!!!
The trip was absolutely a success regardless of the age of the participants, and can highly recommend it!
Have a nice trip – greetings from Team Expa represented by Cat
Tip: When you arrive at Ulriken, you can go to the mountain shop and ask for free bracelets for the children, which you hand out when the hike is well done. Great success to get visual proof that you have hiked 'Over Vidden'. 😀
Tip 2: The days before and after the trip, we spent among other things visiting the 'Vil Vite' science center and the Aquarium, both within walking distance of the hotel.