Rain on my parade

Yesterday, May 17, was the Norwegian Independence day and the whole country turned out to celebrate. In Bergen it started with 21 cannons shooting off at 7am! After our wonderful breakfast we headed down the street to line up for the parades. Yes plural. Simultaniously! Apparently there were three parades, one starting at 7(which we missed) and two that started around ten. We swear every resident of the town marched! It went on for over two hours and every organization you could imagine was represented, with instruments or not,including our Irish accordian band. About an hour into it, the flow of marchers shifted to the right and another whole parade started coming from the opposite direction! That went on for another hour. The most interesting part was that a majority of the folks, both marchers and watchers wore their traditional dress,both men and women. So the town was filled with revelers all day which made it all the more fun. We explored all around town, walked through the celebration fair, rode the funicular to the top of the mountain for a spectacular view, then consumed $40 worth of McDonalds happy meals. We almost didn't do that as they didn't take foreign credit cards but fortunately Lori had just enough kroners. After a brief siesta we explored the other end of the peninsula then settled in to this really cool wine bar in our hotel (a wine spectator listed establishment)and shared a bottle of wine and ate the last of our $8 potato chips. And did I mention that it rained the whole day? Beren gts six feet of rain a year, and it rains 275 days a year. So it rained on our parade, but that was just fine. Bergeners just go on! I'll be able to post photos later today when we get to Stockholm.