Bryggen, Bergen, Norway

Day 17:

Today we woke up to the sound of rain. It was really lovely... until we considered that that meant we'd be walking in rain quite a bit today.

But despite the rain, we went down the hill to town to check out the sights. We went through Bryggen, which is the iconic strip of buildings that will probably be the first couple pages of images that show up if you google "Bergen, Norway". They LOOK like quaint, old Norwegian houses, but they've all been repurposed to be souvenir shops. We didn't mind, though, it was about time that we acted like tourists.

From there, we went to the St Mary's Church, built in the early 1100s. Apparently, other than a big fire in the 13th century, and a facelift last year, it really hasn't been touched since then. Then we made our way to a relic of when Bergen was the biggest city and port in Scandinavia, Bergenhus Festning. Its a fortress from the mid 1200s! I know we've written it more than once, but words honestly can't describe the feeling of touching an almost thousand year old building. We finally got our taste of Norwegian seafood, albeit in a not so traditional manner. Salmon, shrimp, and scallops in cioppino. It was more than necessary to warm us up!

Soaked to the bone, it was time to call it an early day. And of course, sweet street art, as usual...Read more