Sunday in Bergen

Not exactly a gentle Sunday but lovely none the less.
I met Yee Wei at the Floyen Funicular and we travelled up for great views. We had a look around and saw the cashmere goats that live up there. They love being patted and forage, keeping the vegetation growth under control.

From there we went to Mariakirken (St Mary’s church) which is the oldest existing holding in Bergen, perhaps because it is built of stone when most other buildings were built of wood and Bergen has had many fires. It’s a beautiful church and the service was lovely. Very thought provoking message of are you following Jesus or just travelling with him? The bible reading was given in Ukrainian. Bergen has accepted many Ukrainians under temporary protection visas since 2022 and a number attend the English speaking service at Mariakirken run by the Anglican Church. We were able to take a look around the church after the service and it is lovely.

We then went to the Fish Market for lunch. We had Bergen (fish) soup which is white fillets and salmon with celery in a milky/creamy stock. It was nice but there’s enough seafood choices down there I probably won’t have it again. We then parted ways, me to museums and him to go shopping.

I had intended to go to the Theta Muesum which is the resistance museum of Bergen. It’s Norway’s smallest museum. It was difficult to find and I ended up in the back room of a restaurant only to discover that the museum is closed for winter already. That was disappointing but I’d planned another museum visit - the Shotstuene museum which tells the story of the Hanseatic League of German traders who built Bryggen and traded in stockfish, the dried cod of northern Norway. It was a guided tour and the tour guide was very engaging.

I had an hour before I met Yee Wei for dinner so I sat at one of the pubs in their outdoor seating in Bryggen and just watched the world go by.

We returned to the fish market for dinner. Bergen soup had been my choir for lunch so Yee Wei chose dinner. We had paella, stone crab and snow crab. The crab was good. The snow crab wasn’t as delicate and sweet as it had been last night but it was still good. The stone crab was more robust and still good. I suspect I’ll be back to the fish market to try something different before I leave.
Yee Wei presented me with some brown cheese chocolate. I didn’t tell him what I thought of brown cheese, just accepted the chocolate graciously. I will be curious to try it as the cheese has a caramelised flavour so maybe it will be nice as a chocolate?

I had planned to do some washing today but didn’t get there. That’s a job for tomorrow. There’s no laundry at that hotel but there’s a laundromat about a 15 minute walk away.
I spent so much time choosing my accommodation for this trip, There were so many variables to look at. I’m really happy with the location here. Apart from the bus to get here from the train station everything is in a 10 minute walk or less. I could have walked from the train station but was wary of getting g lost. Much easier to take the bus.Baca selengkapnya