Pleasant Bergen

We have now spent three full days in Bergen and although pleasant enough, it hasn't been as exciting as the Scandinavian capitals or as exciting as the Sognfjord. We did our own little walking tour of downtown Bergen best known for the Hanseatic quarter. This area consists of fragile wooden buildings from the 1700s built by German speaking merchants and traders. The street scape of these buildings has the quintessential Norwegic appearance of coloured buildings. In areas some of the wooden walls are quite bowed but that is understandable after 300 years. The German merchants have given way to Norwegian owned touristy stores. It was quite pleasant. We were also impressed by some of the massive cruise ships in the harbour. They were quite pleasant from a distance. For something completely different we headed out of town to the Ole Bull museum which was on a small island 30 minutes outside of Bergen. One had to take a small boat over to the island where Ole Bull had built his house. Ole Bull lived in the 19th century and was a contemporary and friend of Edvard Grieg and Henri Ibsen who also lived in Bergen. He was a virtuoso violinist who was the equivalent of Elvis Presley of his time. Reportedly he had fathered 40 children. He was also a Norwegian Nationalist when Norway was controlled by Sweden and he promoted Norwegian culture. When he died 30000 people attended his funeral . The house he had built was a cross between the Alhambra built by the Moors in Granada and a Orthodox Church. It was all built of Norwegian pine. There were trails all around the island, a beach to swim although the water was very cold and a look out tower. It kind of felt like the Norwegian equivalent of Fantasy Island. It was very pleasant. We spent the good part of the day there. Edvard Grieg the famous composer was also from Bergen. His house Troldhaugen has been preserved as a museum with a tastefully designed concert hall, gift shop cafe and another museum. It was located 8 minutes from our house so we stopped there twice to take in the atmosphere. One could walk down to the fjord and look into his composing hut. I think that ever since I played the Peer Gynt suite in the London Youth Symphony that this has been one of my favorite pieces. Having visited the house and Norway, I think that I have a better appreciation for his inspiration. We visited the summer Royal palace where the Royal family stays when they come to Bergen. None of them were around so you could wander the gardens and pretend you were the King. The Norwegians are much more relaxed then the English about their Royal family.The Royal Palace was very pleasant. We visited the Botanical Garden which was a disappointment. I think they were known for the Rododendrums. They had a lot of them but they had bloomed in June. The garden covered a large area. It wasn't as good as the Devonian garden. The garden had been broken into regional areas from around the world. When we got to the region of Canada, it struck me that a lot of the forest trees had been cut done. Was this an attempt to recreate clear cutting or were they building a new garden? There was no one around to ask so I guess we will never know. They needed some more volunteers for weeding and deadheading. Our final excursion was to Bergen's open air museum representing Bergen circa 1870. It was quite pleasant. On the hour they had little 15 minute acting scenes recreating the past. The vignettes were in English and Norwegian. As everyone speaks English when one talks to the Norwegians, this was the most Norwegian I had heard. After wandering around the small open air museum for an hour and a half and playing 3-4 rounds of Kubbe which we had learned in Sweden we called it a day. The Kubbe game was very pleasant. I get the feeling that Bergen is the jumping off point for cruise ships heading north or people heading inland to the fjords. People typically spend a day or two here before heading out. Perhaps 2 days would have been enough but it was very pleasant.Read more