Toward the end of our 12 hour train-boat-bus-train tour through some of God’s most beautiful handiwork, we began to question the wisdom of scheduling at 12 hour fjord boat tour on the next day. We decided to check out a shorter 4 hour boat tour. This allowed us to sleep-in a bit.
We ate breakfast and then started out by going to the tourist information office to buy Bergen cards to give us admissions to the things we wanted to see here. We also got our tickets for the 4 hour fjord tour. The lady helping us was very helpful and checked the weather report and said that Tuesday was supposed to be better so we booked the tickets for tomorrow. We have learned that Bergen has more days of rain than any other European city. It rains here more than 300 days a year. So far we have been here two days and it has rained both days. Today however was really a nice day. Although it was cloudy all day and it wasn’t until this evening about 7:00 that we saw part of the sun peak out from behind the gray curtain. It did rain twice, once at lunch time when we were eating fish and chips from the fish market. We could not find a table under one of the tents so we found a high standup round table (one that when you stand up it is the correct height. We ate with one hand as we held umbrellas with the other. Rain does not slow things down here.
But I get ahead of myself. Our first sight of the day was a walking tour of the Bryggen (BREW-gun) area. This is the oldest part of the city which was dominated by a group of German traders who formed an trade alliance called the Hanseatic League and it existed here from 1370 to 1754. The Hanseatic league was a men’s only club. We were TOLD this was because they were very intent on making money and that marriage and children were a drain on finances. How you may ask did they perpetuate themselves? Apprentices, young German boys of 14 or 15 applied to be allowed into the organization. There was a test you had to pass: being Keel Hauled and surviving.
The life for the first few years was tough. We saw the kitchen where these young boys cooked. It was a small room with a long pit in the middle for a charcoal fire and a large oven at one end. There was very little place for smoke to escape so these boys would have spent hours in a very hot and smokey place as they prepared food for the older apprentices and the merchant to whom they were apprenticed. The houses along the waterfront served as their homes and as their shops and warehouses for their goods. The sleeping quarters for these apprentices were very tiny (only slightly larger than our hotel room and accommodated 10 or so kids. The beds were smaller than a twin and they were built into cabinets in the wall (bunkbed like) except they had doors that could only be opened from the outside. So when the merchant put them to bed they stayed there.
These shops are all wooden and they stand and lean against each other. The wooden construction began back when only churches and castles could be made of stone. The problem with the wooden construction is that they have burned down and been rebuilt about once or twice each century. The oldest houses (some of them- there was a fire in the 1950s) date from the 1700s.
We then went into the oldest building in Bergen which is St. Mary’s Church dating from the 12th century. It was originally a Catholic church but switched to Lutheran with Reformation that Luther sparked in the 1400s. The church is small but ornate. The ceilings in places are decorated in the Norwegian style of basically stenciling without stencils. They paint the wood white and then in a single dark color paint a repeating pattern on the wood to decorate it. I mentioned earlier about the houses being yellow and red and green all across Norway. I found out that this was because 300 years ago the white paint was more expensive than the colors yellow and red. So that is what most people used. Now it has just become a Norwegian tradition.
After the fish and chips lunch in the rain we decided to ride the funicular up the 1000 feet tall mountain to have a bird’s eye view of the city. This sounded delightful until I found out what a funicular is. Imagine two train cars holding perhaps 75 people each that are attached to each end of long cable with a big pulley at the top of the mountain. One car is at the top and the other is at the bottom (on the cable) as one goes down it helps to pull the other up and in the middle the track separates into two tracks so that they pass each other. It is very efficient but I began to look at this cable very carefully and wonder about the mathematics of the stress and tension strength of steel cable.
While we were getting our tickets a lady rushed by and tried to get the ticket person to help her with the public pay (10 NOK) toilets that are right across. The ticket lady did not help and the lady looked very stressed. She did not speak much English and no Norwegian. I found a 10 Kr coin and tried to help but the coin was Swedish (left over) and it did not work in the Norwegian toilet. I did have a 20 but it would not work. So I gave it to her to get change. We went on but she soon passed us in line to join her tour group and she looked much more relaxed.
The view at the top of the funicular was expansive. We have been confined to the older part of the city where they segregate the tourists. Bergen is a large 500,000 people modern city once you leave the tourist area. We found ourselves at the top of the mountain with an English speaking tour group and the guide was telling them about the view and city. We listened because we were on the top of the same mountain. She said that Bergen is called the city between the 7 mountains. The problem is that there are nine mountains and no one knows which are the correct seven. All of the mountains have tunnels cut through them which I am sure that has to do with commuting in the winter over the mountains. (By the way, the term mountain is used loosely here. We were on the tallest point around and we were at 1000 feet. But it is only just a few blocks from the ocean front so it does jut quickly out from the sea.)
We wondered through the old cobblestone streets and narrow passages between the buildings. Penny indulged me as I walked (make that squeezed) through an antique store. Image all of the garage sales of the last 100 years having their inventories all put into a shop about half the size of a Quick Trip. There were about 5 rooms and the walkways were just barely wide enough to squeeze through. Stuff was everywhere. From floor to ceiling and piled in piles with no discernable organization. There were lots of things that I recognized as using or having seen in my childhood and that was depressing. The stuff of my life is in an antique store. It was kind of like the movie Back to the Future.
We returned to the hotel because I needed to rest. I lay down but did not sleep long as some loud growling noise woke me up. I was about to blame Penny for snoring but she wasn’t asleep and then I realized I had awakened myself by snoring. Rats. We did take some pictures of this room. The room is clean and functional but it not a lot bigger than the cruise ship room. I can almost stretch my arms across the room. It was our most expensive hotel. Bergen is pricey.
Our nightly where-do-we-eat ritual began. I have decided that you can’t trust anyone about food advice. We all know about Rick Steves but I felt confident that the walking tour guide who lives in Bergen would not steer us wrong. I had heard her tell another tourist about this place to eat which she described as having typical Norwegian food at a reasonable price and further she said it was the kind of place that a young family might go to eat. It is named Pingvinen which is Penguin. We found the place on the map and walked pretty much right to it. When we got there it was a small place that consisted of a long bar with a longer bar facing the window in the opposite direction and about 4 feet between them. There were a few tables on each end. The place was packed and no one was eating but rather all were drinking. The menu was written on a chalkboard and was not very long and since there was no place to sit we decided to go elsewhere.
We have been seeing these Peppes Pizza restaurants so we decided to give that a try and see what Norwegian pizza is like. I ordered the New Orleans pizza: deep disk with barbecued beef, pineapple, red bell peppers and corn. First one to explain why that is a “New Orleans” pizza wins a prize. The sign when we came in said to seat ourselves. The place was crowded and a waitress helped us to find a table which was very nice facing the park area. There had been a chair blocking the entrance into this room. After we had been sitting there awhile we read the sign that had been taped to the table. It said the table was not in service because of a water leak. Evidently they had fixed it because we did not get wet but then again it wasn’t raining much at the time.
The view out the window was of a statue of Ole Bull. That is like short for Oliver not like quaint for Old. That is all I know about Ole. Other than the statue has him holding a violin and the water pouring out from the bottom of his feet is spraying over some guy who is holding a harp of sorts. Someone Google this and tell us about Ole. The base of the fountain/statue is a shallow pool that has a series of 3 foot round stepping stones forming a path across the pool. We had a blast watching the families walk by and virtually every kid under 10 and one 17 or so kid had to walk across the stone path. One kid stepped off accidently. One leg (he had on shorts and sandals) went in to the pool. He got out and went to his mom to report the accident. The leather sandal was wet. Mom evidently reassured him and off they went.
It has been a good day with a very relaxed finish.
Ray
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