Day 5 - Monday, July 25

Day 5 - Monday, July 25 - in Bergen

July 25, 2022

This morning it was raining as expected.

We went on a bus tour of Bergen this morning that stopped at the Old Bergen Museum and the Bergenhus Fortress. Bergen was at one time a major hemp rope producer and had many "rope walks" where the rope would be made. We assumed that the hemp came from Norway but our tour guide said that it came from Russia and North Africa!

The Old Bergen Museum is a collection of houses from the 1700s and 1800s that were moved to one place with people in period costumes in some of the houses, a bit like Sturbridge Village in Massachussetts. Some of the merchant houses were quite luxurious - Bergen was a major trading city and some of the merchants were quite wealthy. It was quite interesting to see and we were lucky that it was only sprinkling.

Then we went to the Bergenhus Fortress which was the home of the first Norwegian king and originally constructed in 1270. It originally included the royal residence, bishops residence (when Norway was Catholic), and several churches. It had its ups and downs corresponding to the fortunes of Norway and during the 400 year rule by Denmark starting in the 1400s, largely fell into ruin and was used as a storehouse at times. It was restored in the 1890s, damaged in WWII and restored again.

For lunch we walked down to the harbor to the outdoor summer fish market and couldn't resist the paella with the huge prawns. We weren't quite sure whether we were supposed to eat the eggs on some of the shrimp but overall it was delicious with shrimp, mussels and flavored rice.

Many of the old houses in Bergen and especially along the waterfront are very colorful as red and yellow paints were the cheapest - white was the most expensive color. Most of the houses have been rebuilt since the 1800s as fire was a constant problem from Bergen's beginning and once a fire started, it would spread to all the attached houses. I remembered the colorful houses from my trip here in 1974 after graduating from college.

On the way back we passed the statue of Henrik Ibsen in front of the National Theater - we hope he didn't look like this in real life!

Bergen promotes street art and even has an annual contest for the best art. Although maybe not the best artistically, one of the most recently popular is included below.