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Published: July 23rd 2014
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We have 2 nights in Bergen which is a treat because up to now we have stayed at each city for 1 night and then bags out early a.m. Today, we woke and had a leisurely breakfast before meeting our local guide for a city tour of Bergen. We visited Troldhaugen, the home of famous Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg. Grieg’s home stands majestically overlooking the fjords and was a great inspiration for his music. Sharyn remembers being in the choir in her school play, Song of Norway, which is an operetta written in 1944 by Grieg so had an interest in visiting Grieg’s residence and separate building that was his office overlooking the fjords where he wrote his compositions.
We visited the 750 year old Hakon’s Hall scene of the medieval Royal courts solemn ceremonies and riotous feasts and still used for state banquets. We learned about the history of Bergen including an explosion that leveled a large portion of the harbor killing 120 people. At first they thought it was sabotage but later it was ruled an accident. It was fascinating listening to our local guide who had spent most of her life
in Bergen.
The rest of the afternoon was on our own so we went back to our room and took a little cat nap before heading out again to do some shopping. There were several cruise ships in port and so there were thousands of people in town so it was crazy busy. After buying a few things we decided to go back to our room and get freshened up at which point we met 2 women from our group, Annelle and Patsy, and decided to meet up with them for an early dinner since we had all skipped lunch because it was so hot.
The temperatures here have been the talk of the town. Bergen gets an average of 300 days of rain a year. The temperature for this time of year is usually 20 degrees cooler. There is no air conditioning in the hotels and most businesses because it isn’t needed. Needless to say, when we do go to our room, we don’t stay long because it is like a sauna. Sharyn and I had wanted to try out the sauna, but can’t even imagine that because it is so warm.
Sharyn and I went to buy tickets for the funicular that we planned to do later on after dinner and then met back at the hotel to pick up Patsy and Annelle who are from Georgia. We love their accents and they are really fun and funny. We hit it off pretty early on in our tour. We asked for recommendations about dinner and were told to try Bryggen Tracteursted. This was recommended by a couple of different sources so we thought we would give it a shot. It was down a side street where it was shaded and relatively cool and we could eat outside. We decided to try the small plate Tapas which consisted of meatballs, fish soup and fish stew. It was very tasty and just enough food.
We spent some time meandering through some shops and came upon a gentleman whose name is Jonathan. He had a daughter who came up to him and spoke in Norwegian. He told her to repeat what she said in English. She told us that there were more shops around the corner. The buildings were probably built in the 1500s and were listing to one
side. Unfortunately, they were closed, but we struck up a conversation with Jonathan asking him many questions. This is what we learned.
It is very expensive to live in Norway. Forty percent of wages are paid in taxes for state covered health care, state covered, children’s education through college, even if they leave Norway to study in a different country. The people of Norway pride themselves on being able to own their own property and therefore do not rent housing. Most of the income that is left over is spent on housing.
We asked Jonathan about farming and how difficult it must be and he agreed that farmers work 7 days a week but they are seeing more land being rented out for farming. The law says that the farm would go to the oldest child but in actuality it goes to the person who has an interest in farming. It is not easy living here because the winters are so long and summer only 3 months. There is a lot of rain. During the darkest part of winter, sunrise is at 11:00 a.m. and sunset at 3:00 p.m. We kept peppering him with
questions until he finally said he needed to tend to Judith, his daughter. We thanked him for his time and Sharyn and I said good night to Patsy and Annelle and headed toward the funicular.
By now, the cruise ship passengers had returned to their ships—there were 5 cruise ships in port today—thus we didn’t have to wait and went to the top of Mount Floyen where we enjoyed stunning vistas of the city below. We could see the ring of islands and fjords that protect Bergen harsh winters with relatively mild temperatures, although rainy.
There was a nice breeze and it seemed that things were cooling down a bit. After a while it was time to make our way back to the hotel to start packing for the 5:45 wakeup call tomorrow with bags out at 6:30.
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deborah fenton
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Hello, from cold Adelaide!! I am loving your blogs and photos they are so interesting, glad you are having fun and are having clear skys and able to see the magnificent scenery. Thanks for sharing xo