Norway Day 7: Bergen & Bryggen

​Today we were blessed with almost sunny weather in the rainiest city in Europe.  We celebrated by spending the whole day outside.

We started out with a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage site at Bryggen (which is right next to our hotel).  Bryggen is the ancient core of Bergen, which has been a Hanseatic trading hub since around 1100, almost entirely built around the stock fish that was caught and dried in Lofoten.  

Bergen has a history of rain and fires.  The town has burned down over 30 times in its history - each time, people shoveled the debris into the bay and rebuilt.  So over time the shoreline moved about 400 feet as the new buildings were erected on the old debris.  It was less expensive to rebuild out of fresh pine wood than it would have been to start building out of something less flammable

The Hanseatic League trading system was entirely German, and the German community in Bergen was shut off entirely from the Norwegian population. We heard a lot about the hard life of the sons of  German merchant families who were sent to Bryggen to learn the cod trade. Their education started when they were 10 years old and, surviving like boys at a toxic boarding school, they stayed about 10 years. When the finished their apprenticeship, they were ready to go home, marry and start trading themselves.

Because of all the fires, there was no flames at all allowed in the trading houses - so no heat and no lanterns - except in the common rooms at the back.  It sounded harsh.

We visited the Bryggen museum, which had a number of common rooms, with illustrative furniture and equipment, as well as kitchens with utensils that were found in archeological excavations. In fact, the entire Bryggen site was saved because of a fire which destroyed most of the old town, creating an opportunity for archeologists to excavate and unearth its ancient origins. Our guide helped us to understand how things worked and how German Hansa merchants affected the culture of Bergen, Norway, Europe and the world.

We had lunch at a great restaurant nearby, and then took the funicular to the top of one of the mountains over Bergen.  We enjoyed the trolls and goats at the top and then took a wonderful two mile walk down the mountain through a forest of tall trees and mossy glens.  It was lovely. The photos cannot capture the amazing beauty of that forest. 

After a brief rest, we went to the Troll Museum.  The museum used virtual reality to bring the many legends and traditional stories alive.  The museum highlighted the many Norwegian writers, poets, composers and illustrators who collected traditional folklore and brought trolls and other fanciful creatures to the public.

We stopped in the large, two-towered church near Bryggen that evidently had a famous altarpiece.  Since it was Sunday, we couldn't really look around.  

Then we shopped a bit, especially in the Viking shop, and enjoyed famous reindeer hotdogs for dinner.