It's Bryggen Glorious!
July 17th & 18th, 2016
After a wonderful time staying in the fjords, we moved onto Bergen (still also at the edge of the fjord) and had another stunning drive. After stopping to ooh and aww at every waterfall and view we finally made it to Bergen and loved how cute and small the town is.
You see why we oohed and awwed?
We got to Bergen and it was raining, and we were hungry (especially after trying to figure out parking for an hour...just go to a garage), so we had some soup at a really small, local cafe; it was very good. We made it to our rooms and got some rest for the nest day.
Bergenhus Fortress
Our first full day here started with a walk through the Bergenhus Fortress. There are two buildings still there that date to the 1240s and a recently excavated portions showed foundations that date to before 1100. It is crazy to walk through so many areas that are so much older than our entire country. We were also amused that the only time this fortress was used in battle was due to a miscommunication.
Touring the small walkways of Bryggen.
Next, we found ourselves at the Bryggens Museum. We decided to take a walking tour of Bryggen, the old part of Bergen with the colorful wooden houses, the town is known for. The tour started in the basement where we were able to see the foundations they found when they began to dig the foundation of the museum. The town used to sit right on the water, which means it has moved back a significant amount. The homes have always been made of wood in similar fashion, despite burning down several times. The current portion of houses that are protected as a UNESCO heritage site, are only about 1/3 of the original structures. Our guide mentioned how it is funny that these homes are now being protected, when they are terribly built and the people never learned from their previous mistakes to make the buildings better.
Bryggen
The city used to be the capital of Norway and was the trading center of the city. Their main item sold was dried cod, which they still have displayed all over the city and in the museum. It had a pretty distinct smell and we decided we were fine seeing it and not tasting any.
We stopped by the fish market for a quick lunch, which is fun to walk through, but definitely a tourist trap. All the food was overpriced and fine, but we can get the same quality fish just about anywhere here.
Our boat for the next 3 hours.
We continued the day with a fjord boat tour. We decided we have already seen it from atop and the valleys, but not from the water. At one point, the boat stopped at a pier to let off a local and a group of children came out to greet us while very majestic music played on the boat. At first, it was pretty cute to see them smiling and waving, but it soon became a bit “Children of the Corn” when they literally never stopped. The entire time we could see them, they never moved except their waving arms and had smiles plastered to their faces. It was either the most creepy thing over or the most Scandinavian thing ever-we are still trying to figure that out.
Children of the corn? They never stopped waving!
As we continued through the fjords, it was crazy to see the completely vertical cliff walls and turns all around us and to realize how many people actually live here. At one point we stopped at a waterfall when the boat literally pushed against the cliff.
Yeah, yellow waterfall water! Definitely a first.
What we didn’t realize was that the crew was gathering the water in a bucket so we could try the waterfall water. When we tried it, it was slightly yellow and tasted heavily of iron. We passed more waterfalls and cliffs and enjoyed a peaceful ride back to Bergen.
What a beautiful city.
For “sunset” (according to Google this is at 10:45, but according to our windows the sun never sets) we took the funicular up the Mount Floyen. The views were amazing and you could islands and water as far out as possible. We enjoyed our final moments relaxing in Bergen.
