Bergen, Norway’s second largest city and with about 250,000 residents. Did you know it’s twinned with Newcastle upon Tyne and Seattle? No? Me neither. Situated on the south-west coast of Norway, Bergen itself is sheltered from the North Sea by 3 large islands. Which means that it escapes the worst of the weather, but unfortunately not the rain...
still at least its pretty in the sunshine. You can’t really see it from the photo but Bergen is situated in an area known as the seven mountains (although people in Bergen can’t seem to agree which, of the many surrounding Bergen, count as part of the seven). The photo was taken on top of Fløyen after a cute ride on a funicular.
Bergen used to trade extensively with Northern Norway for dried cod. Back in the late 14th century a group known as the Hanseatic Merchants were so successful in this kind of trade, they ended up with their own seperate quarter of town. The quayside of which is now known as Bryggen and its a totally cool (if slowly sinking) group of old wooden warehouses/shops etc.
its a really interesting place to wander around, even if it is populated purely by tourist shops, restaurants and erm... well more tourist shops really. They’re continually repairing the buildings and only use old methods, so no power tools and some pretty funky woodwork. They could probably do with using a plumb line now and again, but then again it’s all part of the charm..
Hmm ok, that wasn’t so hard. Its possible this could be a long post though so put the kettle on!
I think it’s possible that I managed to see pretty much everything there is to see in Bergen. Or at least anything that they thought was worth including in a tour guide, particularly when Rachel turned up.
The one thing I’d just like to point out to anyone that’s thinking of going to Bergen is, if its in the tourist information brochure, you’d better get up early! 99% of the things you want to see are only open between 10/11am and 4pm. Yup that’s right. It’s a complete pain in the arse, as you really have to get a move on to fit in more than a couple of museums a day.
So here’s my quick guide to the bits I did manage to see (and remembered to take a photo of)..
Håkon’s Hall and the Rosenkrantz Tower.
Rosenkrantz Tower was built in the 1560’s by the governor of Bergen castle. Håkon’s Hall was built in the mid 1200’s by Håkon Håkonsson when Bergen was the political centre of Norway.
You can do these in the same session as they’re right next to each other. Although if you don’t realise the above rule about opening times, you’ll only get to see the outside of one of them! Oh and if you go here they give you a free cup of coffee in their cafe and a ticket that gets you 50% discount off some of the other museums. Bargain.
We managed to see Rosenkrantz Tower and its well worth the visit if you like climbing towers and seeing lots of empty stone walled rooms. Bizzarely that’s one of my favourite things to do so I was a happy bunny.
Domkirken (or Bergen Cathedral)
Bergen Cathedral was something I ended up walking past every day as it was on the way to my hostel. Originally built some time in the late 1100’s and rebuilt a fair few times after being burnt down (Bergen had a huge problem with fires) it’s looked like this...
since about 1650. Apparently it used to have a Rococo interior (think overly ornate, lots of ornamental flourishes) but after a renovation in the late 1880’s they took it back to its medieval origins and now its just looks stark and uninviting. It has however got a pretty cool organ that reminds me of a lego version of Darth Vader...
See?
Nykirken
Ok so I did a little more indulging in my church addiction although Bergen has far more than I took photos of. Nykirken was built in 1621 (according to the blurb). Apparently it was built after many complaints from the people on the far side of the harbour, about the difficult walk to the cathedral. Now modern times aside it couldn’t have taken more than 20 minutes to walk between the churches, take out the modern roads and you’re talking approximately 40 mins ? I thought people with faith were meant to be diligent and patient?
Anyway here you go...
Now although the building was originally there since 1621, its had its fair share of fires, rebuildings and restorations, the latter as late as the 1950’s when they finally added the steeple that had been in the original plans but never built.
Inside it feels like a mix between baroque and some weird 1950’s television show. It’s really bright, open with a weird pulpit mid way down the hall and an angel that descends from the ceiling to baptise children.
Yep, you heard me right. An angel. On an automated pulley system that can descend from the ceiling. Can anyone smell gimmick?
I know that it works because the guy in the church, gave Rachel and I a truly exciting demonstration. Apparently the children are always amazed by it. If only I’d been a child I would have been able to crack a proper smile and not a ‘will he notice if I make a break for the door’ version.
Johanneskirken
Ok, so the last church in my photo album is Johanneskirken (or St John’s Church). The only real cruciform style church we found and a typical gothic revival style. Built in the late 1880’s its not only the largest church in Bergen, but apparently the highest. I’m guessing they’re talking steeple height here and not just because its on a hill overlooking the others!
Annoyingly enough it was also suffering from odd open hours and even though I made it there a few times I still didn’t get a chance to look inside.
The Cube
Now this is probably one of my favourite things in Bergen. It’s a piece of installation art, temporarily on show at Festplassen.
It’s by a guy called Bård Breivik and its actually really hard to find information on it! As far as I know it’s going to be split into 4 panels and put into the outer walls of the new building for the Institute of Informatics. Apparently the four walls represent 4 types of mathematical equations - Orion's Belt, High C, Doppler Chamber Tone A, and Fractals. I wish I knew which ones were which, but here’s a closer look at them anyway...
Personally I think it works way better as a cube.
Bergen Aquarium
I’ve always had a bit of an internal war I go to Aquarium’s and Zoo’s. Part of me loves being able to see things that I don’t usually or maybe won’t get to see in the wild. The other part of me gets completely depressed at seeing animals in such tiny pens/enclosures with nothing to stimulate them and nothing like their natural environment. So, even though I went and enjoyed some of the animals I probably wouldn’t recommend Bergen Aquarium. The enclosures are tiny, considering they’re almost on the edge of a peninsula you’d have thought they could have built more imaginative and larger enclosures. Maybe even using the actual bay in some way.
Anyway. I’ll stop bitching and show you some of the animals...
nope they’re not dead, just sleeping. The coolest thing about their enclosure was the chance to see them underwater...
They’re amazingly quick and so much more graceful than you’d think.
Now this one was sleeping (according the blurb I saw later on behaviour). It kept making motions like it was catching fish, very cute if slightly weird to see. There were 3 in the enclosure and personally I thought they looked liked bored extras in a mafia movie...
There were also a lot of crocodiles and alligators, along with a huge variety of fish and the worlds smallest shark tunnel (and possibly the worlds smallest sharks). The lighting however was pretty dark and it was a pain in the ass taking photos. This one I think pretty well sums up how I felt about the Aquarium as a whole though...
Fløyen
You remember earlier when I was saying that the picture I’d taken of Bergen, was taken from the top of Fløyen? The funicular to get to the top is a major attraction in Bergen, however there’s also good reasons to go up and have a good wander around the top. There are easy trails through some lovely woodland, which makes a great change from the bustle of normal Bergen. You can hang out at one of the many picnic huts or there are loads of BBQ areas that are equally lovely. Failing that, you can be a complete kid and play with the trolls...
and who doesn’t love finding trolls?
Ok, so there are tonnes of other things to do in Bergen, most of which I forgot to take photos of or I’ve taken so many photos that its hard to know what to include! There are a couple of things that I do want to mention though. Iron Maiden for one. I know who thought they were still touring! Certainly not me, or at least not touring other than festivals. It would seem however that they have a new album out ‘The Final Frontier’ and have gone to number 1 in the Album charts in quite a few countries. I’m not sure if that’s the metal album charts or just the normal ones. The reason why I mention them is that they were playing in Bergen whilst we were there and we managed to see not only the stage going up (with the number of genuinely fit roadies definitely improving) but we also caught some of their set, for free! Free metal is always good metal in my opinion.
In addition to the above I thought I’d leave you with a couple of other things that I liked in Bergen and some sunset/cloud photos. For no other reason than I think they’re pretty and they make me smile, which is pretty much how I felt about Bergen really.
Next up will be a tourist staple of Norway...
x
No comments:
Post a Comment