TWO DAYS IN BERGEN

 

Sunday 11th and Monday 12th July 2010

Each day dawned dull and grey with wet pavements, but sometime during the following hours, the sun came out and gave a fresh image to the coastal city.

Bergen is situated amongst fjords and islands. From the funicular hillside look out, many of these islands can be seen nearby. Ferries trace white lines across the water while here and there is the glimpse of high and low bridges joining islands to the mainland.

From the viewpoint it does indeed look a picturesque place to visit. What about the ground level view?

City Box Hotel is not right downtown, but it is close enough. The main good point is the three blocks or so to the railway station which I used coming and going from Bergen. It is budget priced coupled with good sized clean and comfortable rooms.

I head out with map in hand although having read it a few times I soon get familiar with my surroundings and directions become fairly intuitive.

The first place I located was a large pond or small lake just a block away. This is lille Lungeglard vann and it is part of a inner city park area. In the centre is an impressive fountain which was sending great jets of water skywards each time I saw it. Later I discovered a couple of smaller fountains in small garden ponds.

Dominating one end of the lake was a large stainless steel cube form. Each side had a different pattern of shapes, curves, hollows and protrusions. Each time I passed it the lighting was different and so the sides conveyed different effects. Quite fascinating actually.

At a guess I would put the height at five metres with each side at least that wide. Small children tried to climb it without success. Plenty of people were posing for photos in front of it. Consequently I had to wait a while to get my 'people free' photos.

Nearby was a large box frame standing up on one side. It was filled with earth and had grass growing around the edges and flowers blooming on the main sides. They had been planted to create a floral pattern. On the reverse were more flowers plus a metal rod sticking out and shaped like an umbrella handle.

In a neighboring flower garden was a large white door frame complete with an open door. A path of ground cover plants wound its way toward and through the door. Unusual, but in some ways compelling in its simplicity.

In a pond was a sculpture of of a worried fisherman in a row boat. On the boat's side were the hands of a sea monster trying to climb aboard. No wonder he was worried. Multiple jets of water played out over it from a fountain.

Other jets were playing out over a sculpture of a small nude boy standing in the middle of a pond. His face showed complete annoyance – even anger. I guess he didn't like the water splashing onto him.

Somewhere, near by a group were endlessly practicing their sneer drum beats. It was not actually unpleasant just loud and repetitive.

Carrying on, I arrived at the Torget, which is a waterside esplanade and runs along one of the harbourside areas. This is the tourist centre of the city. It is where the tourists from the cruise boats and the Hurtigruten naturally end up in. Unless they have joined one of the many bus tours from shipside. Close to the Torget are ferryboat births.

I was interested to find a variety of pleasure craft also moored around this section of the harbour. These included some large motor cruisers and large yachts all of which belonged to the wealthy or more likely the super rich. Most had registrations from Caribbean ports such as Georgetown and Kingston. However one very large yacht was registered in Douglas, which I took to be the Isla of Man.

Each boat was spotlessly clean with shoes left at the gangplank.

Part of the Torget was a wide mall with shops on either side, a fountain and statue in the middle and various buskers at work. One group was an accordion band, another a brass group from St Petersburg and then a solo country and western singer – who seemed to be popular with the passers by. He was doing a range of country standards, the others were playing short classical tunes. Short I suspect because it gave folk a quicker chance to feel they should donate.

Across the road from the harbour, there was a group of stalls selling all the usual t shirts and trinkets associated with tourist spots. Only the name had changed. All fairly tacky I thought.

Next to the harbour was the famous Bergen Fish Market. Now I must confess that I had assumed it would be a fish trading and auction market. In fact it was strait retail and straight grab the tourist kroner – or even tourist euro. Incidentally I noticed that the conversion rate for the euro varied from stall to stall. From 10 euro to 100 NOK right up to a conversion of 14 euro for 100 NOK. Someone was making money. Checking on line showed that 100 NOK = 12.50 NOK.

It was not even a bit like the Seattle Pikes Point Fish Market. No – this was largely stalls selling bread rolls of various sorts filled with shrimps or crab meat. There were paper plates of the same plus salmon with salad. They also sold king crab legs at a price (180 NOK a plate of a couple legs). All the legs had had the claws removed and these were sold separately.

It was possible to buy crab, crayfish and fillets of chilled fish from some stalls. There was also fresh and smoked whale. I tried the tiniest sample of smoked whale and thought that it tasted a bit like smoked salmon. The slabs of fresh whale meat looked quite dark, like a mature slab of beef.

Along from the fish stands were stalls selling fresh fruit with an emphasis on strawberries and cherries. I bought a punet of strawberries at 40 NOK which would be around $NZ9. They were also on sale in clear plastic tumblers at 25 NOK. The tumbler full of cherries were 40 NOK. I worked out that there were about 10 cherries in the container so at 4 NOK each, that would be just under $NZ1 per cherry.

Along further was a stall selling furs and they had full pelts hanging up at the front. I thought that the pelts had lovely colouring. One lot were coyote pelts. Inside the stall tent there were fur hats and scarves.

Along one side of the harbour are the famous wooden houses of Bergen. They seem to feature on any post card or calendar of Norway and Bergen. I really think that it was these buildings which brought me to visit the city. I wanted to see them for myself. I was not disappointed. They were what I expected. But what I had not expected was to find taxi stands in front of them and cafe seating and tables. That made if difficult to get the sort of photo I had imagined that I could take. How to get the buildings without the rest. Well one way was to shoot sideways along the street and compress them with a telephoto setting. But the next day I did get something more as I had expected by shooting across from the other side of the harbour.

I have been told that the original wooden houses had burnt down at least once in their history but had been rebuilt as they originally were. Certainly there was a really disastrous town wide fire at one stage and little escaped the flames that time round.

Beside the wooden houses are a series of brick versions of the same design. There are two groups with one group larger and more ornate that the other.

These buildings all give evidence to the trading history of Bergen. Centuries ago several north German coastal towns became major trading cities, united as the Hansa League. Because other European nations controlled trade into the Atlantic and beyond, these cities traded into the Baltic.

Although not in the Baltic, Bergen became a key Hansa trading centre as well. So the distinctive buildings in wood or brick are the merchant traders' homes. Today they all have shops on the ground floor and at least one has an upstairs museum. The shops are all aimed at tourists. That is of course what you would expect as the walkers from the cruise ships pass by here.

Carrying along the foreshore road I came to what looked like a castle. I guess that is what most cities would call it. However, here it was listed as two separate tourist attractions. First the Rosenkrantz Tower and secondly the King Hakon's Hall. There is also a cafe. Each museum and attractions seems to need a cafe. I didn't go into either but did walk around the grounds between the buildings. Being on a hill I got a good view of another cruise liner birthing. Behind the castle is a small park where crew were clearing up and dismantling a stage from the previous night's concert. So yet another town with a stage going up or down.

I enjoyed walking around many of the narrow side streets. Some had shops others just houses. On one corner I called into a Christian bookshop, although I was in before I realized that that was what it was. I did buy a CD or Gregg's music being played on his original piano. Gregg's home is close to Bergen and is now a museum. Of course you would expect that wouldn't you. The home of anyone with any claim to fame seems to be turned into a museum. It is an universal phenomena.

Just up that street I found a useable cafe called Cafe Magdalene and I noticed that it was run by the local Lutheran Church. If I had needed a meal than it would have made a useful venue.

Late one afternoon I found myself at the entrance to the funicular which is a popular attraction. I had sort of wondered about going up it but now I was actually here I thought that it would be a good way to fill in some time.

But first I just had to stop and observe a film crew packing up lights and gels and dolly tracks. I noticed a couple of men standing looking at what I correctly identified as the script. From the way locals were thanking photos of one of the men and getting his autograph it was obvious that here was a 'name'. So I took a few photos of the conversation and autograph signing. Then once they finished when up and introduced myself and asked for their names to go with the photo caption.

I was talking to Stockholm based director Stephan Apelgren, while the actor was a local favourite, Trond Espen Seim. They were filming the next in a long line of contemporary thrillers set in Bergen around a character called Varga-Veum (=wolf). I think this is number 7 in the series and are they very popular in Scandinavia. So I had a good chat and will do a paragraph or two for the next issue of SCRIPT.

Then it was a ride up the funicular and it was a good ride. Once we had come out of tunnels and got our first good view down onto Bergen the passengers all seemed to gasp and exclaim in unison. At the top there was a surprisingly large crowd standing and sitting just enjoying the view. Certainly it was a good day and you could see for many kilometres. I was pleased that I had made the trip up the hill. So to celebrate I bough an ice cream. This is only the second one I have bought during my travels, although I was given one in Trondheim but that was not very nice. This one was a trumpet type and I enjoyed it.

I have visited a local Vietnamese cafe across the road from the hotel for two evening meals. I enjoyed both and appreciated the fresh cooked vegetables. I think going there was a good choice especially as there is no kitchen facility at the hotel and only a microwave but no utensils other than cardboard coffee mugs. Like many I have encountered on the trip these carried the brand of hautamaki which I am sure is a New Zealand company owned by one of Brian Tamaki's brothers. But of course I could be wrong.