Visit to Bergen

On the advice of a number of people, including the Fulbright staff in Norway, we booked ourselves on a "Norway in a Nutshell" tour to Bergen.

The trip began with a 5+ hour train ride from Oslo to Myrdal. The train was fully modern and very comfortable.

Among the sights was the Hardangerjokul glacier. Here's a photo. Not what we expected a glacier to look like. Could this be indicative of global warming? 

Next, we traveled on the historic Flam railway, starting at Myrdal (altitude 866 meters) and descending down the mountains to Flam (readers of the Samuel Blink novels, take note!), which has an altitude of 2 meters.

The train stopped at one of the many majestic waterfalls, so that everyone could pile off the train and snap photos. Look closely and you can see a "huldre" to the right of the waterfall.  She appeared magically just as the train stopped and tried to tempt a foolish tourist or two into her lair.(In Norwegian folklore, the huldre is a tantalizing seductress who appears suddenly out of the rain and mist to lure men into the forest. She has a long tail like a cow's, which she keeps hidden in her skirt, to disguise herself and fool the (obviously not very bright) men. Once ensnared, the men are forced into a hard bargain--never see the light of day again or marriage to a woman who will lose all her charm and grow old and ugly. Sadly, this misogynistic myth seems to have been taken a bit too seriously by some Norwegian men, including Edvard Munch. More on that another time....)

In Flam (the gateway to the fjords), we climbed aboard a boat and cruised the Sognefjord ("King of the fjords") and then the Naeroyfjord ("Narrow fjord"). By this time, Addie and Bram were notably less cheery. The weather had turned quite cool ("the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed...") and the boat was awash in tourists, some more tolerable than others. We holed up inside, in the dining section, and some of us wished that wine, or something stronger, was available for purchase. We did venture up on deck every so often, for a bracing view. The landscape was recently added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, with justice. 

Here are a few photos:

After the two-hour cruise, we hopped a bus that took us from Gudvangen to Voss by way of the steepest, windiest road in Norway. This used to be the only road access between Bergen and Oslo and was notoriously deadly. It is now a one-way road only, closed 7 months of the year and open only to tourist buses during the other 5. I still would've been happy to find a different route to Voss. Many many waterfalls espied on the road down.

From Voss, we climbed aboard another modern train, for a 75-minute ride to Bergen.

I can't remember if we saw this building on that particular train ride or during another part of the journey. But in any case, we saw quite a few buildings such as this one with "living" roofs. 

Bergen at last! This is taken from our hotel window at 9:30 at night. Yes, it does stay light quite late here!

The next day, we started out with breakfast (gratis) at the hotel. Typical European breakfast buffet. Coffee here is quite good--very hot and strong, but not bitter, like so much "strong" coffee in the States. (Yes, Dunn's and Starbuck's; I'm talking about you.) Some of you know of my love of (or weakness) for coffee. I had four cups at breakfast and was then ready to sight-see.

Bergen, for those who haven't been there, is picturesque without being quaint. The best adjective for it is "lovely." Here's the large, central park and lake that is pretty much in the center of the city.

As you can see from this, we did not have any sunshine the day we were there. In fact, we had a fairly constant drizzle. When it wasn't misting or raining, there was a thick fog hanging above the city. (See below.) This prevented us from taking the ride on the funnicular for a bird's eye view of the city (but saved us from spending the approximately 150 USD the 7-minute ride would have cost the 5 of us).

After a walk through the park and the city's upscale shopping area, we headed for the wharf and the fish market. Here is where the foodies in our group moved into high gear. I hung back and, at times, contemplated placing an emergency call to P.E.T.A. 

Do you prefer salmon? Or whale? (The black stuff)

Or perhaps monkfish (the thing that looks scarily like the head of a giant, drowned cat.)

The foodies asked lots of questions, resulting in many offers of free samples. The kids tried both reindeer and whale sausage before they realized what they had done. (They said of both that they were "good.")

There was also a stall selling pelts of all varieties, including rabbit, fox and seal. The stall merchant ordered me to stop taking photos (who knew that Norwegians could be rude and paranoid?) but then seemed to think better of it and told me that I could only take photos if I stood OUTSIDE the stall. 

Rain drove us inside after this. Here's an overview shot of the market:

In the afternoon, on the walk back to the train station, we came upon the Leprosy Museum. Did we go in? You bet!  

We learned that Bergen was THE go-to city in Europe for leprosy patients in the 18th and 19th centuries. And that a Norwegian doctor there--Armauer Hansen--was the first person to realize that this horrid, debilitating disease was caused by a bacterium. (Unfortunately, in his struggle to find definitive proof of his theory, he neglected to obtain patient consent when he injected a woman in the eye with fluid obtained from another patient. Somewhat amazingly, given that this was the late 19th century and the victim was a poor leper, the woman sued. And even more amazingly, the court ruled in her favor, and Hansen was fired from the hospital.)

The exhibit and accompanying text doesn't sugarcoat anything; it should not be visited for those who are not strong of heart AND stomach.

From there, we headed back to the train station for a long wait for the next train. Addie and Bram passed the time thusly. If they don't graduate, they will at least be able to join the circus.

The train finally arrived and 6 1/2 hours later (11:00 pm), we rolled into Oslo Sentral Stasjon. The sun had just set. We were glad to be "home."