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Bergen Day 4 - 15-June

What a nice breakfast, and the weather forecast is good as well, sunny periods and no rain. Still I am not surprised that it is raining this morning, but first there is breakfast The only downside about the hostel is the distance (and the toilets aren't very clean), but the rest is nice, a great view over the city, a nice atmosphere,friendly staff, it is cheap, mixed dormitory (always nice to meet some girls as well), there is a supermarket nearby, they serve pizza for a reasonable price and it is a very good meeting place. Considering the weather and the fact that other travelers are going to walk a long distance I decide that I am going to walk again. I just must have walked the route in one way before enjoying the comfort of a buss.

Walking the right way
When you walk the wrong way twice, you won't do it a third time and in a record breaking 30 minutes I got to the city centre. The most interesting part is the UNESCO site, Bryggen, which is the old harbor with a lot of wooden houses. Also the fish-market is interesting as they show a lot of living fish and other living seafood (ready to be killed). In the harbor a lot of passenger boats arrive and go. And this is also the place where I will be taking the trip to Stavanger. I buy my ticket and get a 50% discount, but still the price is around 30€ for a 4hr ride. But it's nevertheless cheaper than going by boat all the way to Trondheim with the Hurtigruten steamliner.

Bryggen the old part of the city is now a big tourist attraction.


The newer part of Bryggen, where they have also Brick Houses. Further in the back the city-centre with the church of Bergen.

Visiting as much free attractions as possible
The centre itself is not that big. It is very nice but very compact and maybe a bit long for a 2 night stop. Originally I had planned a trip to the Flåm railway by train. I bought new batteries and needed to catch-up on taking pictures which I couldn't take on the train from Oslo to Bergen. But it is still raining and taking a scenic trip while it is raining is not much good. So in order to keep myself busy I decide to take the investment in a Bergen Card and spend some time indoor. 1 day free public transport and free entrance to museums and attractions. That's a good move because there is quite something to do with that card in Bergen. The weather was slowly improving but it was still rainy enough to run in the nearest museum for shelter and a free tour. The first one is the Natural History Museum. This one is complete in Norwegian and has not been updated since the '80's. There is an exhibition about stones, the forming of Scandinavia & vulcan activity and there are off course stuffed animals and skeletons. Especially the whale skeletons are quite impressive and enormously big.

Of better value is the Bryggen museum, a museum about the old harbor with some relics of the former town, how people lived in those days and how Bryggen developed to Bergen as it is nowadays. Also a good move is to take the Fløisbanen 600 meters up a hill. According to a lady at the counter the cable train takes 7 minutes to climb the hill, and about 2 seconds to get down again. I had the luck that as soon as the train started going up the sun emerged from the clouds, giving me a sunny moment to take some nice shots of Bergen. From the hill you have splendid view over the city.

A sunny view over Bergen and the fjord.

I am back at the hostel in time because the football match Netherlands-Germany is this evening. The TV-rooms are crowded, I am the only dutch person, surrounded by a lot of norwegians who are pretty quiet during the match. Until the Netherlands scores the 1-1 and the places explodes, I don't think they were all for the Netherlands, but just against Germany. The 1-1 is a relief but the match is really bad. And slowly I don't care anymore what they will make of the other matches afterwards. A quick peak at midnight shows me that it is getting just a little bit dark.


Bergen at midnight