A week ago we flew down to Bergen for a long weekend, to visit Stephen and Hari (friends from Norwich) who moved there last December. It was raining in Tromsø when we left, but in Bergen we were greeted with brilliant sunshine! AND, it was so green there that it felt like summer for us! After a long bus trip from the airport (traffic jams! we hadn’t experienced that in a very long time :D) we arrived in the city centre and met Hari.

It was great to see some colour, I loved the flowering trees. Hari showed us around, and we visited the fish market and walked around the waterfront.

This is the most famous part of Bergen: Bryggen. It’s a group of Hanseatic buildings, some dating from the 1700s. They are very pretty and colourful, and also very skewed. Actually, if you look closely at the second photo, you’ll notice that the building on the right is suspended about a metre above the ground. I guess they are repairing the foundation, as the buildings are apparently sinking.

Between the wooden houses there are narrow alleyways, and there are some shops and pubs hidden behind. It’s quite special to step from the bright sunshine into the shade and coolness between the houses. The streets are wooden too, and Hari described it as entering a church – which I think is an excellent description. Everything goes quiet, the noises from the street fade away, you feel like you are going back in time and you almost want to whisper 😀 It’s hard to take pictures in these narrow streets when there’s such a contrast between the bright light and the shade, but here are two photos to give you an impression.

Just to remind you where not quite back in the medieval times, we also found some modern items. And we saw this Viking ship coming in. It’s good photos don’t come with sound – the boy blowing the horn definitely needed some more practice 😉

All Norwegian cities seem to have art on their manhole covers. I like it! The other photo shows the inside of the building that houses the tourist centre, with very impressive murals! Too bad it’s a bit messy in there.

Stephen joined us in town when he was done with work, and we all went up Fløibanen – a funicular with a glass roof that goes to the top of Fløyen at 320 metres. The views from there were really nice!

We had dinner at Stephen and Hari’s appartment, which is really nicely located just a little out of town. It’s in the one of the highest houses on a mountain and they have a great view. Sometimes you feel you’re living in the clouds, especially when it rains and you’re literally inside the cloud. After dinner, we went for a walk in their “backyard”. There is a nice path starting just outside their front door – perfect! The evening light was really beautiful.

The views were great too, we could see the city centre, and several islands in the distance.

For the next 2 days, we had weather more typical for Bergen: rain. Still, it makes the tulips look pretty 🙂

We spent some time in museums, Bergen has many and they’re really nice. I loved this little piece of art, it was like a very small bowl, but no idea what its real purpose was. Perhaps just being pretty 😉

On the last day we decided to follow the path behind Stephen and Hari’s house all the way up to Løvstakken, one of the seven mountains that surround Bergen. It’s 477 m high. On the way, we passed Stephen and Hari’s favourite rock – it’s only 10 minutes from their house and they often go there to enjoy the view- nice! It rained a bit while we were there, but we managed to keep it dry for the rest of the trip.

These are taken from the top of Løvstakken, by then the sun had come back out and the views were wonderful!

After our walk it was time to get the bus to the airport again. It had been a great trip! Bergen is a really beautiful city and I’m glad we got to visit it. Thanks Stephen and Hari for a great weekend! Hope you come visit us in Tromsø soon 🙂